IU Bloomington to host international conference, 'The Turks and Islam'

More than 60 scholars in history, art, literature, religion and political science will gather at Indiana University Bloomington for an international conference on how Turkic-speaking peoples have interacted with Islam over the centuries.

Kemal Silay, the Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies chair and director of the Turkish Studies Program in the IU College of Arts and Sciences, said the conference taking place on Sept. 11-12 helps to fill a gap in today's scholarship on the history and development of Turkic Islam. It also aims to promote awareness about the significant distinctions between the religion of Islam as a cultural phenomenon and the many forms of the global Islamist ideology of our time.

The conference is sponsored by the Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies Chair, the Office of the Vice President for International Affairs, the Office of the Provost, the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center, the Department of Central Eurasian Studies, and the Turkish Studies Program. It will be held from Sept. 11-12.

For more information: http://newsinfo.iu.edu/news/page/normal/15270.html