Description:

Join the Program of African Studies for our weekly lunch and lecture.

Cosponsored by the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA)

ISITA seminar: How to Get Away with Blasphemy: The Politics of Religious Offense in the Islamic Republic of Mauritania

Zekeria Ahmed Salem, Director, ISITA and Political Science, Northwestern University

Biography
Zekeria Ould Ahmed Salem is Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Director of The Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa in the Program of African Studies. He specializes in Islam and Muslim Politics in Africa in comparative perspective. His research engages contemporary academic debates regarding religion and politics, especially the interplay in contemporary African societies of a variety of issues such as: the state, religious authority, race, social hierarchies, identity politics, Islamic knowledge and political power. Ahmed Salem secondary research interests include everyday negotiations over citizenship, bureaucratization and the Institutionalization of the state in Africa.