BA Major Conferences

The BA, in collaboration with the GEF-Global Environmental Facility, organized “the International Conference on Climate Change Evaluation & Development”, from 10 to 13 May 2008 at the BA, to introduce sound practices for evaluating climate change and its impact on developmental projects. The Conference themes included: climate change mitigation (policy and market interventions in sectors such as energy and transportation) and adaption to climate change (land degradation, agricultural development, water management, preparedness for natural disasters, displacement and climate resilience). 

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The BA Manuscript Center held its Annual International Conference entitled "Lost and Embedded Manuscript Texts (al-Makhtutat al-Mattwiyya)", 6-8 May 2008. Similar to the previous manuscript conferences, the Conference introduced a new term in heritage, which is (al-Makhtutat al-Mattwiyya) and invited heritage specialists and researchers to discuss the term. Thus, the Conference was an attempt at uncovering lost and embedded manuscript texts, and was an attempt at calking our fractured awareness.

www.manuscriptcenter.org/lost/about.asp

The BA held the Annual Shakespeare Conference on 23 April 2008. The title of this year’s conference is “The Infinite Variety of Shakespeare”. The program included a short modern musical stage production presented by some of the students of the English Department at the University of Alexandria. The musical intended to give a modern perspective of Shakespearean drama.

The BA organized the third in the series of Beacon for Freedom of Expression Conference, to address the issues of Freedom of Speech and Access to Information, during the one day event on Tuesday 22 April 2008 at the BA.

The “Beacon for Freedom of Expression” was first introduced during a one-day conference organized by the BA on 19 May 2003, followed by a second conference, 18-20 September 2004. The two conferences raised awareness about issues and challenges surrounding freedom of expression.

The BA organized BioVisionAlexandria 2008 during the period from 12 to 16 April 2008. The Conference was a continuation of the tradition that started in BioVision 1999 in Lyon, which aims to bring distinguished speakers in discussions commemorating science and the finest achievements of the human intellect.

The three-day Conference shed light on Health, Agriculture and Environment. Each of these themes was addressed by representatives of the greatest minds in industry, science, policymakers and civil society fields.

The Arab Reform Forum organized the Fifth Arab Reform Conference, “Media, Democracy and Social Responsibility”, 3-4 March 2008.

The Conference addressed the following themes: limits on freedom of expression (protecting the individual and protecting religious beliefs); the relation between democracy and freedom of press (complete freedom, bounded freedom, and what the limits of the boundaries are); the right of citizenship, the right of the society in dealing with minorities and vulnerable groups within the society; and the development of media techniques, participation of civil society, and democratic practices.

The BA organized, from 28 February to 1 March 2008, the Third Arab Youth Forum entitled "Youth and the Role of Media in Establishing Culture of Peace, Security and Development".

The Forum aimed to bring together a large number of Arab youth and experts in youth-related issues, from various Egyptian and Arab institutions, to discuss and exchange views on the best mechanisms to involve Arab youth in Arab world issues. The Forum addressed issues from different perspectives including: self assessment and acceptance of the other; citizenship and social peace; and human security.

The BA organized from 7 to 9 February 2008, a conference entitled “Freedom of Information.. Access to Information is the Right of Every Citizen”. The Conference was co-organized by the Ministry of State for Administrative Development, the Information and Decision Support Center, the National Council for Human Rights, and the Egyptian Alliance for Transparency and Combating Corruption (Aml).

The Conference addressed several themes including: legal and organizational frameworks controlling access to information, circulation of data, and intellectual property rights; the role of information in the development process and in the involvement of civil society in drafting policies; policies governing access to information and publishing; the role of portals and national networks on the internet in access to information; and the responsibility of civil society in building knowledge societies.

The Institute for Peace Studies (IPS) of the Suzanne Mubarak Women’s International Peace Movement (SMWIPM), hosted at the BA, organized the third Conference on the Dialogue among People and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean and Gulf Areas on 19-21 January 2008 at the BA.

The first and second Conferences and Cultural Workshops on the Dialogue among People and Cultures in the Euro-Mediterranean and Gulf Areas were held in Paris in September 2006 and in Seville in June 2007 respectively.

The BA organized a conference “A New Dawn: Arabs looking East”, 20-21 November 2007, in collaboration with the League of Arab States. The two-day Conference aimed to reinforce Japan–Arab relations on all fronts and to explore future possibilities for further cooperation.

The Conference brought together leaders in politics, business, science, technology, culture and civil society from both Japan and the Arab world for an intensive two-day event. It comprised four main themes: political and diplomatic; economic and financial; cultural and social; science and technology.

The BA organized a two-day conference, 23-24 October 2007, entitled "Women in Science" to shed lights on the role of women in this field, as part of the celebration of the BA's fifth anniversary.

The Conference was attended by several scholars, distinguished figures, and female leaders from all over the world and discussed several themes including: the education of women, women in executive and managerial positions (public/private sector, education, and NGOs), obstacles under the social context including balancing home and career, and applications of science to benefit women and improve their livelihood.

