As the new Institute of Religion, Culture, and Public Life prepares for its November launch, the developing program debuted its “Literature and Terror” series Wednesday night.
The IRCPL, which intends to address religious and cultural intolerance and conflict across a variety of disciplines, hosted a conversation between Richard Locke, professor of writing at Columbia’s School of the Arts, and Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch about his new book Standard Operating Procedure. Gourevitch and filmmaker Errol Morris co-authored the investigation into American policy at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, taken from interviews with soldiers based there.
Mark Taylor, co-director of the IRCPL, promoted the creation of the “Literature and Terror” series as one of the IRCPL’s future public initiatives which he hopes will engage the community at large.
“Great writers engage the issues critically and thoughtfully,” he said, and by welcoming such writers to campus, his hope is that participants will do the same.
IRCPL plans to officially launch with an event on Nov. 6 in Low Library.
