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For immediate release
April 15, 2009 |
Washington, D.C. – The Carnegie Corporation of New York today selected Georgetown professor Yvonne Haddad as a 2009 Carnegie Scholar.
Haddad, a professor at the Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in the Walsh School of Foreign Service was selected as one of 24 scholars that included well-established and promising young thinkers, analysts and writers who will receive two-year grants of up to $100,000 from the foundation.
“We are thrilled that Yvonne Haddad has been selected as a 2009 Carnegie Scholar,” said Robert Gallucci, dean of the School of Foreign Service. “I am confident that Yvonne’s research will add significantly to our knowledge of Islamic thought and politics."
The historian of the Arab world, receives a grant for her project, “Sayyid Qutb: From Village Boy to Islamist Martyr.” Haddad will analyze the impact of Western political and theological discourse on Islamic thought and Muslims through a re-examination of the life and works of Egyptian writer Sayyid Qutb, whose writings represent the most radical interpretation of Islam.
Qutb, who has influenced revolutionary and terrorist movements, underwent a transformation from a liberal to neo-conservative revolutionary during and following his stay in the Untied States from 1949 to 1951. With Qutb’s transformation as context, Haddad will offer an understanding of the impact of American values on American Muslim youth as they cope with racism and alienation.
“It is a great honor to receive this award,” said Haddad. “I look forward to adding to the corpus of information that continues to be developed on the work of this major modern Islamic thinker.”
Haddad‘s fields of expertise include 20th-century Islam; intellectual, social and political history in the Arab world; and Islam in North America and the West. She also teaches courses on Muslim-Christian relations and Arab intellectuals.
“We are cultivating a diverse scholarly community spanning a range of disciplines with the expectation that their voices will help Americans develop a more complex understanding of Muslim societies here and throughout the world – revealing Islam’s rich diversity,” said Carnegie Corporation of New York President Vartan Gregorian. “Only through vibrant dialogue, guided by bold and nuanced scholarship, can we move public thinking into new territory.”
About the Carnegie Scholars program
The Carnegie Scholars program allows independent-minded thinkers to pursue original projects oriented toward catalyzing intellectual discourse as well as guiding more focused and pragmatic policy discussions. Scholars are selected not only for their originality and proven intellectual capacity, but for their demonstrated ability to communicate their ideas in ways that can catalyze public discourse.
About Georgetown University
Georgetown University is the oldest and largest Catholic and Jesuit university in America, founded in 1789 by Archbishop John Carroll. Georgetown today is a major student-centered, international, research university offering respected undergraduate, graduate and professional programs in Washington, DC, Doha, Qatar and around the world. For more information about Georgetown University, visit www.georgetown.edu.
