With prejudice and intolerance toward Muslims on the rise both in the United States and Europe, The University of Toledo’s Imam Khattab Lecture offers an opportunity to promote a better understanding of Islam and the Middle East. This year’s speaker is a candidate uniquely qualified for the job.

Dr. Reza Aslan, a New York Times best-selling author and scholar, will speak on “Youth Revolt: The Future of the New Middle East.”

This year’s free, public lecture will be held Wednesday, April 1, at 7 p.m. in Nitschke Hall Auditorium. A reception will follow in the Brady Engineering Innovation Center.

Aslan is the author of a number of books, including Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth, No God But God: The Origins, Evolution and Future of Islam and How to Win a Cosmic War. Zealot recently was picked up by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. to be turned into a feature film.

He is a creative writing professor at the University of California in Riverside and serves on the board of trustees for the Chicago Theological Seminary. He is also the founder of AslanMedia, a social network focusing on news and entertainment about the Middle East, and the co-founder and chief creative officer of BoomGen Studios, an entertainment brand for creative content from and about the Middle East.

At the lecture, Aslan will focus on the growing number of young adults in the Middle East and their increasingly vocal campaign for greater rights and opportunities. This young generation vastly outnumbers its elders; 75 percent of the population is younger than 35, and 50 percent is younger than 25. In countries like Iran, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Syria, young people’s views are often in stark contrast to those of the ruling elite. Aslan will discuss what motivates these young people and how they will affect the future of the Middle East.

“This is a timely discussion,” said Dr. John Sarnecki, UT associate professor and chair of philosophy and religious studies. “With what’s happening with ISIS and what’s happening with the demographic change in the Middle East, the talk is topical, it’s political, and it’s also helping us understand the world from a perspective of people that do not often have a voice in our media.”

This talk is part of the Center for Religious Understanding’s annual lecture series, which has been active for more than a decade. Aslan will be available for questions and a book signing after the lecture.
For more information visit Aslan’s website at rezaaslan.com or the Imam Khattab Lecture Series web page at http://utole.do/imamhattab.

Media Coverage
The Blade (March 28, 2015)

The University of Toledo’s Muslim Students Association is hosting events in recognition of Islam Awareness Week Monday, March 16 through Friday, March 20.

This year’s theme is “From Darkness to Light: Understanding Islam from the Voice of Muslims.”

Events for the week, listed by date, include:

Monday, March 16

•  MSA Culture Day, noon-4 p.m., Student Union Ingman Room.
• Misconceptions of Religion Forum, 4-5 p.m., University Hall Room 4700.

Tuesday, March 17

• Converts in America, 4-6 p.m., Memorial Field House Room 1030.

Wednesday, March 18

• Ask-A-Muslim, noon-2 p.m., Student Union Table A; 3-4 p.m., Student Union Room 2591

Thursday, March 19

• How Do I Look in Hijab, noon-2 p.m., Student Union Table A.
Women in Islam, 4-6 p.m., Memorial Field House Room 1030.

Friday, March 20

• Jummah (prayer) on Campus, 1:30-2 p.m., Student Union Room 2592, followed by a potluck, 2-3 p.m.

The Muslim Student Association works to meet the needs of Muslim students on campus and provides information on Islam to the UT community. For more information, visit facebook.com/utoledomsa.

Media Coverage
The Independent Collegian (March 25, 2015)

The Toledo community will gather to share their perspectives on religiously based topics at The University of Toledo Center for Religious Understanding’s upcoming Interfaith Forums.

“Fiction and Fact” will be Monday, March 16, and “Holy Days and Holidays” will be Tuesday, April 7, both at 4 p.m. in University Hall Room 4700. The events are free and open to the public.

Participants will join in small group discussions to explore different religious outlooks and traditions as well as to share their own perspectives.

“The forums are important because they are interesting and real ways of hearing from people who think differently about religion than you do — not just a book or a lecture, which come at arm’s length, but a real, live person who inhabits and is living out an entirely different way of thinking about what the point of life is and what is most real, valuable and the deepest source of human fulfillment,” said Dr. Jeanine Diller, director of the UT Center for Religious Understanding.

The first forum will take place during Muslim Awareness Week and is co-sponsored by the UT Muslim Student Association. With the goal of dispelling religious stereotypes, participants will talk about common prejudices toward other religions and how to work toward better understanding.

