Talk Focuses on Neighbor, Religious Divides
Ken Reinhard, associate professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, discusses the ethics and theology of the neighbor in a world fraught with religious divisions in a lecture 鈥淭he Infinite Neighbor: Philosophy, Religion and Mathematics鈥 on Tuesday, Nov. 10, at 3:30 p.m. in 果冻传煤鈥檚 Hieronymus Lounge. The Erasmus Society lecture is free and open to the public.
Reinhard received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. His research focuses on the history of critical and aesthetic theory, contemporary critical theory, and Jewish studies. He has co-authored several books, including 鈥淭he Neighbor: Three Inquiries in Political Theology,鈥 鈥淎fter Oedipus: Shakespeare in Psychoanalysis鈥 and is writing a book about the ethics of the neighbor in religion, philosophy and psychoanalysis.
He directed the UCLA Center for Jewish Studies from 2000-2004 and received a $2.5 million National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Challenge Grant for the development of a new program at the center in Jewish civilization. He received a grant from the Mellon Foundation to run an interdisciplinary Sawyer Seminar about 鈥淭he Ethics of the Neighbor鈥 in Judaism, Christianity, Islam and secular modernity. In 2004, he founded the University of California Seminar in Experimental Critical Theory and coordinated the seminar 鈥淧sychoanalysis, Politics and the Event鈥 last summer. He received a grant from the NEH in 2006 to complete his book, 鈥淭he Political Theology of the Neighbor.鈥