DANBURY, CONN. — Dr. Morgan Liu, a cultural anthropologist specializing in the study of Islamic identity, religious practices and political influence in the former Soviet states of Central Asia, will discuss “Central Asian Lives and Post-Soviet Islams” in a lecture on Thursday, March 27, at Western Connecticut State University.

Liu, an assistant professor of Near Eastern languages and cultures at Ohio State University, will provide an overview of a swath of independent Central Asian states formed in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991, including Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan. His lecture, sponsored by the WCSU Graduate Student Union (GSU), will be at 7 p.m. on the first floor of Warner Hall on the university’s Midtown campus, 181 White St. in Danbury. The event will be free and the public is invited.

“This lecture will introduce this fascinating and complex region of the world with visuals, maps, stories and a presentation about everyday life there after the Soviet Union,” Liu observed. “In particular, we will talk about the revival of the different varieties of Islam in Central Asia, and what they tell us about the region and about the world in the sensitive climate after Sept. 11.”

Liu, who received a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Michigan and completed postdoctoral studies at Harvard University, has conducted research on conceptions of political authority, knowledge of Islam in Central Eurasia, and the ethnography of post-socialist states. Currently he is working on a book about how ethnic Uzbeks in the city of Osh in Kyrgyzstan conceive of the post-Soviet state and Islam, based on field interviews and ethnographic study of urban social life in Osh. His next research project will explore the link between Islamic religious practice and economic prosperity in the southern region of Kyrgyzstan.

For more information, send an e-mail to GSU president John Read at read005@student.wcsu.edu or call the Office of University Relations at (203) 837-8486.