Webcasts from the Library of Congress I Library of Congress

April 30, 2014. Andrea Rugh reflects on her years living and working as an anthropologist in the Middle East.

Speaker Biography: Andrea Rugh is an adjunct scholar at the Middle East Institute in Washington, D.C. She has a Ph.D. in anthropology from the American University in Washington. Between 1964 and 1995, she lived in the Middle East region, including three years in the United Arab Emirates. Her publications include four books on Arab society: "Coping with Poverty in a Cairo Community," "Family in Contemporary Egypt," "Reveal and Conceal: Dress in Egypt" and "Within the Circle: Parents and Children in a Syrian Village," plus introductions and English versions of Siham Tergeman's "Daughter of Damascus" and Samir Tahhan's "Folktales of Syria."

For transcript, captions, and more information, visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=6345

Howard Wettstein speaks on his new book "The Significance of the Religious Experience."
Speaker Biography: Howard Wettstein serves on the faculty of the department of philosophy at University of California, Riverside.


For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5945

Nigerian writer A. Igoni Barrett reads from his work and discusses the state of contemporary African literature.

For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5953

American poet and teacher Richard Blanco delighted readers with his work. Blanco recited his poem, "One Today" at President Obama's second inauguration. He is the first immigrant, the first Latino, the first openly gay person and the youngest person to be the U.S. poet for a presidential inauguration.

For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5983

A panel discussion on the advances in Raman Spectroscopy for analysis of cultural heritage materials. Speakers included Lynn Brostoff, Richard Bormett, Silvia Centeno and Marco Leona.

For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5949

A Nowruz lecture featuring Ulrich Marzolph speaking about a lithographed Shiite pilgrimage scroll from Qajar, Iran.
Speaker Biography: Ulrich Marzolph is an author and professor of Islamic studies at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen, Germany.

For captions, transcript, and more information visit http://www.loc.gov/today/cyberlc/feature_wdesc.php?rec=5948