WSEF 2007 was organized, jointly, by the BA Planetarium Science Center (PSC) and the World Institute for Space Environment Research (WISER) of the National Institute for Space Research in Brazil, during the period from 20 to 25 October 2007.

WSEF 2007 aimed to review the state of space environment research, and to identify the key problems in Sun-Earth relation to be addressed by the international solar-terrestrial science community in the coming years. WSEF 2007 provided a forum for international collaboration programs on research and training on the earth-ocean-space environment.

The YES Alexandria 2007, 26-30 August 2007, was a mid-Campaign event organized primarily for the leaders and members of the over 80 YES country networks and other key stakeholders from across the world. It brought together a relatively small group of around 150 delegates to build their capacities and support them to develop strategy and programs. The sectors identified were: Information and Communication Technology (ICT), integrated rural businesses, and youth employment in infrastructure development through Public-Private Partnerships.

The BA Manuscript Center held its fourth annual conference entitled "Translated Manuscripts" during the period from 29-31 May 2007. The Conference discussed the role of translation movement in preserving heritage and the translated manuscripts from different languages to Arabic.

Interaction among human civilizations takes place in manifold forms. Translation, perhaps one of the most important of such. Translation remains one of the factors that has enriched and influenced human history to its core. Translation is also credited for the transmission of Classical heritage to the Syriacs then to the Arabs, to be eventually adapted by the Latin world and finally into modern European languages.

The BA Calligraphy Center organized "The Third International Forum of the Calligraphy, Writing, and Inscriptions in the World Throughout the Ages", 24 – 26 April 2007. Around 50 researchers from 13 Foreign and Arab countries participated in the Forum.

The idea of the Forum was based on the granite wall mural surrounding the BA that reflects the inscriptions and writings of the ancient world, hence reflecting the role of the Library in collecting the human knowledge through the ages in its attempt to become a center of human civilizations. The Forum studied the evolution of human knowledge of inscriptions since the pre-historic eras.

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The BA, in cooperation with Ford Foundation organized a conference entitled "University Governance: "A Key to Effective Higher Education Reform in Egypt", 26-28 March 2007. The conference was designed to bring together leading experts from Egypt, the Arab region and the world to discuss the challenges facing higher education in Egypt and how the structure and management of universities and higher education institutes relates to them. The conference sheds light on one of the crucial issues affecting education in Egypt, and thus affecting the Egyptian reform process at large.

In pursuing its mandate as a catalyst of reform and through its Arab Reform Forum, the BA organized the Fourth Arab Reform Conference under the theme: "Human Rights, Women, and Development", 1-3 March 2007. Following up on previous activities and milestones, the Conference was a continuation of the BA’s efforts to raise public awareness on the most urgent human rights and development issues and gender-related concerns, highlighting the role of civil society and the existing efforts targeting the younger generation.

The BA organized the Second Arab Youth Forum entitled "The Culture of Youth and Reform", 26-28 February 2007.

The themes tackled different aspects of Arab youth issues including: youth, economic development , and free labor; the role of education and training in acquiring skills; the relationship between youth, authority and society; and the image of Arabs in the west. The Forum presented relevant successful experiences of youth as a model for the attendees.

The BA Arab Reform Conference organized Alexandria Conference on “Women: Steps Towards Achieving Reform” (STAR) from 11 to 13 December 2006. The main aim of the Conference emphasized the role of women in Arab Reform. Critical areas of concern include the persistent and increasing burden of poverty on women; unequal access to education and training; violence against women and the effects of armed conflicts on women. Equally important is fostering partnerships and networks between women’s organizations in Arab countries and the rest of the world for the implementation of items concerning women’s issues in the Alexandria Declaration.

ICUDL 2006 is the second in a series of International Conferences on Universal Digital Library. The theme of the Conference, 12-19 November 2007, “Towards building the globally owned Universal Digital Library where human knowledge is equally preserved and accessed”, emphasized the continuity of ICUDL 2005 themes and decisions.

The Conference added to the foundation of the Universal Digital Library (UDL) which is a portal to foster creativity and free access to all human knowledge. The Million Book Project (MBP) is considered the first milestone towards building this digital library with a free-to-read, searchable collection of one million books in various languages belonging to diversified cultures and civilizations available to people worldwide over the Internet. The annual workshop for the MBP was held in conjunction with the conference.

• Health Discoveries
• Agri-food and Environment Discoveries

The “Total Solar Eclipse 2006” festivity (29 March 2006) is an inaugural event followed by an extensive program, launched by the BA, to raise the interest and awareness of the public in general and the youth in particular on the significance of astronomy and astrophysics in our lives.

The key target of the program is to enhance the education of youth in schools by drawing their attention to the more fascinating aspects of science, mathematics and technology, and to the value of space exploration. It is, also the aim of this program to revive the interest in studies and researches in these crucial fields of study, not only in Egypt but in the whole region.

