Hushmand Fatheazam will be the 26th Balyuzi Lecturer at this year’s Association for Baha’i Studies Conference, taking place in San Diego, California from 29 August to 1 September 2008. The Memorial Lecture is named in honour of Hasan M. Balyuzi, a distinguished historian of the Baha’i Faith.
Mr. Fatheazam served on the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha’i world community, from its inception in 1963, until 2003. He was born in Tehran, Iran and holds two masters degrees in arts, one from Tehran University, where he also worked as a curator at the library of the Faculty of Arts, and the other from Wiswa Bharati University in India.
While living in India, he was a lecturer in Persian literature at Punjab University and a staff artist at All-India Radio from 1955 to 1963. During that period, he was also secretary of the national governing council of The Baha’is of India and was managing director of the Baha’i Publishing Trust, New Dehli.
Mr. Fatheazam is a poet, author, and playwright, and his introduction to the Baha’i Faith, The New Garden, has been translated into 109 languages.
Other speakers at this year’s ABS conference will include current Member of the Universal House of Justice Mr. Paul Lample, Dr. Joy DeGruy Leary, and Mr. Robert Rosenfeld.
Paul Lample is an author and educator who served on a national committee of the Baha’i Community of the United States, as coordinator of the Office of Social and Economic Development at the Baha’i World Centre starting in 1994, and on the International Teaching Centre, one of the senior institutions of the Baha’i world community, before being elected to the Universal House of Justice in 2005.
Joy DeGruy Leary holds a PhD in social work research and is the author of the book Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome: America’s Legacy of Enduring Injury and Healing. She is a leader of dynamic workshops on culture, race relations, and contemporary social issues and is an assistant professor at Portland State University.
Robert Rosenfeld is the founder of Idea Connection Systems, a company dedicated to releasing organizations’ creative potential, and author (with John Kolstoe) of Making the Invisible Visible: The Human Principles for Sustainable Innovation. Mr. Rosenfeld spearheaded the development of Mosaic Partnerships - a process of breaking down barriers between races.
This year’s ABS conference will focus on the theme: “Religion and Social Cohesion”, exploring questions of “how religion can play a more constructive role in processes of social integration.”
Proposals for presentations are being accepted by the Association for Bahá’í Studies until 15 April 2008. For more information, please visit the Association for Bahá’í Studies website.
(content adapted from ABS Bulletin #102 / March 2008)