The second forum will take place on the eve of Holi Toledo — a UT recreation of the cultural event in India celebrated by throwing colored powder.

Diller said the forums are modeled after a similar program offered by the Lubar Institute at the University of Wisconsin in Madison that is focused on alleviating tension between people of Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths.

Toledo’s active participation in the health of the Great Lakes is one of the reasons the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2015 Great Lakes Area of Concern Conference will be held this week at The University of Toledo.

The conference will take place Wednesday and Thursday, March 11 and 12, in the Student Union.

“Here at the University, we are engaged in a lot of water projects and work with a lot of community partners, including the Maumee area of concern,” said Dr. Patrick Lawrence, professor and chair of the UT Department of Geography and Planning. “It seemed to be a nice fit for their audience and the type of conference that they’re looking to host.”

In 1987, the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement between Canada and the United States was amended and signed in downtown Toledo. It identified 43 areas of concern on the Great Lakes.

Areas of concern are typically at major cities with historical issues of water and sediment contaminants from industries, wastewater treatment plants and other sources, and they range in size and scope. The Maumee area of concern covers the lower Maumee River, the Ottawa River, Swan Creek and several other rivers within northwest Ohio.

Since President Barack Obama started the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, it has brought in more than $1.9 billion in the last five years to address beneficial use impairments, or BUIs, in Great Lakes areas of concern. A BUI means that there has been a change in the chemical, physical or biological integrity of a water body; an area of concern must have at least one BUI, but typically has several.

One of the topics of the conference will be on funding and how to budget for different projects in order to address the wide range of BUIs still found at many of the areas of concern.

“People really want to know what the federal government is doing to help them achieve their goals,” said John Perrecone, environmental specialist with the EPA. “All of us that work on these projects feel very good about them because we know that the money being spent is going toward good outcomes, and I think this conference will showcase that.”

Funding from the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative partially helped fund the recent Ottawa River restoration project on campus that wrapped up in 2014. One of the focuses of this year’s conference will be discussing some of the successes of habitat restoration projects like this that are being funded and implemented by federal and state agencies.

One of the most important aspects of this conference is bringing together people who work on these projects to share ideas and successes from across the Great Lakes basin. There also will be a special video presentation on Toledo’s water crisis last summer to share how the city handled it and what was learned.

“The problems that we had here in Toledo last August with the drinking water are something that is of great interest in other areas of the Great Lakes,” Lawrence said. “We will highlight interviews of local citizens and groups focusing on how the University and the Toledo area responded to that event and what we learned from it and share with other Great Lakes communities.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (March 9, 2015)
WTOL 11, 13 ABC and NBC 24 (March 12, 2015)
The Blade (March 13, 2015)

Compassion is key at The University of Toledo’s 13th annual Jewish-Christian- Muslim Dialogue.

The Rev. James Bacik will give a talk, “Karen Armstrong and Pope Francis on Compassion: Theological Perspectives and Practical Strategies,” at this year’s event at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 10 in the Student Union Ingman Room.

Following the talk, reflections will be given by Rabbi Evan Rubin, leader of the congregation Etz Chayim, and Dr. S. Amjad Hussain, UT professor emeritus of thoracic and cardiovascular surgery and UT Board of Trustees member.

“The dialogue between Judaism, Christianity and Islam is a family dialogue,” said Dr. Jeanine Diller, director of UT’s Center for Religious Understanding. “These three religions all claim descent from Abraham in some way, and they all have as their ultimate concern the God of Abraham. These historical and theological linkages give them a lot to say to each other, and sometimes they disagree, sometimes they agree. This annual dialogue is a venue for that conversation.”

Each year for the past 12 years, members of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths on campus and in the community gather to talk about a topic of mutual interest, Diller said. The faiths take turns on a keynote speaker — this year being the Christian faith’s turn. After the keynote talk and reflections, attendees are invited to break into religiously diverse groups to share thoughts on the evening.

Bacik, the keynote speaker, is a Toledo diocesan priest who formerly served as pastor of Corpus Christi University Parish and is a visiting adjunct professor at Lourdes University in Sylvania. He earned his doctorate of theology from the University of Oxford and has published 10 books and numerous articles, including Contemporary Theologians, Catholic Spirituality: Its History and Challenge, A Light Unto My Path: Crafting Effective Homilies, and his latest book, Humble Confidence: Spiritual and Pastoral Guidance From Rahner.

