International Center for Ethnic Studies
cordially invites you to a lecture

by

Dr. Stephen C. Berkwitz
(Professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University, USA)

on
“Past and Present Dispute Over Conversion in Sri Lanka”

on
Friday, June 30, 2006 at 5:30 p.m.

at the
ICES Auditorium,
02, Kynsey Terrace, Colombo 08

Stephen C. Berkwitz is professor of Religious Studies at Missouri State University. He teaches primarily about Asian religions and various topics within the field of History of Religions. His research specialization is in historical and contemporary studies of Theravada Buddhism in Sri Lanka, for which he uses primary sources in the Pali and Sinhala languages. Author of (1)Buddhist History in the Vernacular: The Power of the Past in Late Medieval Sri Lanka (2)Buddhism in World Culture: Comparative Perspectives. In addition, he has contributed numerous articles on Theravada Buddhism to several prestigious journals. Dr. Berkwitz is now in Sri Lanka on a United States – Sri Lanka Fulbright Scholar Program and is attached to the University of Colombo.