This new initiative brings prominent scholars from the wider academic community into the Freshman Seminars, to lecture for one week on a historical text that is central to their field, in order to expand and diversify the perspectives and curriculum offered by the Honors Program.

Steeped in history and the latest advances of their fields, these senior scholars offer a vital account of the relationship between the past, present, and future of major intellectual cultural traditions.

These scholars also introduce students to the practice of academic exchange that has been pivotal the the development of new knowledge for millennia. The Visiting Lecturer Program is part of an ancient and ongoing critical discourse that transcends institutional, geographical, and even linguistic barriers. In the spring of 2021, our inaugural Visiting Scholar, Professor David Chinitz, lectured on the poetry of Langston Hughes in HONR 102. 

Visiting Scholar 2021-22: Omer M. Mozaffar, Muslim Chaplain for Loyola University Chicago

Omer M. Mozaffar is Loyola's Muslim Chaplain. He has received Islamic studies training both through traditional and academic sources. He is a Lecturer in the Departments of Theology and Modern Languages and Literatures. He has taught at the University of Chicago and DePaul University, among other schools. He has taught courses on the Qur'an, the Sira, the Hadith, Islamic Law, Spirituality/Purification, Islamic revivalism, Islam and Politics, Sectarianism, al-Ghazali, Rumi, Iqbal, Arabic, Film, and Comparative religions. In 2011, he was granted an "Excellence in Teaching Award in Humanities, Arts, and Sciences" through the University of Chicago's Graham School. For over two decades he has been giving sermons and leading classes at Islamic centers all across Chicagoland. In 2017, he was named Loyola University's "Staff Member of the Year." In 2018, he began writing as a columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times in its "Just Relations" series. 

Mr. Mozaffar will be lecturing on the Qur'an in HONR 101 this Fall 2021 semester. 

For more information on the Muslim Chaplain's work, click here.

Past Visiting Scholars:

Visiting Scholar 2020-21: Dr. David Chinitz, Professor and Chair of English, Loyola University Chicago