Speakers Series presents "Agora" film screening and panel discussion

WHAT: The University of Illinois Springfield Engaged Citizenship Common Experience (ECCE) Speakers Series presents a film screening and panel discussion of “Agora”. The panel will feature three UIS History Department faculty members: Kristi Barnwell, David Bertaina and Elizabeth Kosmetatou.

WHEN: Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2011 at 6 p.m.

WHERE: Brookens Auditorium, located on the lower level of Brookens Library

DETAILS: “Agora” is a historical drama set in Roman Egypt, concerning a slave who turns to the rising tide of Christianity in the hopes of pursuing freedom while also falling in love with his master, the famous female philosophy professor and atheist Hypatia of Alexandria.

Kristi Barnwell is an assistant professor of modern Middle East. Her current research projects focus on the impact of Arab nationalism in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and on the period of British military withdrawal from the Persian Gulf and state formation in what became the United Arab Emirates in 1971. Non-research areas of interest include feminism in Islam, Islamic reform movements, and tourism in the Middle East.

David Bertaina is an assistant professor of comparative religion. His areas of interest include the intellectual, social and religious history of the late antique and medieval Middle East. He is specifically interested in medieval encounters between Muslims and Christians, especially in Arabic and Syriac dialogue literature and the how these texts framed the construction of identity during the Umayyad and Abbasid Empires.

Elizabeth Kosmetatou is an assistant professor of ancient history. She specializes in Greek and Roman history, especially in the Classical and Hellenistic period. Her interests include the study of inscriptions (epigraphy), archaeology, numismatics, ancient sports, ancient and modern political theory, and Political Psychology.

For a list of other ECCE Speakers Series events and more information, visit http://illinois.edu/goto/speakerseries.