Jennifer Bryson: Religious Freedom and The Arab Spring

For Immediate Release
January 10, 2013

Media Contact
Cyndi McMahon
[email protected]
978.867.4236 (o) 978.595.8817 (c)
@Gordon_CMcMahon

WENHAM, MA—On Thursday, February 14 Gordon College will host Dr. Jennifer Bryson, visiting research professor for Peace and Stability Operations at the U.S. Army War College in the Army's Institute for Peacekeeping and Stability Operations.

Bryson has served as an interrogator at the Guantanamo Bay detention camps and written in favor of humane, rapport-building interrogation and against the use of torture.

 Dr. Bryson will speak at 4:30 p.m. on the topic “Religious Freedom and the Arab Spring” in the Gordon College Ken Olsen Science Center, MacDonald Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public, as is the 4 p.m. reception before her speech.

“Dr. Bryson is one of the country’s leading experts on Islam and on the relationship between religion, human rights, and security,” remarked Dr. Dennis R. Hoover, editor of The Review of Faith & International Affairs. “Few people bring a better combination of scholarly depth and practical experience to the critical topic of religious freedom in Muslim-majority countries.”

Dr. Bryson is Director of the Islam and Civil Society project at The Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. She previously worked as a journalist, and for the Department of Defense providing outreach to and analysis about Egyptian Islamic newspapers, and outreach in Yemen to media, colleges for Islamic instruction, and institutions of civil society. She managed a counter-terrorism research team for two years for the Department of Defense and for this work twice received the Defense Civilian Meritorious Service Award.

Dr. Bryson's talk is part of the Faith Seeking Understanding lecture series sponsored by the Gordon College Center for Faith and Inquiry. This ongoing lecture series brings first-rate guest speakers to Gordon College to address various topics related to Christian thought and practice, the theology of vocation, intellectual commitment, ethics and more.

For information, visit the Center for Faith and Inquiry website or email
Debbie Drost at [email protected].

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Gordon College is one of the nation's premier Christian colleges, located just north of Boston. Gordon offers students extraordinary access to leading-edge opportunities for intellectual, professional, and leadership development to address the increasingly complex challenges of a global society, and stands apart from other outstanding institutions in New England by combining an exceptional education with an informed Christian faith.

www.gordon.edu
 

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