Forsyth Library will host "Times Talk" on Thursday, October 22nd during the lunch hour. Our presenter is Dr. John Knight, former FHSU professor and Director of USAID operations in Central Asia. We will host the event in the student study area located on the main floor of the Library. The Center for Civic Leadership will provide a free pizza meal for the first 25 attending the presentation. Dr. Knight plans to speak about "Living in a Muslim World."

John Knight is a retired professor of medieval English literature and linguistics who specialized in Arthurian literature. From 2002-2004, he was the “Chief of Party” (director) of a U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) higher education project in the five countries of Central Asia, and from 2005-6 of a comprehensive, multi-faceted $87 million dollar primary education project in Afghanistan. During these USAID projects he lived in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Almaty, Kazakhstan, and Kabul, Afghanistan and worked daily with Central Asian education ministries, institutions and people. Most recently he has served as an educational consultant in Egypt and in Liberia with the Ministry of Education and maintains consulting interests in many of these countries. He continues to study the Legend of the Round Table and social/historical linguistics’ issues, yet concentrates much reading and research effort on Islamic culture, especially in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Living in a Muslim World

Keeping in mind that there is no singular, uniform entity “A Muslim World” but in fact many Muslim worlds, what adaptations must a lifelong Midwesterner make when he finds himself living and working in Islamic countries and cultures? What are the challenges to a person’s self-evident truths, to the values that underlie every daily routine choice a U. S. citizen makes in order to live and work? How does he honor the local culture while abiding by his own culture when the inevitable conflicts arise, such as human rights and women’s rights? What distinguishes a Kazakh from an Uzbek from an Afghan -- or is this a pointless question, and perhaps just a politically manufactured one in nations of complicated tribal traditions? Is it even useful to talk about a “nation” when looking at a tribal political entity cobbled together by the Russians and the British in the 19th century (Central Asian Republics and Afghanistan) and the United States and Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries?

Through story and Q & A with the audience former FHSU professor of English, John Knight, and U. S. Agency for International Development (USAID) education project manager in five countries of Central Asia and Afghanistan from 2002-6 will invite the audience into the challenges of living in former Soviet Union countries of varying shades of Islam. Photos of Central Asian and Afghan peoples will help the audience visualize the variety of Islam in a world that is still foreign and exotic to most Western and U. S. citizens. Questions about the higher education conditions and systems as well as current geo-political issues may also be confronted although Dr. Knight makes no pretences about being a diplomat or scholar in political areas, just somewhat well-read over the last eight years due to daily survival needs.

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Times Talk | Center for Civic Leadership | Service-Learning at FHSU | AASCU | New York Times

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