Brownbag Lunch with: May Elawar, PhD

May Elawar, PhD, received her PhD in Philosophy and Religion with a concentration in Women's Spirituality from CIIS. She holds an MA in International Relations and a BA in Political Science. May teaches in the Transformative Inquiry Department and the School of Undergraduate Studies at CIIS, and is interested in bridging spirituality/religion with social justice activism.

May is Lebanese, and came to the US as an international student. She is particularly interested in exploring alternative and non-western philosophical frameworks to address theories of knowledge, identity, gender, colonialism/postcolonialism, and globalization.

May's research and activism has focused greatly on social justice in the Arab and Muslim world, particularly for women. Her activism and research interests also span transformative leadership, restorative justice and decolonizing narratives. She is active with a number of groups in the Bay Area who are involved in exploring transformative practices for healing gender-based violence and other social disparities.

Denise has enjoyed the last two years of the Brownbag lunch series. This year, we're mixing things up! Our first guest, Matt Segall has been invited to be the interviewer for the rest of this semester's conversations.