Can the Sacred be Secular?

Event Date: 
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - 8:00pm to 9:00pm EST
Event Location: 
Lakehead University International Centre (Ground Floor, Chancellor Paterson Library)
Event Fee: 
Free. Everyone is welcome.
Event Contact Name: 
Dr. Michel S. Beaulieu
Event Contact Phone: 
(807) 343-8341
Event Contact E-mail: 
Event Contact Web: 

On 21 February at 8 pm in Lakehead University's International Centre (Ground Floor, Chancellor Paterson Library), Dr. Brian Dunn will discuss "Can the Sacred be Secular?" using India as a focus.

India is both a millennia-old Subcontinent and a 70-year-young Republic. As ancient and modern traditions negotiate for space in the world's largest democracy, a uniquely Indian form of secularism has been emerging. Although not without its myriad challenges and voices, Indian secularism comes with an unseen tensile strength - a wisdom for plurality and dialogue that knows that it can and, indeed, must make space for both religious and non-religious communities. This presentation introduces some of this and considers how Canadian and Indian models of secularism might learn from one another.

Free and open to the public! Everyone is welcome!

About the presenter: Dr. Brian Dunn is an internationally travelled researcher, writer and teacher. In addition to a childhood spent in Zambia, Canada and India, Brian returned to North India along with his wife and four children, where he served for eight years as the head of Religious Education at an international school in the foothills of the Himalayas. Upon completing his doctorate in religious studies from Oxford University, he has returned to his hometown of Thunder Bay where he now works as an Adjunct Professor at Lakehead University and researcher for a First Nations Tribal Council.

This event is made possible by The Thunder Bay Branch of the Canadian International Council, Lakehead University’s Department of History, and Lakehead International.