Stanford Distinguished Professor Mark Juergensmeyer to lecture on religious violence

“Why has the turn of the twenty-first century been rocked by a new religious rebellion?” From al Qaeda to Christian militias to insurgents in Iraq, a strident new religious activism has seized the imaginations of political rebels around the world. Mark Juergensmeyer’s new book, Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State, from Christian Militias to al Qaeda, provides an up-to-date road map through this complex new religious terrain.

Juergensmeyer will be the first 2012-13 Stanford Distinguished Professor at the University of Miami College of Arts and Sciences Center for the Humanities. Juergensmeyer will present “Global Rebellion: Religious Challenges to the Secular State from Christian Militias to al Qaeda” at 7pm, Thursday, September 20 at the Newman Alumni Center, 6200 San Amaro Drive on the Coral Gables campus at the University of Miami.

Juergensmeyer is an expert on religious violence, conflict resolution, and South Asian religion and politics, and has published more than two hundred articles and twenty books. He is Director of the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies and Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His widely-read Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence was listed by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times as one of the best nonfiction books of the year. He has been a frequent commentator in the news media, including CNN, NBC, CBS, BBC, NPR, Fox News and more.

In addition to Juergensmeyer, the 2012-13 Stanford Distinguished Professors include Temple Grandin, one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year and a Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University; award-winning novelist Amitov Ghosh, author of The Ibis Trilogy, and one of India’s best known writers; Mary Garrard, Professor Emerita of Art History at American University, whose groundbreaking and provocativeworks have offered a new perspective on Renaissance art; and public intellectual Anthony Grafton, Henry Putnam University Professor of History at Princeton University, who will share his insights into the future of books, libraries, and reading.

The College of Arts and Sciences Center for the Humanities at the University of Miami is dedicated to supporting humanities, arts, and interpretive social science research and teaching, as well as to presenting public programs to enrich Miami’s intellectual culture. This event is free and open to the public. Registration is required. For registration and further information, please visit humanities.miami.edu/calendar or call 305.284.1580.

September 14, 2012