FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 28, 2008
Contact: K.E. Schwab
724.738.2199
karl.schwab@sru.edu

Visiting professor presents ‘Islam through Visual Culture’ 

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. – Slippery Rock University’s International Arts and Cultures Series will present “Islam through Visual Culture,” at 12:30 p.m. Tuesday in Spotts World Culture Building Auditorium.

            “Aesthetics and Politics of Contemporary Shi’ite Images: Passion-Play in the Transnational Circuitry” will be offered by Mazyar Lotfalian, a visiting professor of global studies at the University of Pittsburgh and resident fellow at the Center for Cultural Studies at the University of California-Santa Cruz. 

           Lotfalian, an anthropologist trained at Rice University, has taught courses on Islam, cinema and media at Yale University. He was a post-doctoral fellow at the Center for Religion and Media at New York University and at Harvard University’s Middle East Center. 

           His 2004 book, “Islam, Techno-scientific Identities, and the Culture of Curiosity” (University Press of America), focused on the contemporary intellectual undertaking of Muslims to rethink how science and technology are practiced in the Islamic world. The work argued that Islam is always already mediated through institutions, intellectual and artistic circles, aesthetic discourses and technological devices. His current research turns to the consideration of artistic productions of transnational Muslim artists. 

           In addition to the arts and cultures series, the lecture is co-sponsored by SRU’s departments of philosophy, political science and history, and the College of Humanities Fine and Performing Arts.

            For more information contact Andrew Colvin, assistant professor of philosophy, at 724.794.4996.

Slippery Rock University is Pennsylvania’s premier public residential university. Slippery Rock University provides students with a comprehensive learning experience that intentionally combines academic instruction with enhanced educational and learning opportunities that make a positive difference in their lives.