The woman Babylon in the Book of Revelation has had more than her share of violence, both in the Christian Bible, as well as in the scholarly writings about her text. Having the name, “Babylon,” she is automatically negatively perceived before one gets a chance to know her. Yet the woman Babylon is so much more than her name. She is so much more than a female-gendered metaphor for a city - representing the Roman Empire - that will be overturned by God’s Empire. She just may be more akin to us than we would ever dare to imagine. By reading the woman Babylon’s text from a postcolonial womanist perspective, the Reverend Dr. Shanell T. Smith will highlight the woman Babylon’s simultaneous ambivalent identification as a “brothel slavewoman” and as an “empress/imperial city.” She will then discuss how the woman Babylon incites tension within her because she reflects ever so sharply her continual conflicting reality of being simultaneously a victim of, and participant in, empire. Certainly, by the looks of Hartford, she is not alone.

The Willem A. Bijlefeld Lecture, named after the first director of the Macdonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, brings a distinguished scholar to campus for a public presentation on Islam or Christian-Muslim relations to promote interreligious understanding and mutual respect in the local, national and world communities.

Seyyed Hossain Nasr is University Professor of Islamic Studies at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Dr. Nasr was born in Tehran, Iran in a family of educators and scholars. He is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied physics and mathematics, and received a Ph.D. from Harvard University in the history of science and philosophy with specialization in Islamic cosmology and science.  From 1958 to 1979, he was a professor at Tehran University and for several years the dean of the Faculty of Letters and the vice chancellor of the University.  He also served as president of Aryamehr University in Iran.  In 1964-65, Dr. Nasr was the first Aga Khan Professor of Islamic Studies at the American University of Beirut. In 1979 Dr. Nasr migrated to the United States where he became Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Utah, then Professor of Islamic Studies at Temple University. In 1984, he joined the faculty at George Washington University.

Dr. Nasr has lectured widely throughout the United States, Western Europe, most of the Islamic world, India, Australia and Japan.  He has given several major lectures such as the Azad Memorial Lecture in India, the Iqbal Lecture in Pakistan, the Charles Strong Memorial Lecture in Australia, the Gifford Lectures at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland and the Cadbury Lectures at Birmingham University in England.  Dr. Nasr is the author of more than fifty books and more than 500 articles.

Najib Award joined the faculty at Hartford Seminary in August, as Associate Professor of Christian Theology. Born in Lattakia, Syria, he is the first Syrian Protestant Arab systematic theologian. Previously he was Lecturer in Systematic and Contextual/Intercultural Theology in the Intercultural Theology program of Göttingen University in Germany. He also was a Visiting Fellow for a year at Yale Divinity School in 2008-2009. Awad has a Bachelor of Arts from the Near East School of Theology, Beirut Lebanon, and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from King’s College, London. He is the author of three books: “God without a Face? On the Personal Individuation of the Holy Spirit”; “God, Man and Evil: A Theologico-Existential Study”; and “The Passion Narrative in the Gospel of Matthew: A Historico-Narrative Criticism” Most recently he finished writing a contextual theology manuscript on the Arab Spring and the role of Arab Christians in the future of the Near East.

Dr. Amrutur Venkatachar “Sheenu” Srinivasan is an engineering and management consultant who has deep interests in religion and politics. He served two terms on the Glastonbury, CT, Town Council and currently serves on the Board of Directors of Connecticut Innovations. In 1979, he helped found the Connecticut Valley Hindu Temple Society in Middletown, CT. He has functioned as a Hindu priest for four decades, performing a wide variety of Hindu religious ceremonies of worship, weddings, housewarmings, and bhajans or kirtans. His publication, “The Vedic Wedding: Origins, Tradition and Practice,” won the USA Book News 2007 Best Book Award in the category of Eastern Religions. In 2011, he published “Hinduism for Dummies.” A popular writer and speaker, Srinivasan has presented numerous papers on a variety of cultural, social and religious issues in the United States and India

The Carew/Purdy Lecture is an endowed lectureship named after Joseph and Eliza Carew of South Hadley, MA, who made a donation in 1873 for a special lectureship, and Dr. Alexander Purdy, a Hartford Seminary Professor of New Testament from 1923 to 1960 and Dean from 1954 to 1960. It brings a leading scholar to offer Christian perspective on thought and life.

Dr. Michael Rion served as President of Hartford Seminary from 1983-1989 and recently retired after more than two decades as an independent business ethics consultant. He is recognized nationally for his pioneering work in ethics training that successfully bridges the gap between theory and practice. He has worked on organizational ethics with major corporations and non profit organizations for over 30 years. He holds a Ph.D. in religious social ethics from Yale University and is the author of The Responsible Manager: Practical Strategies of Ethical Decision Making and Everyday Ethics: Putting Values into Action.

Ned was the Democratic candidate of US Senate from Connecticut in 2006, winning the primary against incumbent Senator Joe Lieberman and then losing to him in the general election.  There is no rubber match planned. He was also a candidate for Governor in 2010, albeit briefly.

Ned serves on the Board of Mercy Corp, a $400million NGO which focuses on economic development and entrepreneurship in the Middle East. He is also on the board of Conservation Services Group, the nation’s largest residential energy efficiency company as well as The Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

Ned’s wife Annie is a partner at Oak Investment Partners, where she specializes in financial services and health information technology.  She continues to be very active at Stanford University, where their daughter Lindsay is a Junior.  Emily graduated from Harvard and is an associate at Marwood, and Teddy is a Senior at Brunswick High school in Greenwich, Connecticut.