University of Chicago history professor at UI Feb. 16
to address “Religion and Citizenship in East Asia”

URBANA—Prasenjit Duara, chair of the department of history at the University of Chicago, will give a lecture entitled "Religion and Citizenship in East Asia," in room 317 of Gregory Hall on the U. of I. campus on Thursday, February 16, from 4-5:30 p.m.

The talk is free and open to the public.

In his lecture, Professor Duara will address the interplay between religious and secular ideas and practices in East Asia throughout the twentieth century. He is particularly concerned with the circulation of what he calls “global models of religious citizenship” and the simultaneous reformulation of the consciousness of citizens and religious subjects.

"Reacting to the perceived or alleged claims of Christianity (itself undergoing re-formulation) as the spiritual ideology of the modern era,” explains Duara, “East Asian societies began to create their own new distinctions between ritual, religion, superstition and the secular.”

Duara’s lecture is sponsored by the UIUC department of East Asian languages and cultures and the UIUC department of history.