What: Raymond Baker, Professor of International Politics at Trinity, will deliver a Faculty Research Committee Lecture at Thursday’s Common Hour Program entitled The Epoch Story of Islam: The Struggles of Ordinary Muslims in Extraordinary Times. Islam is today narrating an epoch story. Worldly Islam, refusing any separation between realms of faith and politics, raises the banner of reform and resistance. It provides a moral and intellectual framework for the everyday, quiet struggles of ordinary Muslims for a modicum of economic wellbeing and political freedom in more just national and international frameworks. Millions across the Islamic world have responded. That story has yet to be heard in the West.
When: Thursday, October 15, 2009 ~ 12:15 p.m.
Where: Rittenberg Lounge, Mather Hall (second floor), on the campus on Trinity College
Background:
Raymond William Baker is an internationally recognized authority on the Arab and Islamic world. The author of a series of critically acclaimed studies of Islam and Arab societies, he was designated this year as a Carnegies Scholar in Islamic Studies for 2006 – 2008. Baker’s most recent book is Islam Without Fear, published this year by Harvard Press in a paperback version.
Baker consults periodically for the State Department, the Department of Defense, USAID, the Pentagon, and a variety of other government agencies and private foundations. A past president of the International Association of Middle East Studies, Baker is currently a governing board member of the European-based World Congress of Middle East Studies. He is also President of Global Partners of the International University of Iraq, a Governing Board member of the International Center for Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies, Northern Cyprus, and a founding member of the International Association of Contemporary Iraqi Studies. Baker earned his Ph.D. and M.A. from Harvard University and his B.A. from Ripon College.
This event is free and open to the Trinity community. A light lunch will be provided for pre-registered participants only. To reserve a spot, please email common-hour@trincoll.edu.
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