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Abdessalam Ben Maissa, a Fulbright Visiting Specialist from Morocco, is joining classes, interacting with students, giving public lectures, meeting with local clergy and religious groups, and participating in other events on and off campus during a residency at Lafayette from yesterday through May 3, sponsored and coordinated by the department of religious studies.
Lafayette is among the first 25 colleges and universities to host a scholar in a new Fulbright program, Direct Access to the Muslim World, which seeks to expand understanding and knowledge of Islamic societies and cultures both inside and outside the classroom. Ben Maissa’s visit is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the U.S. State Department.
Ben Maissa is a professor of philosophy in the Faculty of Letters and Sciences at Mohamed V University in Rabat, Morocco. His Lafayette residency will include three free public lectures starting at 8 p.m. in the Kirby Hall of Civil Rights auditorium: “The Status of Women in Islam,” today; “The Ideological Roots of Fundamentalism in Islam,” Wednesday, April 7; and “Islam and Democracy: Are They Compatible?” Tuesday, April 27. Question-and-answer sessions will follow each lecture.
In addition, he will lead a discussion in the Chaplain’s Office Brown Bag Series noon Friday, March 26, in Interfaith Chapel, Hogg Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Lunch may be brought or purchased for $3.
The classes that Ben Maissa will visit and topics covered during the sessions will include:
Ben Maissa also will speak at separate receptions for the religious studies and French departments and students in the Dana Scholars program, and will share lunch and talk with various religious groups in the Lehigh Valley. He also will travel to Lehigh University Monday, April 12, for a class visit and lecture.
Ben Maissa first received a Fulbright grant in 2001. He has published more than 20 journal articles and book chapters and participated in over a dozen academic conferences. He also has organized several national and international scholarly meetings. He earned two doctoral degrees from University of Paris-Sorbonne and degrees from University of Bordeaux-III, Mohammed V University, and Islamic Institute of Taroudant, Morocco.
Established in 1946 under legislation introduced by former Senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas, the Fulbright Program is the flagship international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S. State Department. It is administered by the Council for International Exchange of Scholars in Washington, D.C. Since the establishment of the program, 43,000 Fulbright Visiting Scholars have conducted research or taught in U.S. universities, and more than 41,000 Fulbright U.S. Scholars have engaged in similar activities abroad. The Fulbright Program awards approximately 800 grants to U.S. Scholars each year, operating in 140 countries worldwide.