February 13, 2008 2:30 pm Paley Library Lecture Hall A Conversation with Talal Asad An anthropologist by training, Talal Asad approaches topics such as religious revivalism, secularism, and justice from an interdisciplinary perspective that invokes not only theories of anthropology but also theories of sociology, philosophy,phenomenology, and critical theory. Theorists such as Frederich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault influence Asad’s writings. Those writings examine the fine lines which exist between concepts of good and evil, freedom and terror, pleasure and pain, control and power, justice and injustice. Asad challenges his readers to think beyond the world of binaries and to examine the interconnections that shape the living world. Asad received his Ph.D. from Oxford University and currently is Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the City University of New York (CUNY) Graduate Center. This event is co-sponsored by the General Education Program, the Center for Humanities at Temple University (CHAT) and Temple University Libraries.