The disciplines of the invited speakers ranged from ethnomusicology to sociology to anthropology to religion to cultural studies. Manuel Castells provided the focal point of the class consideration of the Information Age. A key part of their visit was devoted to consultation with us on the development of a distinctive program that would network scholars internationally but also locally on the topic of Islam in the Information Age. From 1997 - 2000, the Mediterranean Studies Group , comprising Duke and Univ. It has formal institutional ties with Tunis I University with which it has convened three international, interdisciplinary workshops.
Graduate students form a core element of the proposed activities.
In the Triangle, activities intensified during the 1990s and they engaged faculty from the Duke, Univ. of North Carolina-Chaple Hill, NC State Univ. and Emory departments of history, language, literature, religion, sociology and women's studies. During the past 25 years it has met twice a year to provide a forum for scholars of Islam and the Islamic world in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama and Florida to share research.