The Two Year Initiative on Islam and Other Religions

Visiting Scholars

Carl W. Ernst

• March 8, 2011
• 5:30 pm in Lane's Center for Meeting and Learning
• CML 104 (capacity of 200)
• Free and open to the entire community.

Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary Era

Abstract:

This provided an overall introduction to the subject of Islam using an historical approach that also address ed certain key contemporary issues, including the historic presence of Muslims in Europe and America, and the significance of anti-Muslim prejudice today.

Other topics included basic features of Islamic law and ethics (shari'a), theologies, and relations with other religious traditions. The lecture was followed by a moderated discussion. This and other lectures in the series were free and open to the entire community.

Bio:

Carl W. Ernst is William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations.

Ernst is a specialist on Islam in West and South Asia, and author of more than eight scholarly books, including the prizewinning work Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (UNC Press, 2003; also translated into six other languages) and co-editor of a recent collection of essays entitled Rethinking Islamic Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism (USC Press, 2010).

Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (UNC Press, 2003; also translated into six other languages) and co-editor of a recent collection of essays entitled Rethinking Islamic Studies: From Orientalism to Cosmopolitanism (USC Press, 2010).