May 10 lecture to look at yoga in philosophy, architecture and Ghandi's India

A faculty member at the University of Washington will present a free public lecture titled “Stretching Religion: Yoga in Philosophy, Temple Architecture, and Gandhi's India” at 4 p.m. Thursday, May 10, at the Firehouse Performing Arts Center, 1314 Harris Avenue in Fairhaven.

The presentation is part of the Liberal Studies Department's Distinguished Speakers Series.

The lecture will be given by Christian Lee Novetzke, an associate professor in the University of Washington’s South Asia Studies Program, Comparative Religion Program and International Studies Program at UW’s Jackson School of International Studies. Novetzke is a distinguished scholar who took his Master of Theological Studies at Harvard before getting his Ph.D. at Columbia and taught at the University of Pennsylvania before coming out to UW. He is considered an expert on religion, history and culture in South Asia, and his book "Religion and Public Memory: A Cultural History of Saint Namdev in India," published by Columbia in 2008, was awarded the “Best First Book in the History of Religions” by the American Association of Religion.