Anouar Majid presents on traveling Moor at MLA

Associate Provost and Professor Anouar Majid, Ph.D. read a paper titled "The Traveling Concept of the Moor" at the 2011 annual convention of the Modern Language Association in Los Angeles.  His essay  "Quixotic Quest:  In Pursuit of Islam" was published in the edited volume The State of Islamic Studies in American Universities.  Last September 2010, Majid, along with two prominent scholars from Europe, was the subject of a paper delivered at the International Society for Religion, Literature and Culture held at Oxford University.  Dealing with "three contemporary Muslim intellectuals operating on the interstices of Islamic studies and literature," the paper, titled "'Glad Tidings to the Strangers': Literature and Religion in Contemporary Muslim Thought," was presented by the Dutch scholar Carool Kersten.  Majid's book, A Call for Heresy, was described in the latest issue of the Journal of Law and Religion "as a storehouse for anyone in search of solid scholarship on the histories of dissent in both Muslim and American cultures, dating back even to early Christianity and the founding years of Islam, while also touching upon some medieval events."  The book, the reviewer Afra Jalabi concluded, is "a well-researched, well-written book mapping our current challenges as a global community and offering a fresh perspective to go beyond the cultural walls that have besieged our contemporary discourses. It is a book that can inform and stimulate both American and Muslim readers alike." Majid is director of the Center for Global Humanities, associate provost for global initiatives and professor, Department of English and Language Studies.