ONLINE: A Zoom invitation link will be sent one day before class begins.
Michael is an anthropologist who has visited archaeological sites in Sudan, most recently in 2023, two months before the catastrophic war between two warring factions broke out in April of that year. Since then, as of August 2024, an estimated 16,000 people have been killed, more than 8 million have been internally displaced, and an additional 2 million have fled to neighboring countries. More than half of Sudan’s 25.6 million face acute hunger or worse. Here in the West, this “Forgotten War” has received little to no attention. Since the outbreak of the war, Michael has stayed in near-daily contact with two members of a Sudanese family who, having lost their since-ransacked home in Khartoum, fled to two other Sudanese cities before finally seeking refuge in Egypt. He will provide insight into the conflict through the lens of their experiences, and through a broader look at the history of the region and the global dimensions of putatively “local” conflicts, concluding with some suggestions about how, as conscientious citizens of the world, we might take some modest steps to help mitigate the suffering of those whose lives have been disrupted by conflict. Michael Fahy holds a Ph.D. degree in anthropology from the University of Michigan and taught for 20 years at the University’s School of Education. He is an anthropologist of the Middle East, where he lived and pursued research for several years. Since 2004 Michael has offered presentations on Middle Eastern history and culture to American military personnel across the United States and Europe.
