[Peace] Important lectures by Prof. Sherman

[sbekal at illinois.edu]

Dear Friends,
There will be two important lectures end of this week by Professor Sherman Abd al-Hakim Jackson. Professor Sherman  is scheduled to give 2 lectures on campus (Thu. 7:30pm, Fri. noon-12:50pm)  

First, a brief bio:
Sherman Abd al-Hakim Jackson is Arthur F. Thurnau Professor of Near Eastern Studies, Professor of Afro-American Studies, and Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Michigan, and co-founder of the American Learning Institute for Muslims. He has a BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Pennsylvania, has studied for years in Cairo, and is the author of numerous articles and various books, including Islam and the Blackamerican: Looking toward the Third Resurrection (Oxford Univ. Press, 2005). Religion Newswriters ranks him among the top 10 U.S. (academic) scholars of Islam.


1. CAS/MillerComm Lecture Series

"Beyond Jihad: New Directions in Muslim Fundamentalist Thought"

Thursday,January 29, 2009 at 7:30pm

Knight Auditorium at the Spurlock Museum (600 S. Gregory St., Urbana)

Hosted by the Department of Religion and co-sponsored by various departments and organizations, including CIMIC.

This lecture will examine what may turn out to be one of the most important (though as yet little-known) developments in contemporary Muslim thought to emerge since the emergence of Muslim fundamentalism itself: the ideological evolution of the (in)famous Gama'ah Islamiyah of Egypt and its move from terrorism to persuasion.


2. Lecture: "Muslims, Islam, and Race in America"

Friday, January 30, 2009, from noon to 1pm. (We will try to end at 12:50pm to give people time to catch Jum'ah, i.A.)

Levis Faculty Center, 2nd floor (919 W. Illinois St., Urbana)

Co-sponsored by the Department of African-American Studies, the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, and the Department of Religion.

The 19th-20th century biographer Henry Adams makes the point that to do American history without the clue of race is to produce little more than nursery tales. Islam, on the other hand, at least in its most common ideological expression, is race-neutral. How, then, do Muslims come to terms with the centrality of race to American identity-formation and
belongingness? And what effect does this quintessential American reality have on the discourse about and within the Muslim community in America, especially given the dominant racial and ethnic make-up of Muslims in the U.S.? This lecture will explore these issues with particular reference to American blackness, on the one hand, and Islamophobia on the other.

Sadia Bekal