(Sept. 9, 2014) ‒ One of the most respected American scholarly authority on Islam, John L. Esposito, will visit the University of Kentucky Wednesday to discuss “The Future of Islam: Assessing the Elements of Reform, Revival, and Fundamentalism in the Muslim World.” The community is invited to attend his presentation at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, at the Singletary Center Recital Hall. 

 

The event is part of the University of Kentucky College of Arts and Sciences Passport to the World 2014-15 program Year of the Middle East: Crossroads of the World.

 

A professor of Islamic Studies and International Affairs at Georgetown University, Esposito will discuss his book on the portrait of Islam today and tomorrow, drawn by a lifetime of thought and research to sweep away the negative stereotypes of the fastest growing religion in the world.

 

More than 45 books and monographs by him have been translated into more than 35 languages.

 

Esposito is founding director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service. He has served as consultant to the U.S. Department of State and other agencies, European and Asian governments and corporations, universities, and the media worldwide. A former president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and of the American Council for the Study of Islamic Societies, vice chair of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy, and member of the World Economic Forum’s Council of 100 Leaders, he is currently vice president (2011) and president elect (2012) of the American Academy of Religion and a member of the E. C. European Network of Experts on De-Radicalisation and the board of C-1 World Dialogue and an ambassador for the UN Alliance of Civilizations.

 

He is recipient of the American Academy of Religion’s Martin E. Marty Award for the Public Understanding of Religion and of Pakistan’s Quaid-i-Azzam Award for Outstanding Contributions in Islamic Studies and the School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University Award for Outstanding Teaching. Esposito is editor-in-chief of Oxford Islamic Studies Online and series editor of The Oxford Library of Islamic Studies, editor-in-chief of The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (6 vols.); The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Modern Islamic World (4 vols.), The Oxford History of Islam, The Oxford Dictionary of Islam, and The Islamic World: Past and Present (3 vols.).

 

Esposito’s interviews and articles with newspapers, magazines, and the media in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, The Guardian, The Times of London, CNN, ABC Nightline, CBS, NBC and the BBC.