THIRD ANNUAL KAZIMI LECTURE STUDIES IN SHI'I STUDIES

Alireza Doostdar

Associate Professor, Divinity School and the College Faculty Co-Director, Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion, The University of Chicago

God and Satan in Modern Shi'i Thought

Anderson-Clarke Center, Hudspeth Auditorium
February 17, 2022
All members of the Rice community and public are welcome.

Alireza Doostdar, associate professor in the Divinity School and the College and faculty co-director of the Martin Marty Center for the Public Understanding of Religion at the University of Chicago, presented "God and Satan in Modern Shi'i Thought," the third annual Kazimi Lecture in Shi'i Studies in the Rice University School of Humanities on Feb. 17, 2022.

Professor Doostdar is interested in religious reason and its entanglements with science and the state. His primary focus is on Shi’i Islam, which he approaches as a dynamic tradition shaped in dialogue with other religious and secular formations. His first book, “The Iranian Metaphysicals: Explorations in Science, Islam, and the Uncanny” (Princeton University Press, 2018) received the 2018 Albert Hourani Book Award from the Middle East Studies Association and the 2020 Vinson Sutlive Book Prize from the Anthropology Department at William & Mary. His next book is a study of the theology of Satan in Iran since the Islamic Revolution.

The Kazimi Lecture in Shi'i Studies is made possible through a generous gift from the children of Syed Safdar and Samina Kazimi. Through this endowed lecture series, the School of Humanities brings to Rice University and Houston an annual lecture, seminar or artistic exhibit or performance by a scholar or artist whose research or creative works promotes understanding of Shi’i Islam in its many dimensions.