The Thomas L. King Lecture Series in Religious Studies has existed for 38 years. It is endowed by a memorial gift and pays out enough to invite one nationally-profiled scholar of religious studies to deliver a public lecture on our campus. The endowment, along with philosophy and religious studies department funds, is sufficient to pay coach expenses and $750 in honorarium.
The Need
In order to continue to attract high profile speakers, it would be very helpful to have more funds to offer to speakers, so we are looking to identify donors who might either be willing to make one-time gifts for specific speakers or who might be willing to donate to the endowment. You Day of Giving gift to this project can help enhance this prestigious annual event that is a benefit for Washburn students and the community.
Join Us
The Thomas L. King Lecture Series will feature Cyrus Zargar presenting “Muslim Encounters with the Christian Other in Persian Sufi Poetry” on Tuesday, Feb. 25, at 7:30 p.m. in Washburn A/B in the Memorial Union on campus.
Cyrus Ali Zargar is the Al-Ghazali Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Central Florida. Professor Zargar holds a P.h.D in Near Eastern studies from the University of California-Berkeley, and he uses a wide range of research methods to study mysticism within Islam. Sufi Muslims cultivate within themselves a set of practices that allow them to experience God directly. Professor Zargar’s first book, "Sufi Aesthetics: Beauty, Love, and the Human Form in the Writings of Ibn ‘Arabi and ‘Iraqi," argues that Sufi theories about perception and beauty are essential to understanding medieval Sufi poetry. His second book, "The Polished Mirror: Storytelling and the Pursuit of Virtue in Islamic Philosophy and Sufism," meanwhile, uses the lens of virtue ethics to understand medieval Sufi narrative. Professor Zargar’s work is distinguished by its keen perception for the common humanity that lies beneath the multifaceted ways that human religions (like Islam) cultivate experiences of transcendence.
