Join us for an evening with Lawrence Rosen for the 2024 Paul Hammond Memorial Lecture at the Jesup Memorial Library. The Paul Hammond Memorial Lecture, in honor of the late Paul Hammond, brings a speaker for a talk at the Jesup that explores philosophy for a lay audience. Hammond, the son of Debby and Scott Hammond, grew up on MDI and was a professor of philosophy who passed away in 2015. He was passionate about discussing ideas and current events, as well as promoting well-reasoned and logical arguments and debate.

Walking through a contemporary Arab town one encounters scenes that are both familiar and curious. As we proceed there will be moments when ideas about human nature, relationships, time, and social identity force us to consider the mundane similarities and striking differences in Muslim orientations to everyday events. Many of the scenes become even more comprehensible if, as one of our guides, we turn to the insights drawn from Paul Hammond’s philosophical works. In the end, a world that is at once exotic and familiar comes more sharply into focus, and with it an understanding how our experience of the everyday at once unites and distinguishes us.

Lawrence Rosen is the William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Anthropology Emeritus at Princeton University, where he taught from 1977 to 2017. Additionally, he served as Adjunct Professor Emeritus of Law at Columbia University from 1979 to 2019. Rosen's academic career includes significant engagements such as returning to The Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton during 2017-18 and holding a Senior Fellowship at Harvard Law School in 2020. Originally from Cincinnati, he earned his B.A. from Brandeis University and completed both his Ph.D. and J.D. at the University of Chicago. Prior to his tenure at Princeton, Rosen was an assistant professor at the University of Illinois and a tenured associate professor at Duke University. His scholarly pursuits span anthropology, focusing on Arab social life and Islamic law, with extensive fieldwork in North Africa, and law, where he has written and taught extensively on indigenous rights, comparative law, and American socio-legal issues. Rosen is a member of several prestigious legal bodies and has received numerous honors, including being named a MacArthur Fellow, receiving grants from organizations like the Guggenheim Foundation and the National Science Foundation, and delivering notable lectures at universities worldwide.

Rosen's contributions extend beyond academia, as evidenced by his authorship of multiple influential books on topics ranging from Moroccan society to Islamic justice and American law. His prolific writing has appeared in esteemed publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, and Foreign Policy. Throughout his career, Rosen has been recognized for his teaching excellence and scholarly achievements, earning accolades such as The President’s Distinguished Award for Teaching at Princeton and the J. B. Donne Essay Prize Award from the Royal Anthropological Institute. His scholarly impact is further underscored by fellowships at institutions like the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and the School for Advanced Research, reflecting his deep commitment to interdisciplinary research and the advancement of cultural understanding within legal studies and anthropology alike.