Alongside Baroness Warsi, lawyer and former cabinet minister, and Rt. Revd Andrew Watson, Bishop of Guildford, Dr James Hodkinson will take part in a public discussion on the topic: "Valuing Culture and Faith: The challenges of integrating into society whilst retaining our identity.”

Dr. James Hodkinson, Associate Professor in German in Warwick’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures has been invited as a special guest to take part in a public debate run by Woking People of Faith (WPF), an interfaith group based in Surrey.

James has been invited to take part as a specialist in the history of Euro-Islamic relations. He currently leads a public outreach project entitled “Transnationalizing Faith: Using Historical German-Islamic Encounters to rethink Cross-Community Relations in Contemporary Britain,” which already seems him collaborating with WPF.

The project involves him touring non-academic faith communities in the UK with a public lecture and exhibition, using historical material from Germany to open out discussions on the pull between assimilation and cultural distinctiveness that Muslim communities face in Britain today.

The event takes place at the H.G Wells Conference Centre, Woking, Surrey 7pm on Wednesday 18 November