The Institute of Interfaith Dialog

Thursday Social with Run Murray
On May 20th, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) Austin Chapter's Thursday Social event was featured by Ron Murray, economist of retirement. The topic of the night was "The economic considerations behind retirement planning". Ron also encouraged awareness of the importance of organ donation.

Talk Series

Turkey's Journey Toward Democratization
On May 14th, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) and Raindrop Turkish House organized a seminar, titled as "Turkey's Journey toward Democratization". The speaker was Dr. Y. Alp Aslandogan, who is the president of IID and also co-editor of "Muslim Citizens of the Globalized World".

Talk Series

Book Signing by Dr. Helen Ebaugh
On April 23rd, Institute of Interfaith Dialog, The Middle Eastern Studies program at The University of Texas at Austin and Islamic Dialog Student Association orginized lecture and book signing called "The Gülen Movement: A Sociological Analysis of a Civic Movement Rooted in Moderate Islam" , at The University of Texas at Austin.

Social

Thursday Social: Documentary Screening
On April 22nd, the documentary "Different Books, Common Word: Baptist and Muslims" was screened for Thursday Social event.

Social

Thursday Social with Sheila Fling and James Puglisi
On Aprill 15th, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) Austin Chapter hosted Sheila Fling (PhD., Distinguished Professor Emitra, Texas State University) and James Puglisi (Associate Director of Campus Ministry, St. Edward's University) for Thursday Social series. The speakers shared their views from The Parliament of World Religions Conference held in Melbourne, Australia.

Social

Thursday Social with Greg McDonell
On Aprill 8th, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) Austin Chapter hosted Greg McDonell from Central Presbyterian Church, as speaker for the Thursday Social event. Mr. McDonell talked about "The Christian perspective of God's preferential treatment of the poor".

Social

Thursday Social with Gavin Garcia
On March 11th, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) Austin Chapter organized its first Thursday social event, hosting Gavin Garcia as the speaker of the evening. Mr. Garcia is the publisher of TODO Austin and also coordinator at the University of Texas Conflict Center. His speech was titled as "How ethnic groups and faith communities can better utilize resources to unite Austin".

Conference

Women in Abrahamic Traditions
On March 23^rd, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID), The Islamic Student Association and Turkish American Women's Association organized a panel titled "Women in Abrahamic Traditions". Jewish, Christian and Muslim points of view on various topics were discussed, including (1) Role of women in each Abrahamic Faith, (2) Exemplary women in each faith's history, (3) Women's rights in each faith, (4) How might women in each faith tradition work together to address common problems.

Dinner

Celebration of Black History Month with Travis County Sheriff
On February 25th, Raindrop Turkish House and The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) Austin Chapter orginzed a dinner to celebrate the Black History Month. Travis County Sheriff Greg Hamilton honored the event as the speaker with his speech about Martin Luther King.

Dinner

Alumni of Turkey Trips from Austin for a Re-union Dinner
On February 18th, The Institute of Interfaith Dialog (IID) Austin Chapter organized another re-union dinner for the Alumni of Turkey Trips from Austin.

The event started with dinner full of delicious Turkish food. Then, IID Austin Chapter representative Dr. Veysel Demir gave a presentation about next trip plans, including Turkey Trips, Balkan Trips and Central Asia Trips. The night ended with a full-of-fun trivia quiz including questions about historical places of Turkey and traditions of Turkish people.