In its pursuit of establishing an academic tradition that aims at exploring untrodden, neglected areas in Arabic/Islamic heritage, the Manuscript Center of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina held its third international conference on commentary manuscripts from 7 to 9 March 2006. The conference represents one step further along the way of reconstructing our knowledge and awareness of Arabic/Islamic manuscript heritage.

Evidently, the conference is an endeavor to explore, encompass and understand the rich realm of commentary manuscripts within the framework of Islamic/Arabic heritage: a heritage that extends over time with a peculiar fashion of dynamic complementarity, resulting in that chirographic and documented culture – the Arabic/Islamic culture.

The BA held the Third Arab Reform Forum Conference from 1 to 3 March 2006, entitled “Challenges and Concerns Facing the Civil Society”.

The main objectives of the Arab Reform Conference was to observe the best reform practices around the world. To that end, participants covered several themes including microfinance, women empowerment and youth employment. The conference also discussed transparency, human rights and the environment, through the participation of reform experts and civil society organizations.

The BA organized this event from 21 to 25 February 2006 in cooperation with Stanford University Library and Yale University, supported by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, to foster the development of an international cooperative effort for digitization of Arabic-language books.

There is no question that digitization of the world’s literatures is one of the transformative ideas of our time. However, it is evident that large scale endeavors in that effort have many political, economic, legal and operational dimensions, and that they will be uneven in execution. As organizers of this effort, we hope to assure that the Arabic literatures will be made much more broadly and easily available, in effect complementing what Google intends for Roman-alphabet (especially English and Western European language) literatures. Our hope is to develop over time a virtual library of Arabic materials available including hundreds of thousands of texts and the means of finding them – and grow from there.

In preparation for the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina hosted from 10 to 11 November 2005, the WSIS Pre-Summit conference, organized by the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA). The first phase of the WSIS was held in Geneva, December 2003 and its second phase will be held in Tunis, 16-18 November 2005. The WSIS Pre-Summit conference's theme is "Libraries—the Information Society in Action", and it will present some of the best practices from libraries around the world.

The Symposium was honored by the presence of Nobel Laureates and world authorities. These eminent figures joined us during the period from 4 to 6 June 2005, at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, to celebrate the achievements of one of the key intellectual figures of the last century.

The Signed Manuscripts Conference, 26-28 April 2005, sought to showcase the vast array of rare Arabic manuscripts which bear autographs of eminent figures of Arabic-Islamic heritage. The topical coverage included autographed manuscripts, marginalia, commentaries, ex-libris inscriptions, collation references, or ijazas written in the handwriting of leading Arab scholars. The term Signed Manuscripts also covers autographed Ma’ājim al-Shuyukh, original scientific treatises, etc.

The main aim of the Calligraphy, Writing and Inscriptions Forum was to gather the specialists in all fields of calligraphy studies from around the world to help create specialized dialogues amongst them and to present the new discoveries and research in calligraphy. This Forum will be held every two years. It was held for the first time from 24-26 April 2003 and the second Forum from 24-26 April 2005.

Mediterranean City: Dialogue among Cultures, 21 February to 3 March 2005, aimed to foster dialogue among the Mediterranean countries along the theme of the Mediterranean City. The project included an exhibition about Mediterranean cities, as well as a Public Policy Forum with various participants such as mayors, urban planners, city and port authorities, historians, and architects, who explored the policies that affect their cities and their future development.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina organized an international seminar on the Fate of the Ancient Library of Alexandria entitled What Happened to the Ancient Library of Alexandria on 26-28 September 2004.

The Manuscripts Center hosted its first annual conference with the theme of Millenary Manuscripts, on 26-28 September 2004. Distinguished manuscript specialists from all over the globe met and reviewed the treasures of heritage lying in the vast array of Arabic millenary manuscripts (i.e. dating back to 450 AH or before) scattered all across world libraries.

This year's Beacon for Freedom of Expression Conference, 18-20 September 2004, raised awareness about issues and challenges surrounding freedom of expression.

The Global Youth Environmental Convention 2004 (GEYC), 11-15 September 2004, was the vision of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University. The GEYC 2004 was the third Convention (2000 in Lund, Sweden; 2002 in Torino, Italy) to bring together the young graduates from the Young Masters Program (YMP) from many countries to discuss environmental issues and problems. The Bibliotheca Alexandrina Convention, under the auspices of Mrs. Suzanne Mubarak, Chair of the Board of Trustees, received about 600 or more international participants, ages 14-18.

The conference was organized, from 12 to 14 March 2004, under the auspices of H.E President Hosni Mubarak with the participation of several Arab civil society organizations and the co-sponsorship of the Arab Academy for Science & Technology, the Arab Business Council, the Arab Women Organization, the Economic Research Forum and the Arab Organization for Human Rights.

The Bibliotheca Alexandrina proudly hosted, from 3 to 6 April 2004, BioVisionAlexandria 2004, an international conference, organized in partnership with BioVision the World Life Sciences Forum. The conference celebrated new and old ideas, inventions, knowledge, and also examined the implications of biotechnology .