Community Corner
UNG and Oconee County Library to host scholar-led discussions about Muslims, faith
The University of
North Georgia (UNG) and the Oconee County Library will host a five-part series
xploring Islam called "Let's Talk About It: Muslim
Journeys." The reading and discussion series, funded through a $4,500.00
grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the American
Library Association (ALA), is free and open to the public.
The Oconee County
Library is one of 125 libraries and state humanities councils across the
country selected to participate in the project, which seeks to familiarize
public audiences in the United States with the people, places, history, faith,
and cultures of Muslims in the United States and around the world. In Georgia,
only eight libraries and the Georgia Humanities Council were awarded the
grants. The Oconee County Library is
part of the Georgia Public Library Service, a unit of the University System of
Georgia.
The discussions will
be led by Dr. Douglas Ealey, a sociology professor at the University of North
Georgia since 2003. He currently teaches in a multidisciplinary capacity,
covering the topics of religion, political science, leadership, and conflict
resolution. He holds a doctorate in political science from Clark Atlanta
University, Master of Divinity in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary,
Master of Business/Public Administration from Bowie State College, and
Bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Georgia.
The first program
will explore "The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity, Islam"
by F.E. Peters and will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Jan. 21 at the Oconee County Library, located at 1080 Experiment
Station Road in Watkinsville.
Additional books will
be discussed at three-week intervals at the library; all sessions will be on
Tuesdays at 6:30 p.m. The books are "Muhammad: A Very Short
Introduction" by Jonathan A.C. Brown, which will be discussed on Feb. 11;
"The Story of the Qur’an: Its History and Place in Muslim Life" by
Ingrid Mattson on March 4; "The Art of Hajj" by Venetia Porter on
March 25; and "Rúmí: Poet and Mystic” by Reynold A. Nicholson on April 15.
All of the books to
be discussed in the series are part of the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim
Journeys. The books and films comprising the bookshelf were selected with the
advice of librarians, cultural programming experts, and distinguished scholars
in the fields of anthropology, world history, religious studies, interfaith
dialogue, the history of art and architecture, world literature, Middle East
studies, Southeast Asian studies, African studies, and Islamic studies.
For details or to
register, please visit www.athenslibrary.org/oconee
or contact Jessica Fay at jfay@athenslibrary.org
or 706-769-3950.
The Bridging Cultures Bookshelf
is a project of NEH, conducted in cooperation with the ALA Public
Programs Office, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Additional support for the arts and media components was provided by the Doris
Duke Foundation for Islamic Arts.
UNG was created in January 2013 from the consolidation of Gainesville
State College and North Georgia College & State University. UNG, with more
than 15,000 students, has campuses in Oconee County, Cumming, Dahlonega, and
Gainesville, and offers more than 100 programs of study ranging from
certificate and associate degrees to professional doctoral programs.
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