Interfaith advocate Eboo Patel to speak at UCI as part of Living Peace series
EVENT: Eboo Patel, founder and president of the Interfaith Youth Core, will talk about the importance of religious pluralism in strengthening our democracy. Patel challenges and inspires people of all faiths to work together to make our world a place where diverse traditions can thrive side by side.
WHEN/WHERE: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 5, (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) UC Irvine Student Center, Pacific Ballroom (grid E8, bldg. 113 on campus map)
INFORMATION: Tickets are free for UC Irvine faculty, students and staff. General admission is $8. Media planning to attend should contact Laura Rico at 949-824-9055 or lrico@uci.edu
BACKGROUND: Patel has served on President Obama’s inaugural Advisory Council of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and has presented at the TED Conference, the Clinton Global Initiative, the Nobel Peace Prize Forum and universities around the world. He is a regular contributor to The Washington Post, USA Today, Huffington Post, NPR, and CNN, and U.S. News & World Report named him one of America’s Best Leaders.
Patel’s book, Acts of Faith: The Story of an American Muslim in the Struggle for the Soul of a Generation, won the Grawemeyer Award in Religion and the Guru Nanak Interfaith Prize. His organization promotes religious pluralism by fostering relationships and cooperation between people of different religious backgrounds. He holds a doctorate in the sociology of religion from Oxford University, where he studied on a Rhodes Scholarship. He is also an Ashoka Fellow, one of a select group of social entrepreneurs whose ideas are changing the world.
Patel’s appearance is the seventh in the Living Peace Series co-sponsored by UC Irvine and the Center for Living Peace Orange County. Other speakers have included the Dalai Lama, Sir Richard Branson, Charlize Theron, Queen Noor of Jordan and Jane Goodall.
To learn more about Patel and the work of the Interfaith Youth Core, visit www.ifyc.org/about-us/eboo-patel.