Symposium on Island Advances Fletcher's Ideas

Experts on Islamic revivalism spoke yesterday to about 100 people at a memorial symposium for a Harvard professor who died last June.

At a symposium in honor of former Professor of Chinese and Central Asian History Joseph F. Fletcher Jr.'57, called "Islamic Revivalism from Arabia to China," four experts in this field presented scholarly papers on topics ranging from Sufi mysticism to 18th Century Islamic scholars.

The annual symposium is designed to continue work done by Fletcher, who was the world's expert on Inner Mongolia, and to create a financial base for such studies.

Fletcher studied regions of Islamic Central Asia, Mongolia, China and Russia. At his death, he was focusing on Islamic revivalism, recent fanatical religious movements, and the uprisings it produced in Asia.

Fletcher, who was considered very popular among students. He taught the popular course Historical Studies B-15, "Empire of the Mongols," and received the J.R. Levinson Teaching Award from undergraduates in 1983.

"Joe was imaginative," said Higginson Professor of History Emeritus John K. Fairbank, an Asian Studies expert, in introductory remarks at yesterday's symposium.

"He had a large vision of what might be don in Inner Asian Studies. He lived with his field. As it developed he went with it."

"He rose to the top of his field because he did things needed to achieve the highest results," Fair bank said.

The Joseph F. Fletcher Jr. Fund for Inner Asian Studies, established by his friends and colleagues after his death, sponsored the symposium.