Dr. Asma Barlas is Director of the Center for the Study of Culture, Race, and Ethnicity of the Department of Politics, Ithaca College, New York. She is the author of “Believing Women” in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an (University of Texas Press, 2002); Re-Understanding Islam: A Double Critique (Amsterdam, 2008); and Islam, Muslims, and the U.S.: Essays on Religion and Politics (India, Global Media Publications, 2004). The lecture is sponsored by the Department of Religion, Wright State University and the Piediscalzi Lecture Series.