Community Corner
Border Heat at the Darien Community Association
The focus of this year's academic lecture series is Afghanistan and neighboring countries.
War. Suicide bombers. Political assassinations. Assaults on nuclear installations. Civilian casualties. Pipe lines. Nuclear non-proliferation. Taliban. Al Qaida. Osama Bin Laden. Women's oppression.
Hardly a day goes by without news of turbulent events in the Middle East. As the decade turns, it seems an unchanging reality: violence and unrest continue to dominate headlines.
World-class thinkers, writers, journalists and scholars who have devoted their careers to the subject are coming to the Darien Community Association this month and next to share their expertise in a series of lectures titled: "Border Heat."
If the lecturers cannot themselves bring lasting peace to the region, DCA directors are certain the talks will help build understanding of the complexities of the ancient tribal cultures, religious divisions and political challenges underlying the centuries-old tensions in the region.
The genesis of this year's annual academic lecture series, now in its 55 year, was a lecture given two years ago by a prescient academic, S. Frederick Starr, on the topic "Why Afghanistan Counts," related Susan Bhirud, who has coordinated the lecture series for the past 10 years.
Bhirud said her committee of 18 women contacted Starr after they settled on the topic of Pakistan when they got together last April. Pakistan was reeling in political unrest and was a part of the world not well enough known, they decided.
The committee looked to Starr as a mentor. He introduced them to potential speakers and the topic broadened to include the three Indus Valley nations.
Starr will present the first lecture on Jan. 7, focusing on the history of the greater Indus Valley, from 500 BC to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Author of 20 books and 200 published articles, Starr is chairman of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies Program as well as research professor at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
Other speakers include Daniel S. Markey, a senior fellow for India, Pakistan and South Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations; Elizabeth Rubin of New York Times Magazine, a journalist who has reported extensively from Afghanistan for the New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Harper's, Atlantic Monthly and the New Republic; S. Enders Wimbush, senior vice president for international programs and policies of the Hudson Institute; and Steve Coll, twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize who has an extensive journalistic background and is now president and CEO of New America Foundation and a staff writer at the New Yorker.
Don't let the stellar academic credentials intimidate you, Bhirud said.
"All of our speakers are passionate and personable people who want to share their message," she said.
Nevertheless, Bhirud highly recommended the reading list the book committee compiled over the summer as an aid in preparing for the lectures, noting that the DCA is able to entice powerful lecturers, in part because of its well-read and "heavy thinking" audiences.
"We're on the map," she said.
The January lectures will take place at the DCA's Meadowlands at 10 a.m. Tickets are $75 (non-members) or $65 (members). The Coll lecture and reception will take place at 7:30 p.m, and tickets are $25.
Click here for a full list of lecture topics and speakers: Border Heat. For the reading list, see the featured PDF document attached to this article.
