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In April of 2024, The ���������� Mediterranean Studies Group invited Muhammad U. Faruque of the University of Cincinnati to ���������� Boulder. Dr. Faruque is a philosopher whose research lies at the intersection of philosophy, science, and environmental studies, especially in relation to the Islamic intellectual tradition. The ���������� Mediterranean Studies Group hosted three events with Dr. Faruque. On April 15, Dr. Faruque led a workshop for graduate students titled “The Problem of Being: Contemporary Discussions of Ontology in Islamic Philosophy.” In this workshop, Dr. Faruque lead students in a guided reading of Muhammad Husayn Tabatabai’s defense “the primacy of being” and “the gradation of being” in Bidayat al-hikma. On April 16, Dr. Faruque delivered a guest lecture in RLST 2202 titled “Opening Pandora’s Box: AI, ChatGPT, and the Mystery of Consciousness.” In this lecture, Dr. Faruque argued that it is impossible to create AI with human-level consciousness. In contrast to most contemporary theories of consciousness, he argued that consciousness is always fundamental, at once self-luminous and self-cognizant. Furthermore, he argued that the problem of AI hinges on how we define our values, which ultimately determine what it means to be human in a technocratic world. On April 16, Dr. Faruque delivered a scholarly talk titled “Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing” based on his highly acclaimed book Sculpting Selves (University of Michigan Press, 2021), which addresses “what it means to be human” in a secular, post-Enlightenment world by exploring notions of selfhood and subjectivity in Islamic and non-Islamic philosophical literatures, including modern philosophy and neuroscience. Weaving together insights from several disciplines, including religious studies, philosophy, anthropology, critical theory, and neuroscience, and arguing against views that narrowly restrict the self to a set of cognitive functions and abilities, Dr. Faruque proposed a multidimensional account of the self that offers new options for addressing central issues in the contemporary world, including spirituality, human flourishing, and meaning in life. These three events attracted a range of faculty and students on campus. By supporting these events, CAS helped advance the goal of Mediterranean Studies to explore categories of historical and cultural analysis that present alternatives to established national, civilizational, and continental paradigms and emphasize conflict, exchange, and interaction among diverse ethnic, religious, and cultural collectives as a force behind innovation and historical development in a wide range of human endeavors.