Catawba College will offer a community forum on Islam: The Religion and the Culture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 3 in Hedrick Theatre on campus. The speaker for the event is Dr. Kathryn Johnson, an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC-Charlotte.

Dr. Johnson received her Ph.D. from Harvard University. At UNC-Charlotte, she teaches courses on Islam and the history of the Modern Middle East. She also teaches Social Justice and Human Rights for the University Honors Program. She has published numerous articles on Middle East history, Arabic and Persian mystical literature, and Islam in Egypt. She is currently participating in Harvard University's Religious Pluralism Project which documents religious diversity across the United States. She has authored the chapter on Islam in the southeastern United States for the Pluralism Project series published in January 2003. Dr. Johnson also serves as a consultant to many community organizations and the media.

This co-curricular event is one of several slated this academic year as part of an integrated first-year experience for students, building on a common reading text, "The Kite Runner," and the theme of globalization. It is free and open to the community.

During spring semester, first-year students continue their intellectual engagement with "The Kite Runner." Lehigh University faculty member Amardeep Singh, Ph.D. will serve as a literary scholar in residence on campus in March. He will address the College community, several English literature classes and groups of first-year students on the topic of globalization in the context of "The Kite Runner." Professor Singh studied at Cornell and Tufts Universities before earning his Ph.D. from Duke University. He teaches British modernism, postcolonial literature and theory, and poststructuralism at Lehigh, and is currently working on a book-length project theorizing secularism in a global frame.

World-renowned photographer Luke Powell, a native North Carolinian and UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus who has traveled and worked extensively in Afghanistan, will spend a week-long residency on campus in March, 2007. He will exhibit his photographs, be available to provide commentary in various classes, and offer several lectures focused on his own Afghan experiences.

Catawba College will offer a community forum on Islam: The Religion and the Culture at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, October 3 in Hedrick Theatre on campus. The speaker for the event is Dr. Kathryn Johnson, an associate professor in the Department of Religious Studies at UNC-Charlotte.

Dr. Johnson received her Ph.D. from Harvard University. At UNC-Charlotte, she teaches courses on Islam and the history of the Modern Middle East. She also teaches Social Justice and Human Rights for the University Honors Program. She has published numerous articles on Middle East history, Arabic and Persian mystical literature, and Islam in Egypt. She is currently participating in Harvard University's Religious Pluralism Project which documents religious diversity across the United States. She has authored the chapter on Islam in the southeastern United States for the Pluralism Project series published in January 2003. Dr. Johnson also serves as a consultant to many community organizations and the media.

This co-curricular event is one of several slated this academic year as part of an integrated first-year experience for students, building on a common reading text, "The Kite Runner," and the theme of globalization. It is free and open to the community.

During spring semester, first-year students continue their intellectual engagement with "The Kite Runner." Lehigh University faculty member Amardeep Singh, Ph.D. will serve as a literary scholar in residence on campus in March. He will address the College community, several English literature classes and groups of first-year students on the topic of globalization in the context of "The Kite Runner." Professor Singh studied at Cornell and Tufts Universities before earning his Ph.D. from Duke University. He teaches British modernism, postcolonial literature and theory, and poststructuralism at Lehigh, and is currently working on a book-length project theorizing secularism in a global frame.

World-renowned photographer Luke Powell, a native North Carolinian and UNC-Chapel Hill alumnus who has traveled and worked extensively in Afghanistan, will spend a week-long residency on campus in March, 2007. He will exhibit his photographs, be available to provide commentary in various classes, and offer several lectures focused on his own Afghan experiences.