CVSP Forum

The CS Forum is a forum organized annually by the Civilization Sequence Program and is intent on creating venues for critical intellectual inquiry. Previously, the Forum has invited prominent scholars from around the world to speak on topics arranged on a yearly theme. More recently, it has taken a different tact, breaking with the venerable tradition of inviting guest speakers in a lecture/presentation format. The Forum was organized on a workshop-seminar model, which was conducted by two to four prominent guests per workshop.

The invited scholars/artists are all prominent in their own fields and lead an informal working group of students, faculty, and local artists and journalists. In the workshop format, the guests assign foundational theoretical texts that inform the scholars'/artists' own work and/or form the cornerstone of his/her discipline. In addition, these texts are read off against specific visual texts (films, documentaries, anime, photographs), which are viewed the evening prior to the morning workshop.

The presentations of the guests are followed by an open discussion between all of the workshop's participants. The discussion usually responds to the reading, visual productions, and presentations by sounding them off against the contexts and perspectives of the Arab, Lebanon, and/or the developing world.

The Forum aims to bring together faculty throughout the University and the city. This year, its aim was specifically to congregate faculty and students from FAS (specifically, CVSP, Fine Arts, English, History, Philosophy, SBS, PSPA, CAMES, and CASAR), FEA (Graphic Design, Architecture, and Urban Planning) and Public Health. On the one hand, the goals of the CS Forum capitalized on the strengths not only of the faculty of the Civilization Sequence Program but also of all the participating departments. On the other hand, both the workshop format and traditional lecture format aim to enrich the current faculty and student knowledge and research related to topics that are characteristically interdisciplinary and multi-departmental in nature.