Conference at RIT—Cultural Conflict, Terrorism and Global Security

Implications of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon will be the topic of a one-day conference at Rochester Institute of Technology on April 18, Cultural Conflict, Terrorism and Global Security.

Scholars and community members will examine root causes and wider meanings of the event with emphasis on the role of religion, culture, gender, political economy and the media.

"We will seek an understanding of Islam, terrorism and patriotism, and will explore the obstacles and pathways to peace," says Murli Sinha, chair of sociology and anthropology at RIT, and conference coordinator. "The conference is very important because we’re dealing with terrorism," he adds. "Students really should understand the root causes."

Panel discussions will cover such topics as Religion: Root of War, or Root of Peace?; Women: Globalization, Human Rights and Terrorism; Understanding Islam; Just Responses?; A History of Conflict and the Future of Peace. Panels will include professors from several universities and members of the community.

The keynote speaker, Catherine Lutz, professor of anthropology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and author of Homefront: A Military City and the American 20th Century, will present "Media Soldiers on the Homefront: Tough Talk, Soft Images and the Hard Realities of War" at 7:15 p.m. in the Chester F. Carlson Center for Imaging Science, room 1125.

Members of the media will comment on Lutz’s talk. Jim Memmott, senior editor at the Democrat and Chronicle, and Mike Verma, assignment editor at WORK-TV, Channel 13, will discuss media coverage of Sept. 11 following Lutz’s presentation.

The conference is sponsored by RIT’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and is free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Murli Sinha, at 475-2896 or 475-5604.