News
What: The Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University will host author Bruce Lawrence, who will speak on “Islam: Myths and Reality.” Lawrence’s talk inaugurates the annual Lucy and Richard Holmes Lecture Series on Islamic Studies, created to educate the general public about various aspects
of Islam as a religion and Islamic studies. This event is co-sponsored by Palestine Lebanon Emergency Action (PLEA).
Bruce Lawrence, professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University, is the author of the award-winning Defenders of the God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern World and Shattering the Myth: Ismam Beyond Violence. Lawrence is also editor of the recently acclaimed Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden. A book signing will follow the lecture.
When: Monday, April 30, 2007, 7:30–9 p.m.
Where: Smith Memorial Student Union, room 338 (1825 SW Broadway Ave.).
Cost: Admission is free and open to the public.
Contact: For more information, contact Jean Campbell at 503-725-8566 or campbellj@pdx.edu.
Background: Bruce Lawrence is the Nancy and Jeffrey Marcus Humanities Professor of Religion at Duke University. A graduate of Princeton, with a Master of Divinity from Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Lawrence earned his doctorate at Yale in History of Religions. His books include Nizam Ad-Din Awliya: Morals for the Heart (Classics of Western Spirituality), and his latest book The Qur'an: A Biography (Books That Changed the World), explores the Qur’an’s cultural and spiritual influence from the seventh century to the present.
The Middle East Studies Center at Portland State University is committed to promoting understanding of the people, cultures, languages and religions of the Middle East. This is the only degree-based ME program in Oregon, founded in 1959, offers courses in Arabic, Turkish, Hebrew and Persian, as well as many other disciplines. Over 21,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students have taken PSU courses in Middle East Studies and hundreds of students have received degrees with a Middle East concentration.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE (#07-048)
