Middle East religion, politics topic of April 7 talk

“The Politics of Religiosity in the Middle East” is the topic of the Middle East Studies Program‘s spring lecture series. The final lecture, “Comments (Yet Again) on Political Islam in the Middle East” by Talal Asad will take place at 4 p.m., Friday, April 7, in 8417 Social Science.

Asad, who teaches at City University of New York, specializes in the contemporary Islamic revival in the Middle East, including issues such as the relationship between religious and secular notions of pain and cruelty and the relationship of religion to human rights. Asad’s book, “Formations of the Secular,” is forthcoming from Stanford University Press.

For information, contact series coordinator Charles Hirschkind, 262-0695 or the Middle East Studies Program Office, 265-6583.