A List
5/12/03

FRIENDS OF LIBRARIES LECTURE TO BE GIVEN BY THOMAS COBURN

CANTON – The St. Lawrence University Friends of the Libraries 
Commencement Lecture will be given on Saturday, May 17, at 2 p.m. 
by Dana Professor of Religious Studies Thomas B. Coburn, on the 
topic "What is a 'scripture'?: Reflections on the Meeting of 
Religious Faith and Academic Inquiry." The event, open to the 
public free of charge, will be held in Herring-Cole on campus.
	Coburn is the president-elect of Naropa University, a 
Buddhist institution in Boulder, Colorado; he will assume his 
new position July 1. He has been a member of the faculty at 
St. Lawrence since 1974 and from 1996 to 2002, was vice president 
of the University and dean of academic affairs.
Coburn earned his doctorate in comparative religions and his 
master's degree in history of religion from Harvard University. 
He was awarded his bachelor's degree and graduated magna cum 
laude from Princeton University. Coburn has also twice served 
as the director of the New York State Independent College 
Consortium for Study in India, visiting lecturer for the 
University of Pittsburgh semester at sea, and visiting scholar 
at Harvard Divinity School. His scholarly work has been in the 
field of religious studies, with a particular emphasis on Asian 
and Islamic religious traditions, an expert on the subject of 
the Hindu goddess.
	Naropa is the nation's only accredited Buddhist-inspired 
university.

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