Global Enlightenment Forum
The Adam Smith Institute and University College Bahrain are convening the Global Enlightenment Forum on Saturday, the 12th of April, and we're delighted to invite you to join us.
The Global Enlightenment Forum is a whole-day academic conference centred around the origins, growth, proliferation and application of Enlightenment thought and philosophy to the Arab and non-Western world. As modern academia continues to discover the global roots that found some of history's most important philosophical movements, we wish to tease apart the intellectual heritage and impact of the Enlightenment vis-à-vis its closest neighbour; the Middle East. This spans the breadth and depth of intellectual canon: philosophy, literature, science, history, economics and politics will be discussed.
We want to ask the following questions:
How did the Arab, Persian and Ottoman regions absorb, react to and influence Enlightenment thought and philosophy in the 18th and 19th centuries?
Why has the Middle East taken a divergent path in intellectual history?
In what ways were Enlightenment thinkers and actors indebted to non-Western thought?
To what extent, and through what means, can "Enlightenment values" be applied to contemporary contexts in the Middle East?
To help us discuss, we have a line-up of esteemed thinkers to give presentations and talks that educate, direct and stimulate discussion. They will be presenting new research of primary sources and reorienting our understanding of the Enlightenment through new frames of thinking. The lineup is growing, and currently includes:
Lord Hannan of Kingsclere (life peer in the House of Lords and Adviser to the Board of Trade), on Islam and the birth of market capitalism.
Professor Nicholas Cronk (Professor of French Literature and European Enlightenment Studies at St Edmund's Hall and Wolfson College; Director of the Voltaire Foundation at the University of Oxford), on Voltaire in the Arab World.
Dr. Dmitri Levitin (Fifty-Pound Fellow in History at All Soul's College, University of Oxford), on European and Islamicate Intellectual Change, 1300–1800: Knowledge, Institutions, and the Market.
Noreen, Rachel and Walid (student speakers who earned the right to present through an open essay competition), on the Application of Enlightenment Values in the Contemporary Middle East.
Professor Ali M. Ansari FRSE (Professor of Iranian History at the University of St. Andrews; President of the British Institute of Persian Studies), on Whiggism and Iranian Intellectuals.
Professor Nahyan Fancy (Al-Qasimi Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Exeter), on The History of Science as Entanglement across the Mediterranean.
Attendees will have the opportunity to hear from, question and network with the speakers of the Forum as well as the attendees, who will represent multidisciplinary backgrounds ranging from academia and research to journalism, business and politics. The Forum is free to attend and breakfast, lunch and frequent catered breaks (tea, coffee, biscuits, pastries and cakes) are provided.
Register for attendance by signing up here. Attendance is upon a confirmation basis; once you have been reviewed and accepted, you will receive an email confirming your attendance.
The Forum is hosted in the historic Senate House of the University of London. For more information about the venue, see here: https://www.london.ac.uk/about/history/history-senate-house
We look forward to you joining us. If you have any questions about the Forum, please email jasper@adamsmith.org who will assist in any way.