Reza Aslan, an internationally acclaimed writer and scholar of religions, is a regular commentator for NPRÕs Marketplace and Middle East Analyst for CBS News.
He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religion from Santa Clara University, a Master of Theological Studies from Harvard University, a Master of Fine Arts in Fiction from the University of Iowa, and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Sociology of Religions at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He has served as a legislative assistant for the FriendsÕ Committee on National Legislation in Washington D.C., and was elected president of HarvardÕs Chapter of the World Conference on Religion and Peace, a United Nations Organization committed to solving religious conflicts throughout the world. He is a member of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities and serves on advisory boards of both the Council of Foreign Relations and the Ploughshares Fund, which distributes grants to further peace and diplomacy throughout the world.
Until recently, he was both Visiting Assistant Professor of Islamic and Middle East Studies at the University of Iowa and the Truman Capote Fellow in Fiction at the Iowa WritersÕ Workshop.
He has written for the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, Slate, Boston Globe, the Washington Post, the Guardian, Chicago Tribune, the Nation, and others, and has appeared on Meet The Press, Hardball, The Daily Show, Real Time with Bill Maher, The Colbert Report, Anderson Cooper, and Nightline.
His first book, No god but God: The Origins, Evolution, and Future of Islam has been translated into half a dozen languages, was short-listed for the Guardian (UK) First Book Award, and nominated for a PEN USA award for research Non-Fiction.
Born in Iran, he now lives in Santa Monica, Ca, where he is a Research Associate at the University of Southern CaliforniaÕs Center on Public Diplomacy. His next book, How to Win a Cosmic War: Why WeÕre Losing the War on Terror will be published by Random House in the Fall of 2008.
To order Resa's book in advance of the conference, call Joanne Sealy at Faulkner House Books, (504) 586-1609, or e-mail your order to jsealy@faulknerhousebooks.net. A portion of proceeds from books sold by Faulkner House Books benefit projects of the Faulkner Society. Purchases of books from Barnes & Noble during the conference at the Words & Music Book Mart also benefit the Faulkner Society.