The university community is invited to hear author Naseem Rakha speak on questions of forgiveness, crime and punishment – specifically related to the death penalty in Oregon – this Monday, March 12, from 7 to 8 p.m. in Hoover 105.
Rakha will present “On Being Witnesses: In the Aftermath of Crime.†The presentation is the latest installment of the university’s spring lecture series, “Christians and American Culture,†hosted by the Liberal Arts and Critical Issues program.
Rakha, an award-winning journalist who has been heard on NPR’s All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Marketplace Radio, Christian Science Monitor, and Living on Earth, is the author of The Crying Tree. Set in southern Illinois and central Oregon, Rakha’s novel relates the story of a mother who must overcome the hate, grief, and secrets that surround the murder of her 15-year-old son, and defy church and family as she attempts to stop the execution of the man who killed her boy.
With the heart of a storyteller, Rakha explores the death penalty and forgiveness with her audience through the lens of our justice system, her experiences as a reporter for public radio, as well as subsequent interviews with crime victims, inmates, corrections officials and exonerated death row prisoners.
The capacity to forgive the unforgivable has long intrigued Rakha. She has witnessed it in her work as a teacher and consultant for Native American tribes, as a mediator in the clean up of the nuclear site that created the Nagasaki bomb, and as a reporter covering state-run executions.
For more information on Rakha’s visit, contact Elizabeth Todd at 503-554-2648.
