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Volume Four, Number One - Fall 2003
A Last Lecture
In his recent, two-part essay, "Which Way to Mecca?", the noted anthropologist Clifford Geertz observed: "We are, in this country right now, engaged in the process of constructing, rather hurriedly, as though we had better quickly get on with it after years of neglect, a standard, public-square image of 'Islam'." He concludes by observing that "the conception of 'Islam' being so desperately built up before our eyes by professors, politicians, journalists, polemicists, and others professionally concerned with making up our minds will be of great importance in determining what we do [in the Middle East]."
The students and faculty of Hanover College are evidence for the truth of at least the first part of Professor Geertz's assertion. Demand for knowledge of Islam has increased dramatically on our campus since Sept. 11, 2001, manifesting itself in requests for additional classes, discussion groups, and even language instruction in Arabic. Those demands have largely been met by one person, Professor David Buchman of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology. In recent months he has been a model of the engaged scholar-teacher, meeting with students for hours a day and teaching an overload to offer Arabic language instruction.
One of the requests made of him recently was that he accept the honor of giving this year's "Last Lecture." Once or twice a year, the campus chapter of Mortar Board chooses a faculty member to give a lecture on the pretense that it is the very last of his or her career. Professor Buchman chose to give the lecture that was in some ways his first lecture and that is always, in one way or another, at the heart of his teaching: a lecture about the identity and meaning of Islam. We share it with you here.
Jeffrey Brautigam
Jeffrey Brautigam is the Director of the Center for Free Inquiry at Hanover College, where he also teaches modern European history and the history of science.