Contact:
Elizabeth Blevins, Director, Office of Communications
Office: (740) 351-3810; FAX: (740) 351-3179; Cell: (740) 464-4854
940 Second Street – Portsmouth, Ohio 45662
E-mail: eblevins@shawnee.edu 
Web site: www.shawnee.edu

            Dr. Al-Azm, the Harry C. Bayne distinguished visiting professor of liberal arts in the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass. will be on campus at Shawnee State University from 6 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 in the new Sodexo East Ballroom, University Center.
            Al-Azm is emeritus professor of modern European philosophy at the University of Damascus in Syria. His specialty is the Islamic world and its relationship to the west. Al-Azm has taught in Beirut, Harvard, Princeton, and the University of Hamburg, Germany.
            He is author of “Self-criticism After the Defeat” (1968) when he gave an analysis of the Arab disillusionment after the Six Day War.
            Many of his books are banned in the Arab world and he was jailed by the Lebanese government after publishing his book “Critique of Religious Thought” (1970).
            Al-Azm has won numerous awards for his work including the Erasmus Prize with Fatema Mernissi and Abdulkarim Souroush in 2004 and the Dr. Leopold-Lucas-Preis of the Evangelical-Theological Faculty of the University of Tubingen.
            The event is free and open to the public. It is co-sponsored by the Office of the Provost and the Center for International Programs and Activities.