U of A Scholars at Risk Committee to Host Sayed Hassan Akhlaq as 2021 Event Panelist

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The Scholars at Risk Committee for the U of A will host the 2021 Professor Dick Bennett Scholars at Risk Lecture Series, "Academic Freedom in Central Asia and the Middle East," featuring Sayed Hassan Akhlaq, a scholar who faced threats to his life due to his academic work in Afghanistan.

The panel discussion is part of International Education Week (Nov. 15-19), a national celebration recognizing the benefits of international education and global exchanges of students and scholars. The event will be moderated by professor Shirin Saeidi and will also include doctoral anthropology student Naheed Esar from Afghanistan. This event will be from 5-6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Nov. 17, in the Science Engineering building, room 501.

Akhlaq's doctoral dissertation concentrated on comparative philosophy and communication among Islamic, Jewish and Christian communities. He faced threats due to his research on interreligious dialogue.

A long history of academic work fills the pages of Akhlaq's curriculum vitae. He received his Ph.D. and master's degrees in philosophy from universities in Iran. In 2011, Akhlaq co-founded and served as the dean of a university dedicated to empowering the next generation of students in Afghanistan. Prior to this, he taught graduate and undergraduate level courses at universities in Afghanistan and Iran, and has written five books, published in Iran, Afghanistan and the U.S. His most recent book, published in 2017, explores the relationships between religious and secular communities.  

He has also written numerous news articles on comparative philosophy and cross-cultural dialogue. In addition to his written contributions, Akhlaq has participated in numerous international radio interviews, including on BBC and Voice of America, and has presented his research at conferences around the world. He previously held three visiting fellowships at universities in the U.S., where he conducted research on interreligious studies. Currently, he is a visiting fellow at a university in the U.S., where he continues his comparative research on religion and philosophy.

Scholars at Risk is an international network of higher education institutions and individuals working to protect scholars and promote academic freedom. The U of A is an institutional member of the Scholars at Risk network.

The event, free and open to the public, is sponsored by the U of A Scholars at Risk committee and co-sponsored by the Graduate School and International Education, the Professor Dick Bennett Scholars at Risk Lecture Series, the U of A Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies program and the U of A Humanities Center.