The First Annual Islam in Practice Lecture

“Reproducing Muslims: The Meaning(s) of Life in the Age of Assisted Reproduction”

Dr. Lance Laird, Senior Consultant at the Boston Healing Landscape Project

Monday, April 24, 2006

8:00 p.m.

Starr Auditorium, 117 MacMillan Hall, 167 Thayer Street

Free and open to the public.

Sponsor: Office of the Chaplains and Religious Life

Dr. Laird will discuss reproductive issues in Islamic theology and practice in the United States . During his lecture, he will touch on topics including abortion, stem-cell research, and assisted reproduction in the Muslim community.

Dr. Laird received a B.A. in religious studies from the University of Virginia and an M.Div. from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky . He completed his Th.D. in comparative religion at Harvard Divinity School in 1998, with an ethnographic dissertation entitled, “Martyrs, Heroes and Saints: Shared Symbols of Muslims and Christians in Contemporary Palestinian Society.” He taught comparative religion at the Evergreen State College in Olympia , WA , for five years before returning to Boston with his family.

In 2004, Dr. Laird began his present medical anthropology research project on “Muslims and Healing in Boston ” with the Boston Healing Landscape Project—an institute for religions, medicines, and cultures at Boston University School of Medicine—where he is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the pediatrics department.