William Graham, dean of the Harvard University School of Divinity, will deliver a lecture titled “Political Islam: Myth and Reality” at 6:30 p.m., Thursday, April 6 in Whitley Auditorium on the Elon University campus. Graham will deliver the inaugural James P. Elder Lecture, which will become an annual program endowed by alumni members of the Liberal Arts Forum. The lecture is free and open to the public.
Graham has been a member of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences since 1973. His scholarly specialization is in the early religious history of Islam, with special focus on the Quran and Hadith literatures. He has served as director of the Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies and in 2000 received the Award for Excellence in Research in Islamic History and Culture from the Research Centre for Islamic History, Art and Culture (IRCICA). Graham has held John Simon Guggenheim and Alexander von Humboldt research fellowships and is the author of numerous articles, reviews and books.
Graham earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a master’s degree and doctorate from Harvard.
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