Brooks Lecture to Address Same-Sex Marriage in Nebraska

OMAHA – Same-sex marriage, its controversy within religious groups and its legacy in the state of Nebraska will be the topic of this year’s Rabbi Sidney H. Brooks Lecture, which will led by University of Nebraska at Omaha (UNO) professor William Blizek.

Blizek, a professor of philosophy and religion at UNO, will speak at the Thompson Alumni Center on Tuesday, Oct. 7, at 7 p.m.

The event is free and open to the public.

The UNO Religious Studies program sponsors the series each year in honor of Brooks, who served as the Rabbi of Temple Israel for 33 years (1952 – 1985) and often encouraged a continuing dialogue between people of different faiths. Brooks died in 1999 at the age of 79.

In addition to his role as a professor at UNO, Blizek is one of the co-founders of the Journal of Religion and Film, which has been published online through UNO since 1997 and recently held one of the first international conferences dedicated to religion’s influence on the motion picture industry.

Blizek is a graduate of the University of Missouri and Southern Illinois University. He won the “Outstanding Teaching and Instructional Creativity” award from the University of Nebraska system in 2002 and has also been awarded the UNO Chancellor’s Medal for distinguished service to campus.

During his time as a religious scholar, Blizek has published more than 35 articles in journals such as The British Journal of Aesthetics, The International Journal of Critical Culture Studies, The Journal of Religion & Popular Culture and the International Journal of the Humanities.

For more information about this year’s lecture, please contact Charley Reed, UNO media relations coordinator, at 402.554.2129 or unonews@unomaha.edu.

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