A Middlebury College spring lecture series to focus on religion, nation and state March 1-May 2
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. ? Middlebury College will host the 2006 Charles P. Scott Lectures from March 1 through May 2 to highlight issues surrounding religion, nation and state. Five speakers from international institutions and organizations and three faculty members from Middlebury College will speak. The series of eight lectures will be held in the Robert A. Jones ‘59 House on Hillcrest Road off College Street (Route 125) and are free and open to the public.
Lecture topics range from Muslim culture in Western Europe to the Denmark cartoon crisis to the moral economy of religious change in Latin America. The talks will explore how religious, ethnic, and civic identities interact and evolve.
The lecturers include Misha Glenny, an independent scholar and former European correspondent for the BBC; Ijaz Shafi Gilani, a professor and dean of the faculty of social sciences at International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan, and an expert on Pakistani public opinion and international relations; and Stanley J. Tambiah, the Esther and Sidney Rabb Research Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University, who is an accomplished and renowned scholar on his native Sri Lanka’s disastrous ethnic conflict.
Also speaking will be Saad Eddin Ibrahim, a professor of political sociology at the American University in Cairo, who is known for his human rights activism and advocacy of democratic reform in Egypt and the Arab World; and Christopher Marsh, associate professor of political science and church-state studies and director of Asian studies at Baylor University, who has held research appointments at Tsinghua University in Beijing and the Institute of the Far East of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.
Middlebury College faculty members who will deliver lectures include Walker Connor, distinguished visiting professor in political science at Middlebury College, who has most recently held resident appointments at Queen’s University in Canada and the London School of Economics; Erik Bleich, assistant professor of political science at Middlebury, whose research focuses on the politics of race, ethnicity and religion in Western Europe; and David Stoll, an associate professor of anthropology at Middlebury College, who has studied religion and politics in Latin America since the 1970s.
The lecture series is sponsored by several Middlebury College organizations: the Department of Religion, the Charles P. Scott Fund, Atwater Commons, and the Rohatyn Center for International Affairs.
To follow is a schedule of lectures:
2006 Charles P. Scott Lecture Series Schedule
Wednesday, March 1 at 4:30 p.m.
Walker Connor, Middlebury College Distinguished Visiting Professor of Political Science
“Religion and Nation: Competitors or Reinforcers?”
Wednesday, March 15 at 4:30 p.m.
Erik Bleich, Middlebury College Assistant Professor of Political Science
“Muslim is the New Black: Constructing the Ethno-Racial Outsider in Western Europe”
Tuesday, April 4 at 4:30 p.m.
Misha Glenny, Independent Scholar and former European correspondent for the BBC
“Crime v. Nationalism: What Really Drove War in the Balkans?”
Tuesday, April 11 at 4:30 p.m.
Ijaz Gilani, Professor and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan
“Global Muslim Identity and the Denmark Cartoon Crisis”
Wednesday, April 19 at 7:30 p.m.
Stanley Tambiah, Esther and Sidney Rabb Research Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University
“The Tsunami and its effects on Sri Lankan Politics and Reconstruction Efforts”
Thursday, April 20 at 4:30 p.m.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim, Professor of Political Sociology at American University in Cairo
“How Democratic Could the Arab or Muslim World Be?”
Wednesday, April 26 at 4:30 p.m.
Christopher Marsh, Associate Professor of Political Science and Church-State Studies and Director of Asian Studies at Baylor University
“One Nation Under God: Religion, Nation and the Drive for Statehood in the Post-Soviet World”
Tuesday, May 2 at 12:15 p.m.
David Stoll, Middlebury College Associate Professor of Anthropology
“The Moral Economy of Religious Change in Latin America”
The series will take place in the Robert A. Jones ‘59 House on Hillcrest Road off College Street (Route 125) and is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Charlene Barrett in the Middlebury College religion department at cmbarret@middlebury.edu or 802-443-5289.