2010 Indiana-Kentucky Synod Professional Leaders' Conference

September 26-28, 2010

Turkey Run State Park
Marshall, Indiana  47859

"Global Christianity"

Dr. Lamin Sanneh   The D. Willis James Professor of World Christianity Yale University

Lamin Sanneh, a naturalized U.S. citizen,is descended from the nyanchos,an ancient African royal house, and was educated on four continents. He went to school with chiefs' sons in the Gambia, West Africa. He subsequently came to the United States on a U.S. government scholarship to read history. After graduating he spent several years studying classical Arabic and Islam, including a stint in the Middle East, and working with the churches in Africa and with international organizations concerned with inter-religious issues.

He received his Ph.D. in Islamic history at the University of London and was a professor at Harvard University for eight years before moving to Yale University in 1989 as the D. Willis James Professor of World Christianity, with a concurrent courtesy appointment as Professor of History at Yale College.

He is Chair of Yale's Council on African Studies. He is an Honorary Research Professor at the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, and is a life member of Clare Hall, Cambridge University. He is an editor-at-large of the ecumenical weekly, The Christian Century, and serves on the editorial board of several academic journals.

He has served on the board of Ethics and Public Policy at Harvard University, and the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Birmingham, Alabama. He was appointed by Pope John Paul II to the Pontifical Commission on the Historical Sciences and by Pope Benedict XVI to the Pontifical Commission on Religious Relations with Muslims. He was a founding member of the Council of 100 Leaders of the World Economic Forum.

Dr. Sanneh is the author of over a hundred articles on religious and historical subjects, and of several books. He received an honorary doctorate at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland.

For his academic work he was made Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Lion, Senegal's highest national honor. He was awarded by the Librarian of the Library of Congress the Kluge Chair in the Countries and Cultures of the South at the Library of Congress for the academic year 2004-05. He has been listed in Who's Who in America (1995-).

Dr. Sanneh's son is a writer with the New Yorker magazine and his daughter is a criminal defense lawyer. He has lectured around the world on religious and historical subjects.