Between Private Piety and Radical Politics: Finding Islam in Central Asia.

Anders Conway, an IPE ’06 graduate, spent last year traveling and working in Central Asia. He has returned to the Pacific Northwest to do graduate work at the Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and to speak to us about what he has learned.

Anders will talk at 6pm on Wednesday, November 7 in Mc309. The title of his talk is “Between Private Piety and Radical Politics: Finding Islam in Central Asia.”

Anders writes, “I am thinking that I will overview the two common lines of discourse; one is that militant Islam is a growing looming and almost immediate threat in the region, the other that Islam is moderate and stable. Then I will talk about my experience and highlight some ideas about how each camp has a point but that the reality lies somewhere in between.”

This is a great opportunity to learn about a part of the world that is unfamiliar to most of us from an IPE graduate who has experienced these issues both in the field and now through his graduate work.

Suggested Reading: A SECULAR ISLAM: NATION, STATE, AND RELIGION IN UZBEKISTAN by Adeeb Khalid, International Journal of Middle East Studies (2003), 35: 573-598 Cambridge University Press.

Dessert and beverages will be provided.