Faculty of Theology names two new honorary doctors

Ruben Apressyan is a professor of ethics at the Department of Philosophy at the Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, and plays a prominent role in several strategic research contexts in Russia and Europe. He combines a successful academic career with deep involvement in social issues, and is an active social commentator in Russia. 

Apressyan has performed outstanding research work in ethical theory and applied ethics and is deeply involved in the academic dialogue between Russian and European ethicists. His research ranges across a broad field from ethical theory to issues of the ethical dimensions of peace, the environment, and education. One of his top research priorities is the relation between philosophical ethics and the ethics of the Christian tradition. His research shows how multidisciplinary collaboration can enrich analysis and advance theory, while at the same time furthering projects for social progress.

Read more at http://eng.iph.ras.ru/apressyan.htm

Saba Mahmood, a professor of sociocultural anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, is a leading researcher in the study of the tension between religion and secular politics in postcolonial societies. Among other things, she has conducted groundbreaking research on legislation on the freedom of religion and gender/sexuality. In this field, among other things, she has done a pioneering study on pious Muslim women in Egypt, where she exposes the limitations of the feminism formulated within the liberal secular paradigm that is dominant in Western Europe.

Using postcolonial criticism, she problematizes this paradigm, which has also been exported to many former colonies. Among other things, she analyses liberal demarcations between ethics and politics, freedom and non-freedom, religion and secularism, and agency and submission.

Read more at: http://anthropology.berkeley.edu/users/saba-mahmood