Our next seminar The orphan and abandoned child: The caring and adoption practices of Muslims and Catholics in contemporary South Africa presented by Mr Michael Harris takes place in-person on Wednesday, 17 September @ 13H00pm in the REL Seminar room, LS5.67 (Leslie Social Sciences Building, level 5) and online via MS Teams. 

 

Michael Harris is PhD researcher in Islamic Studies and Christian-Muslim Relations at New College, University of Edinburgh. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in History at Morehouse College in Atlanta. Before beginning a career as a secondary school history teacher in California’s San Francisco Bay Area, he completed a Master of Arts in Educational Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. Prior to his doctoral studies, in 2021 Michael completed a Master of Arts in Theological Studies (Comparative Theology) at Loyola Marymount University. His PhD research focuses on the presence of orphans and adoption practices in the New Testament and Quran and how these textual presentations influenced subsequent adoption practices within Catholic theology and Islamic law. The thesis draws on textual sources and also cultural practices through qualitative research among Catholic Christians and Sunni Muslims in contemporary South Africa. 
 

Please see the attached poster for more information.