LEWISTON – Heather Lindkvist, who has has conducted ethnographic fieldwork with the Somali Muslim community in Lewiston since 2001, will speak Thursday, March 18, at the Great Falls Forum at the Lepage Conference Center at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center.

She will discuss “When the Global Meets The Local: Reflections On Culture, Immigration, And the Changing Ethnoscape of Maine.”

She is a member of an interdisciplinary research group conducting a comparative study of Islam in the United States. The project titled, “The Qur’an and the Constitution: Islamic Adaptations in the United States”, examines how particular Muslim communities in the United States adapt Islam to the realities and requirements of life in a liberal democratic society.

Lindkvist lectures full time with the Bates College’s Department of Anthropology. She is a frequent speaker on refugees and immigrants in Maine and often speaks of the cultural, social and political perspectives of our Somali neighbors. Among her recent Bates College courses have been “Encountering Community: Ethnographic Fieldwork and Service-Learning” where, under her supervision, students conducted a needs assessment of the local Somali refugee and immigrant community.

The forum will be at 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 18 at Lepage Conference Center at St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, 99 Campus Ave.

Lunch is $5 with preregistration, $8 at the door, if space is still available. Make lunch reservations by calling Jeanne Lachance at 207-784-7045, extension 2243 on or before Tuesday, March 16.

The forum is sponsored by the Sun Journal, St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, Lewiston Public Library and Bates College. It is a monthly public platform encouraging thought-provoking speakers and discussion. Everyone is welcome. There are no dues and no obligations.

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