Annual Constitution Day Lecture: "In Pursuit of Happiness: The Purpose of Politics in Islamic Political Thought"
September 21, 7:00 p.m., Lower Campus Center, Carroll College
HELENA–Sponsored by the Constitutional Studies Center at Carroll College and made possible by a generous gift from the Apgar Foundation, Carroll's Annual Constitution Day lecture will feature Dr. Yasmeen Daifallah, assistant professor of Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California.
In her lecture titled, “In Pursuit of Happiness: The Purpose of Politics in Islamic Political Thought,”
Dr. Daifallah will reflect on American attitudes regarding the purpose of politics and compare them to those of Islamic political communities.
Dr. Daifallah completed her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkeley. Her broad area of specialization includes Islamic political thought, ancient and modern Western political thought, comparative political theory, postcolonial theory, and Middle East politics. In particular, she studies how cultural traditions orient their subjects towards politics. In her research, Dr. Daifallah attempts to answer the following questions: How does the religious-cultural constitution of a subject affect its disposition towards politics? Can this constitution be vested with new meanings to enable the transformation of this disposition? She seeks responses to these queries in the modern Arab and Islamic traditions of political and social thought. Future projects include a search for answers offered by medieval Islamic philosophers and theologians, as well as by modern-day social and political movements in the Arab world.
All students, faculty, staff, and members of the community are invited to attend. This lecture is the first in a series of events during this academic year designed to bring heightened attention to the tradition of constitutional government.
For more information about “Religious Freedom and the American Experiment,” visit www.carroll.edu/constitutional-studies or contact Constitutional Studies Director William Parsons at wparsons@carroll.edu.