Shipka lecture focuses on global religious violence

“The Global Rise of Religious Violence” is the topic of a lecture by Mark Juergensmeyer, distinguished professor of Global Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, 12:30 p.m. Thursday, March 28, in the Chestnut Room of Kilcawley Center at Youngstown State University.

The free talk is part of the Dr. Thomas and Albert Shipka Speaker Series at YSU.

The lecture will analyze the rise of religious extremism around the world, from Christian militia in the United States and Europe and Jewish nationalists in Israel to Muslim terrorists related to ISIS and al Qaeda and Buddhist militants in Southeast Asia. The talk will explore why these movements are happening now on a global scale, and what religion has to do with it.

Juergensmeyer is the founding director of the Global and International Studies Program and the Orfalea Center for Global and International Studies at UC Santa Barbara. He has published more than 200 articles and 20 books, including the widely widely-read Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence. He has received research fellowships from the Wilson Center in Washington D.C., the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, the U.S. Institute of Peace, and the American Council of Learned Societies. He is the recipient of the Grawemeyer Award for contributions to the study of religion, and was awarded the Silver Award of the Queen Sofia Center for the Study of Violence in Spain. He was elected president of the American Academy of Religion, and chaired the working group on Religion and International Affairs for the national Social Science Research Council. He serves as the general editor of the Oxford University Press handbooks of religion online, and his commentary on contemporary issues of global religion and politics appear on the BBC, CNN and NPR.