Adeeb Khalid's award-winning work challenges conventional views of the "Central Asia problem" and uncovers the impact of Soviet rule on the religious and social life of Muslims.

Khalid, professor of Asian studies and history at Carleton College, will speak on "The Many Ways of Being Muslim in the Modern World: Episodes From the Soviet History of Islam," Oct. 26 at 4:30 p.m. at Cornell's Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall as part of the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Lecture Series. A reception at the A.D. White House will follow the lecture. Both events are free and open to the public.

As one of the few scholars who has mastered the requisite languages for serious research on Central Asia (including Uzbek, Russian and Ottoman Turkish), Khalid is a leader among the ever-growing number of scholars who work on the history, politics and societies of the region. "By showing the pitfalls implicit in one-dimensional assessments of Islam, Khalid's work offers the strongest possible argument for why history matters," says Holly Case, Cornell associate professor of history.

Khalid studies the fate of Islam under Tsarist and Soviet rule; he is particularly interested in the transformations of culture and identity as a result of historical change. One of his greatest strengths, says associate professor of history Durba Ghosh, is his understanding of Islam in a historical and global context.

Khalid's first book, "The Politics of Muslim Cultural Reform: Jadidism in Central Asia," received favorable reviews from journals in a multitude of fields, including the journals Social History, Asian Affairs and Slavic Review.

"Khalid has a rather breathtaking scholarly range," says Barry Strauss, chair of the Department of History. "The reviews reveal the extent to which he is respected by and engages with a wide range of subfields and disciplines."

"Islam After Communism," Khalid's most recent book, won the prestigious 2008 Wayne S. Vucinich Book Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, which is given "for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences published in English in the United States." Khalid is currently at work on a book about Central Asia in the early Soviet period.

The Arts and Sciences Humanities Lectures are presented with support from the Office of the President and the College of Arts and Sciences.

Linda Glaser is a staff writer for the College of Arts and Sciences.