Forman’s Mass Communication Department hosted the prestigious International Communication Association (ICA) regional conference on December 5-6, bringing media studies scholars together for critical discussion on Climate and Communication. A special shoutout to Dr. Firasat Jabeen who played such a critical role in bringing the ICA conference to the Forman campus. For my part, I took a personal interest in the event, partly because two of the participants came from my alma mater, Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois.
Forman’s Religious Studies Department joined with Kellogg College, the Asian Studies Center at Oxford University and the Information Technology University (ITU) in Lahore to host the first day of a three-day international conference on Christianity and Christians in Pakistan. Dr. Yaqoob Bangash who previously taught at Forman and is now on the faculty of ITU played a key role in organizing the event which opened at Forman on December 10 and closed at ITU on December 12. Religious Studies Chair Dr. Hafiz Ghani also coordinated closely with Dr. Bangash to organize the Forman portion of the conference.
The opening day program, convened by Forman graduate Abraham Murad from Oxford and moderated in part by Dr. Atiq-ur-Rehman from Forman, included the keynote address delivered by Cardinal Joseph Coutts, Metropolitan Archbishop Emeritus of Karachi. Subsequent sessions covered themes ranging from Christian Identity to Christians in Education. Other highlights included a presentation by French researcher Dr. Paul Rollier on A Life Among Muslims: Christian Identity and Religious Difference in Lahore and an illuminating conversation on the legacy of “Pakistan’s Christian Chief Justice A.R. Cornelius” between Dr. Bangash and Jawwad S. Khawaja, Pakistan’s 23rd Chief Justice.
Parenthetically, as with many of our recent events, this conference garnered local media attention, including in Dawn (https://www.dawn.com/news/1877961) and The News (https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/1260337-multi-layered-role-of-christians-in-pakistan-highlighted).
Finally, Forman’s Sociology Department, in partnership with the Forman Sociology Society, organized the Sixth Conference on Marginalized Populations on December 11. This year’s themes included the marginalization of females in the education sector, climate change, health and safety, and the marginalization of ethnic and religious minorities. Researchers from leading area institutions, including the University of Punjab, University of Management and Technology (UMT), Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), University of Home Economics, University of Sargodha, and the National College of Arts (NCA), delivered papers.
A special thanks to Dr. Sara Rizvi Jafree (Conference Chair) and Ms. Sana Shahid for their leadership and support in making this conference possible. Those interested in further information should contact the Sociology Department, which produced an excellent “Book of Abstracts” summarizing the contents of each paper delivered. Both “hard” and “soft” copies of the report should be available.
From the January 2025 Rector’s Update