Evergreen Hosts "The Search for Peace: The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict" Lecture Series and Community Dialogue

"Religious Dimensions" on Feb. 12, 2004
7-9 p.m. lecture, 9-10 p.m. dialogue
First Church of Christ Scientist, corner of E. 8 th and S.E. Washington, downtown Olympia
Free and open to the public

The Evergreen State College, in partnership with members of the Olympia-area community, hosts the third event in a six-part lecture series and community dialogue on "Searching for Peace: The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict" on Thursday, Feb. 12 at the First Church of Christ Scientist in downtown Olympia. "Religious Dimensions" begins at 7 p.m. with lectures by Dr. Marc Ellis from Baylor University and Dr. Lance Laird from Evergreen. The lecture is followed at 9 p.m. by a community dialogue session in facilitated small groups. Members of the public are invited to attend this popular free event whose three remaining lectures take place on selected Thursday evenings in February and March.

Marc Ellis is University Professor of American and Jewish Studies and director of the Center for American and Jewish Studies at Baylor University in Waco, Texas. A Jewish theologian, he specializes in modern Judaism and post-Holocaust thought. Ellis earned a bachelor's and a master's degree in religion and American studies at Florida State University, and a doctorate in contemporary American social and religious thought from Marquette University. He is a member of the editorial board of the progressive Jewish journal Tikkun and has served as a consultant to the Programme to Combat Racism of the World Council of Churches. Ellis has authored 15 books and edited five others, including "Toward a Jewish Theology of Liberation" and "Unholy Alliance: Religion and Atrocity in Our Time." His latest book is "Israel and Palestine: Out of the Ashes: The Search for Jewish Identity in the Twenty-First Century."

Lance Laird teaches comparative religion at The Evergreen State College. He earned a bachelor's degree in religious studies from the University of Virginia, a master of divinity degree from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a doctor of theology degree in comparative religion, with an emphasis in Islam and Christian-Muslim relations, from Harvard Divinity School. Laird's research focuses on how religious tradition and nationalism interact in religiously plural societies.

Funding for "Searching for Peace" is made possible through an Atlantic Philanthropies grant and The Evergreen State College's Diversity Fund. For more information, contact Edie Harding at (360) 867-6453.

Future sessions are on Thursdays, with lectures from 7 to 9 p.m. and community dialogues from 9 to 10 p.m.:

"U.S. Policy" Feb. 19

"The Israeli Right, Hamas, and Obstacles to Peace" Feb. 26

"Women's Movements and Peace Movements in Israel/Palestine" and

"Local Peace Initiatives" March 4 Contact: Kate Lykins Brown, (360) 867-5213
Edie Harding, director of governmental relations, (360) 867-6453