Waiting for the Barbarians - A Tribute to Edward Said
Istanbul, 26-27/05/2007

The event pays tribute, revisits and engages with the richly variegated erudition and seminal scholarship of Edward Said. Drawing inspiration from his work and legacy as critical theorist, intellectual and activist, this tribute is an occasion to rekindle a conversation amongst academics, writers, poets, and artists, to think our being in the world anew.

Once the celebrated site for social, political, historical and intellectual exchange, cohabitation, knowledge and enrichment, the bedrock for a collective experience of mixity, hybridity and plurality, culture seems to have acquired a negative, violent political capital. Beginning from the last two decades of the twentieth century until the present moment, it has become the grounds for sovereign nations to tear apart from within in violent armed civil conflicts and to fall victim to the trap of „the clash of civilizations“. This tribute is meant as an occasion to reflect critically on the location and significance of Said’s intellectual legacy in light of our lived experience full of such violent conflicts and the political imperative that rules our present. As the world is flattened, blind-folded and muted, a conversation amongst his colleagues, students, friends and admirers from across the globe is perhaps a step towards making our imagined other world possible.

Conference Publication

In engaging with the richly varied and seminal scholarship of Edward Said, Waiting for the Barbarians aims to recover the notion of culture as a collective, hybrid and plural experience, in light of the political imperative that rules our present. In bringing together some of the figures most closely associated with Said and his scholarship, this comprehensive volume looks at Said the literary critic and public intellectual, Palestine, and Said’s intellectual legacy: the future through the lens of his work.

“Edward Said’s anger against injustice must become ours, and his pen that challenged the sword must become our weapon in the battle for human values.” — Elias Khoury

Contributors include: Meltim Ahiska, Tuncay Birkan, Timonthy Brennan, Harry Harootunian, Rashid Khalidi, Elias Khoury, Saree Makdisi, Mahmood Mamdani, Joseph Massad, Masao Miyoshi, Karma Nabulsi, Ilan Pappé, Jacqueline Rose, Raja Shehadeh, Fawwaz Traboulsi, Gauri Viswanathan.

Sample Reading

'Orientalizing the Orientals': The Other Message of Edward Said
By: Fawwaz Traboulsi

On Blasphemy, Bigotry and the Politics of Culture Talk
By: Mahmood Mamdani