What: Professor Jay Demerath, Emile Durkheim Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of Massachusetts will deliver this year’s Limpitlaw lecture entitled, Sacred Stretches from the Private to the Bizarre: Defining Religion and Re-Defining the First Amendment.  Prof. Demerath is one of the leading sociologists of religion and culture in the world.

When: Thursday, March 26, 2009 ~ 4:30 p.m.

Where: Rittenberg Lounge, Mather Hall on the Trinity College Campus
300 Summit Street, Hartford, Conn., 06106

Background: Jay Demerath is one of the leading sociologists of religion and culture in the world. He is the author of 12 books and more than 60 articles in the most prestigious journals in the field. His most recent book, Crossing the Gods: World Religions and Worldly Politics, received the 2002 Distinguished Book Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.

Prof. Demerath received his A.B. from Harvard College in 1958 and his M.A. (1962) and Ph.D. (1964) from the University of California, Berkeley.  He has held visiting appointments at Yale and Harvard and the London School of Economics and is currently president of the Association for the Sociology of Religion and a past president of the Eastern Sociological Society and the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.