"Owning God"

Communications and conflict resolution scholar Jacob Udo-Udo Jacob of Dickinson College will visit Skidmore March 21–23 to deliver a public lecture and meet with students and faculty. His lecture, titled "Owning God: Religious Identity, Imagined Belongings and Terrorism in a Radically Interconnected World," will take place at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 22, in Gannet Auditorium of Palamountain Hall, followed by a Q&A session and reception.

"In this presentation," Jacob writes, "I connect the concept of religious identity to transcendental regimes of meaning and imagined belongings. I argue that terrorism cannot be understood without first understanding the normative influence of religious identity."

Jacob is a visiting international scholar in international studies and political science whose teaching and research interest is located at the intersection between communications, conflicts and peacebuilding in Nigeria, Somalia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Prior to his appointment at Dickinson he was chair of the Communications & Multimedia Design Program and interim dean in the School of Arts & Science at the American University of Nigeria. He is a strong advocate of the integrative and applied teaching and learning methods.

Jacob has led the implementation of international projects to support peacebuilding in Nigeria, including working with journalists, editors and others to facilitate a more nuanced coverage of the Boko Haram insurgency. He is the author of Convincing Rebel Fighters to Disarm: UN Information Operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DeGruyter 2017). Jacob earned his Ph.D. in communication studies from the University of Leeds, United Kingdom. He has held a visiting position at New York University's Center on International Cooperation, where he initiated the research project on religious identity and violent extremism.

Leading up to his lecture, Jacob will meet with faculty, students and the community to discuss his work.

Jacob's visit is sponsored by the following offices, departments and programs: Civic Engagement, Dean of the Faculty, Gender Studies, Intergroup Relations, International Affairs, International Student Union, Management and Business, Media and Film Studies, Political Science, Religious Studies, Vice President for Strategic Planning and Institutional Diversity and World Languages and Literatures.