Friday, January 28, 2011

From Descartes to Sinatra, Oxford Scholar To Discuss Impact of Religion on Culture



CHESTERTOWN—A distinguished Oxford scholar will talk about the role of religion in social life, from the European Enlightenment to the present day, when he visits Washington College on Monday evening, January 31. The lecture by Dr. Nicholas Wood—playfully titled “Do Be Do Be Do,” or “Descartes, Sartre and Sinatra: Religion, Culture and the Modern World”—will take place at 7 p.m. in Hynson Lounge, Hodson Hall, on the College campus, 300 Washington Avenue. Sponsored by the Washington College Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture, the event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Wood is a member of the Faculty of Theology, University of Oxford, and director of the Oxford Centre for the Study of Christianity and Culture. An expert on the relationship between faith, culture, and society, he has been an important partner of the new Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture (IRPC) at Washington College. While in Chestertown, Wood will meet with students who will be participating in the Oxford Research Seminar this coming June.
That Oxford seminar will each summer welcome up to 12 high-achieving Washington College students for seminars that explore the impact of religion on politics and society. Participating students will reside at Oxford, meet in tutorials with Oxford professors and conduct research at the renowned Bodleian Library. In addition, students will engage in faculty-led study trips to culturally significant sites in the region.
Established in fall of 2009, the Institute for Religion, Politics, and Culture is dedicated to the objective study of religion’s influence on American and world history and its contemporary role in political and cultural life. For more information, please visit http://irpc.washcoll.edu/. 


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