“Compassion is a wonderful topic for the three religious traditions,” he said. “There are great examples of compassion existing in other communities and how they portray compassion in their own communities.”

Bacik said he will focus on the work of 2008 Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED) prize recipient Karen Armstrong, who initiated the Charter for Compassion — a commitment to work to establish and sustain cultures of compassion locally and globally through diverse initiatives. Toledo joined the movement last year.

Bacik will tie Armstrong’s work to the teachings of Pope Francis, who implements compassion into his homilies and daily practices. He cited when the pope kissed and prayed over the man with neurofibromatosis in 2013 as an example he will share. Pope Francis has spoke of the church as a field hospital during battle, which cares for the wounded, Bacik said.

Prior to the free, public event, a student “Compassion in Action” reception will offer free hors d’oeuvres and an opportunity for students to share stories about compassion in their own lives. A compassion box also will be available for students to walk out of the event with a kind task to do.

Free dessert will be available during the dialogue.

Attendees are invited to bring canned or boxed food donations for the UT Student Food Pantry that opened in October and serves UT students in need.

“I hope students will walk away with a deep and specific understanding about the value all three of these traditions place on compassion,” Diller said. “I hope they meet and converse with people from each of these traditions, too, and that they can ask hard questions and talk honestly together. I hope we all come away inspired to work shoulder to shoulder on the massive problems our world faces.”

This event is made possible by donations from the Jewish Federation, Corpus Christi University Parish, Toledo Campus Ministry, the Foundation of the Islamic Center of Greater Toledo, Toledo Community Foundation, and UT’s College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences.

Visitor parking will be available in lot 13 or the west ramp; vehicles will not be ticketed during the event.

For more information, email cfru@utoledo.edu or call 419.530.6187.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Feb. 7, 2015)
The Blade (Feb. 17, 2015)

The University of Toledo is slated to lead eight out of the 18 research projects to be funded with $2 million in state of Ohio research funds to address water quality and algal bloom toxicity.

UT is to receive more than $830,000 of the $2 million dedicated by the Ohio Board of Regents under the recommendation of a committee tasked with deciding how to best utilize and invest the funds. The Ohio Board of Regents announced the research project proposal earlier today.

The University is investing an additional $200,000 to support the research efforts of its faculty.

“The faculty at The University of Toledo were prompt to help when Toledo’s water supply was impacted by toxic algae in Lake Erie and continue to offer their expertise as we seek solutions to the algal blooms that negatively impact our community and others throughout Ohio,” UT Interim President Nagi Naganathan said. “Given our location on Lake Erie and breadth of expertise in environmental sciences, environmental engineering, medicine and spatial sciences, UT is well positioned to provide the important solutions we need to address this concern.”

The UT researchers to receive funding for their projects are:

•  Dr. Thomas Bridgeman, associate professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences, who will work to extend early-warning capacity for harmful algal blooms by placing sensors up to eight miles away from intakes in areas were high toxin levels tend to develop during blooms and investigate environmental variables that provide insight on conditions that promote production and release of algal toxins.
•  Dr. Isabel Escobar, professor in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, and interim associate dean of research, development and outreach in the College of Engineering, who will study alternative water treatment processes to removal algal toxins, address transport of toxins through drinking water distribution systems and compare processes to detect cyanotoxins.
•  Dr. Kenneth Hensley, associate professor pathology, who will develop a method to detect toxins in biological samples, such as urine or blood, to assess exposure to toxins.
•  Dr. Jason Huntley, assistant professor of medical microbiology and immunology, who will test conditions that promote microcystin-degrading bacteria to form biofilms on filters currently used in municipal water treatment facilities.
•  Dr. Patrick Lawrence, professor and chair of the Department of Geography and Planning, who will organize available information and engage Maumee watershed stakeholders to help make informed decisions and suggest best management practices.
•  Dr. Thomas Sodeman, professor of medicine and chief of gastroenterology and hepatology at UTMC, who will study the impact of preexisting liver disease for susceptibility of microcystin hepatotoxicity.

