This lecture is organised within the framework of the Yves Oltramare Chair for Religion and Politics in the Contemporary World.

Gideon Aran specialises in the study of religion and particularly Jewish religiosity, on the one hand, and extremism and violence on the other.

His work examines the intersection where these two areas meet: fundamentalism in the three Abrahamic traditions, radical cults and militant movements, and religious terrorism in various Western and Middle Eastern contexts, especially the Jewish/Israeli one and the conflict with the Palestinians in particular.

Professor Aran studied at the Hebrew University (B.A, PhD), University of Chicago (M.A) and Princeton University (Post-Doc). He was an active affiliate of the Fundamentalism Project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and served as a visiting professor in University of California Berkeley and Davis.

Professor Aran’s recent articles address biblical roots and contemporary manifestations of zealotry; religious violence in Judaism; Jewish ultra-Orthodoxy; political and social aspects of messianism and mysticism; and Israeli society in relation to the regional armed conflict.

His book on the Jewish settlement in the West Bank just appeared in print, and his essay on blasphemy (based on a lecture delivered last year at the Graduate Institute) is forthcoming.

Auditorium Ivan Pictet
Maison de la paix, Geneva

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