Update: The conference will be livestreamed at the CSUSB webcast page.

The Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies (CIMES) at Cal State San Bernardino will join with the journal Arab Studies Quarterly to host a joint academic conference at the university on April 20-21.

The conference, which commemorates the 40th anniversary of Arab Studies Quarterly, carries the theme, “U.S. Hegemony and the Arab World,” and will examine multiple subthemes, including U.S. involvement in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and its role in support of the state of Israel in Palestine, and its impact on the indigenous Palestinian population.

The conference is free (except for meals) and open to the public, and participants are strongly encouraged to register online at the CIMES website by Wednesday, April 18 . Parking at the university is $6.

The conference will open for registration at 11 a.m. on Friday, April 20, at the university’s Santos Manuel Student Union, and will include two panels: “Orientalism, Anti-Zionism and Decolonizing Imperial Education” and “Women’s Activism in the Arab World and Beyond.”

The first day will culminate with a dinner and keynote address by Ghada Karmi of the University of Exeter, “Israel/Palestine at 70: Still Married to Another Man.”

Day two of the conference will begin at 8 a.m. Saturday, April 21, also in the Santos Manuel Student Union. Three more panels are scheduled: “U.S. Hegemony and Regional Conflicts,” “Conflict in the Gulf Region,” and “The Arab Spring, U.S. and (Political) Islam.”

A screening of the documentary “1948: Creation & Catastrophe” will take place following the panels in the Santos Manuel Student Union Theater. The filmmakers, Ahlam Muhtaseb, CIMES’ associate director and CSUSB professor of communication studies, and Andy Trimlett will host a question-and-answer session after the film.

Closing the conference will be a dinner featuring a keynote address by Hatem Bazian of the University of California, Berkeley, who will speak on “Arabs, Muslims and Embedded Intellectuals: Empire and Academia in 21st Century.”

The conference is co-sponsored by the university's Intellectual Life Fund.

For more information on the conference, contact the co-chairs Ibrahim Aoudé at aoude@hawaii.edu or Ahlam Muhtaseb at amuhtase@csusb.edu.

Also visit the Center for Islamic and Middle East Studies website for the latest updates on the conference, as well as information on the center’s programs.