A group of more than 60 university researchers, including four from UT who co-chaired focus group areas, were convened by Board of Regents Chancellor John Carey to recommend how the funds would be invested. The group made their recommendations looking at five key areas: Lake Erie harmful algal blooms and lake water quality; drinking water testing and detection; agricultural land use practices, sources of enrichment, water quality, and engineered systems; human health and toxicity; and economics and policy reform.

“This group put a great deal of time and effort into addressing this important issue,” Carey said. “I am very proud of the effort of the researchers from both the public and private higher education institutions. This collaborative effort is evidence of the value of higher education in Ohio to solving the toxic algae issue. We need to build upon this model with other important issues facing our state.”

The newly funded research projects will build upon UT’s already robust work in the area of water quality.

Shortly after the August water crisis in Toledo, a University of Toledo Water Task Force was created. Comprised of faculty and researchers spanning the University’s colleges, UT Medical Center and UT Lake Erie Center, the task force serves as a resource for officials at all levels of government and coordinates existing UT Lake Erie research and ongoing related investigative efforts on water resource management and water quality.

“We are committed to our role as a public research university and are pleased we have the faculty expertise to support our region,” said Dr. Frank Calzonetti, UT vice president for government relations and chief of staff to the president, who is chairing the task force. “UT is in a unique position to provide the resources and expertise sought by our local and regional stakeholders to address this issue.”

Media Coverage
13 ABC, FOX Toledo and WTOL 11 (Jan. 28, 2015)
The Blade (Jan. 28, 2015)
WTOL 11 (Jan. 29, 2015)

A number of “modern day abolitionists” have been nominated for the Ohio Liberator Awards, honoring the dedication and sacrifice of those working towards eliminating human and sex trafficking.

Founded by author, advocate and survivor, Theresa Flores, the Liberator Awards were created in honor of William Lloyd Garrison, a prominent American abolitionist, journalist, suffragist and social reformer.

“I created the awards three years ago. I wanted to shine the light on others in the state who were also working very hard and sacrificing to fight human trafficking,” said Flores.

Flores also founded S.O.A.P., which stands for “Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution,” an outreach program designed to provide hotels, bars and strip clubs with resources to identify sex trafficking. S.O.A.P. is partnered with Be FREE Dayton, a nonprofit to both abolish and prevent sex trafficking, to distribute bars of soap wrapped with a red band that provides the National Human Trafficking Hotline (888.373.7888) and resources to high-risk hotels and motels. Be FREE Dayton also acts as the fiscal unit for S.O.A.P.

Each of the nominees from northwest Ohio are actively involved in the Lucas County Human Trafficking Coalition, founded by The University of Toledo.

Nominations are accepted for seven categories, including individual; student or student organization; civic club, organization or church; volunteer; business; elected official or law enforcement; and survivor. The top four finalists and winners from each category are determined by popular vote. This year, the awards received 84 nominations and more than 2,000 votes.

The Liberator Awards ceremony is Monday, Jan. 19 at Via Vecchia Winery in Columbus, Ohio.

The nominees from northwest Ohio include:

•  Dr. Celia Williamson, professor of social work and director of UT’s Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute
•  Kizzy Williams from Second Chance, a social service program which provides comprehensive services to victims of sex trafficking and prostitution
•  Ashley Wickerham, associate director of UT’s Human Trafficking and Social Justice Institute
•  Det. Ginnie Barta, Wood County Sheriff
•  Rahab’s Heart, which will be a resource and recovery home for adult women trapped in prostitution
•  TARTA
•  Michelle Moore, a survivor of human trafficking

Many of this year’s nominees are also involved with UT’s International Human Trafficking, Prostitution and Sex Work Conference, which has been educating social service, health care and criminal justice professionals on human trafficking since 2004.

“I am so honored to be nominated for the Liberator Awards and equally as honored to work alongside so many strong activists from Toledo who were also nominated,” Williamson said.

The inaugural Michigan Liberator Awards ceremony was Saturday, Jan. 10.

For more information, visit liberatorawards.com.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Jan. 23, 2015)
The Blade (Feb. 2, 2015)

Dr. Lila Abu-Lughod, the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science in Anthropology at Columbia University, will deliver the 14th annual Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Memorial Lecture this weekend.

The free, public event will take place Sunday, Oct. 12, at 3:30 p.m. in the Driscoll Alumni Center Auditorium at The University of Toledo.

Abu-Lughod will reflect on the passionate and polarized response to her attempt to intervene in debates about the “Muslimwoman” and her rights through her recent book, Do Muslim Women Need Saving?

