Day one: AAR

I have to say, this is by far one of the most enjoyable AAR’s I’ve been to, at least on day one. The pre-conference workshop I went to today was really interesting. Focusing on the Danish cartoon controversy of nearly a year ago, several presentations dealt with various elements of the questions — who represents Islam? in what ways do various elements of the Muslim community engage this controversy? what could/should/ought we learn — particularly in terms of media — from these events? And so on.

One very useful resource that was mentioned during the day was Laury Silver's wiki on the issues. It was really fun to see a scholar using a wiki to such good effect. I think I'll make it one of my examples in my own presentation on Monday. I'm also going to keep an eye on the work of several scholars: Fareed Munir, Tim Jensen, Winnifred Sullivan, and another woman whose name I've now lost and need to find again (she promised to send a paper to me, so perhaps I'll retrieve her name).

My 1999-2000 Wabash group met for dinner, too, and that was really fun! It was great to see these folks again, some of whom I've lost touch with, and to hear what everyone is up to.