The simultaneous relegation of sexuality and religion to the private sphere is widely regarded to be a key feature of secular liberal societies.
Saba Mahmood, professor of anthropology at University of California-Berkeley, analyzes the contradictions and paradoxes that attend this feature of liberal secularism by focusing on the institutionalization of "family law" in postcolonial societies and the conflicts it tends to produce around gender and sexuality.
The event was sponsored by the School of Criticism and Theory.