She is a leading voice in debates about gender, Islam and global policy. Abu-Lughod’s books and publications have been translated into more than a dozen languages. Her early work was on emotion, poetry and gender ideology in a Bedouin community in Egypt.

Interests in gender in the Arab world and in postcolonial theory led Abu-Lughod to some work on the history and contemporary politics of Middle Eastern feminisms. She returned to the study of popular culture in ethnographic work on Egyptian television soap operas as they relate to national pedagogy, class politics, religious and gender identity, and modern subjectivities.

The Mikhail Lecture is made possible through the Maryse and Ramzy Mikhail Endowment Fund, established in 2000 by the Mikhail family.

“The purpose of the Mikhail Fund is to support an annual lecture dealing with Arab culture, literature, history, politics, economics or other broadly defined aspects of life in the Middle East,” said Dr. Jamie Barlowe, dean of the UT College of Languages, Literature and Social Sciences. “The college is very excited about this year’s program as Dr. Abu-Lughod will address timely and important issues about human rights and the rights of Muslim women, as well as about anthropology’s role in political debates.”

Media Coverage
The Blade (Oct. 11, 2014)

Harvard University professor Dr. Michael Sandel is scheduled to speak at The University of Toledo’s 2014 Edward Shapiro Distinguished Lecture Series Thursday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. in the Nitschke Hall Auditorium.

The talk is titled “Doing the Right Thing in Public and Private Life.” The free, public event is presented by UT’s College of Language, Literature and Social Sciences; seats are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Sandel

Dr. Jamie Barlowe, dean of the College of Language, Literature and Social Sciences, said Sandel’s work on ethics and justice is relevant and will appeal to many.

“Dr. Sandel continues the Edward Shapiro Distinguished Lecture Series tradition of presenting eminent and celebrated speakers whose lives and work have significantly impacted American and global society,” Barlowe said.

For 30 years, Sandel has taught at Harvard University where he serves as the Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of Government. His Justice course was the first Harvard class offered freely online and on public television, enrolling more than 15,000 students.

Sandel’s book, Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, is a New York Times bestseller that has sold more than 2 million copies worldwide and has been translated into 27 different languages. His most recent book, What Money Can’t Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets, was named as one of the 20 must-read books of 2012.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) have both included Sandel’s lectures on television series, and he hosts a BBC radio series, “The Public Philosopher,” that lets the audience debate about philosophical questions related to current events. Additionally, Sandel has appeared on “The Colbert Report,” “Today Show,” “Morning Joe” and “Charlie Rose.”

Click here to download a photo of Sandel.

The lecture series is named in memory of UT alumnus Edward Shapiro, who retired from his alma mater in 1989. He was an economics professor for 22 years at the University and donated more than $4 million to the UT College of Arts and Sciences during his lifetime.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Sept. 14, 2014)

Best-selling author George Saunders known for his dark and funny short stories will speak Monday, Oct. 21, at The University of Toledo.

Saunders

Saunders, whose most recent collection of short stories Tenth of December was published earlier this year, will give the 24th annual Richard M. Summers Memorial Lecture at 5 p.m. in Memorial Field House Room 2100.

Saunders is the author of the best-selling CivilWarLand in Bad Decline and Pastoralia, as well as numerous short stories in The New Yorker and travel pieces in GQ.

His book of essays, The Braindead Megaphone, landed him spots on “The Charlie Rose Show,” “Late Night With David Letterman” and “The Colbert Report.” This year, he was named one of Time magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World. He also has been recognized as a MacArther Genius Grant Fellow, which supports “extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits.”

“He’s a very compassionate writer,” said Dr. Tim Geiger, professor of English. “A lot of the themes and topics he addresses are about the human condition and what we’re doing here on this planet. The way he approaches that and the way he addresses it are very engaging to people.”

The Richard M. Summers Memorial Lecture honors the late Summers, a respected member of the Department of English who served as director of freshman English and as both a graduate and undergraduate adviser from 1966 until his death in 1988.

The lecture will be followed by a reception and a book signing in Libbey Hall, with some of Saunders’ books for sale courtesy of the Barnes & Noble University Bookstore.

Media Coverage
The Blade (Oct. 19, 2013)
The Blade (Oct. 21, 2013)