Top scholars on Afghanistan and Iraq will meet on the Indiana University Bloomington campus Friday and Saturday (Nov. 13-14) for one of the first collaborative conferences on state-building in both nations. "State-Building in the Contemporary Islamic World: U.S. Intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan" is being presented by the Indiana Democracy Consortium. The two-day event is being held in the Indiana Memorial Union's State Room East and is open to both the public and the media.

Indiana University President Michael A. McRobbie today (Sept. 4) joined with the chief executive of the Australian National University -- that nation's top-ranked institution of higher education -- in signing a partnership agreement for the creation of a jointly operated Pan-Asian Institute. The new institute will combine the complementary academic strengths of the two universities into a single research and teaching enterprise with expertise that encompasses a broad range of Asian countries.

Members of the Saudi Student Club at IU have extended an invitation to people living in their adopted home of Bloomington. They hope their open house this Thursday (April 23) will foster better understanding of their first home, Saudi Arabia.

Indiana University Bloomington political scientist Abdulkader Sinno has been named a 2009 Carnegie Scholar, the Carnegie Corp. of New York announced this week. He is one of 21 well-established, promising young thinkers, analysts and writers selected to receive the prestigious award, which provides $100,000 over two years to support original research.

The November 2008 terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, stunned the world and provided a dramatic reminder of its modern-day dangers. In response, faculty members from the College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington have organized a symposium to address the problem of terrorism from the perspective of three countries hit hard by violence: India, Israel and Turkey.

Voices and Visions, a consortium of six Title VI National Resource Centers at IU, led by the Center for the Study of Global Change, is being recognized for its efforts to counter misperceptions and improve understanding about the second most practiced religion in the world.

Indiana University's Center for Languages of the Central Asian Region (CeLCAR) has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to provide language and culture training to 70 senior U.S. military and State Department officials who will command and participate in 12 U.S. Provincial Reconstruction Teams (PRTs) in Afghanistan.

In this edition of Lecture Notes, March 17-30, meet New York Time's political columnist William Safire and enjoy some quality time in the garden with the Hilltop Garden and Nature Center.

This year's Middle Eastern Arts Festival again will feature a vivid array of music and dance from the region, as well as exhibits, museum events and presentations by artists and scholars. Most festival events, which run from Feb. 4 through April 20, require no admission fee. All are open to the public.

About 80 faculty members at Indiana University's Bloomington campus have research or professional interests in the Middle East. They can be found from the Kelley School of Business to the Jacobs School of Music and in many specialized areas as well, such as designing national health care plans and government administration. The new director of IU's Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Program hopes to involve as many of them as possible in the program's future activities.

Indiana University has been selected to receive a two-year federal grant for $481,630 to provide strategic language and culture training to undergraduate students in Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) programs.

Four of this year's Guggenheim Fellows are professors at Indiana University Bloomington. The election of IUB science historian Domenico Bertoloni-Meli, composer David Dzubay, Near Eastern languages and cultures Professor John Walbridge, and sociologist Pamela Barnhouse Walters brings IU's total of Guggenheim Fellows to 123.

The Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index--a new survey which uses faculty research and scholarly activity from more than 350 universities as a measure--has recognized and ranked 14 programs at Indiana University Bloomington and two at the IU School of Medicine.

This year's Middle Eastern Arts Festival will again feature a vivid array of music and dance from the region, as well as exhibits and lectures by artists, scholars and foods.

Indiana University has become the first university in North America to offer a class in the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish, a language spoken throughout several Middle Eastern lands, including Iraq and Iran. Kurmanji Kurdish is spoken by nearly 15 million of the estimated 27 to 30 million Kurdish speakers worldwide.

Lecture Notes includes lectures that will be held at Indiana University's Bloomington campus Sept. 13-24, 2006. The events are all open to the public.

The annual Middle Eastern festival at IU Bloomington will feature Middle Eastern films, food tastings, exhibits of Islamic art and instruments, presentations of Arabic folktales and poetry, and lectures on Jewish culture among its many offerings Feb. 7-10.

We are providing information about IU professors who can offer insights on the transfer of power in Iraq, as well as homeland security, ethics, media coverage and other impacts of the war on Americans.

Religious, cultural and legal experts from Indiana University Bloomington and Indianapolis will discuss religious faith, politics and the 2004 presidential election during a panel discussion at Indiana University Bloomington on April 1.

In addition to a tipsheet we distributed on March 18, here are more faculty experts at Indiana University who can provide insights on various aspects of the situation in Iraq including the areas of Near Eastern cultures, Islamic studies, economics, medicine and politics.

As the clock ticks down on the U.S. deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to leave his country, the world is bracing for war. Indiana University faculty experts can provide insights on various aspects of the situation including politics, Near Eastern cultures, Islamic studies, Jewish studies, law and medicine.