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Jihad: Carnegie Fellow Studies Earliest Qur'anic References
Concerned by the appropriation of the term jihad by radical militants, Asma
Afsaruddin, recent recipient of a Carnegie Scholars Fellowship and an
associate professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies in the Department of Classics,
plans to undertake 18 months of research in which she will explore the meanings of
jihad from its earliest Qur’anic references to the present time. Her research,
already underway supported by a previous grant from the Guggenheim foundation,
will lead to a book entitled Striving in the Path of God: Discursive Traditions on
Jihad and the Cult of Martyrdom.
Recently, Afsaruddin was invited to join the editorial board of the Routledge Encyclopedia
of the Qurían (forthcoming, 2006). She was elected chair of the Board of Directors and of the Executive Committee of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy in Washington D.C. and was appointed to the advisory committee on US-Muslim World Relations at theUnited States Institute of Peace.
She finds that the College of Arts and Letters has established an environment that encourages her research, which investigates various aspects of Islamic thought.
“In the College, issues of religion are considered seriously,” Afsaruddin
says,“and Islam can be put in conversation with other faith traditions.”
Afsaruddin also credits the College’s Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts (ISLA) with providing her with the research and travel grants necessary to consult manuscripts in archival libraries in Europe and the Middle East. That opportunity allowed for research that led to the publication of her first book, Excellence and Precedence: Medieval Islamic Discourse on Legitimate Leadership (2002).
Not only does Afsaruddin find the College supportive of her research efforts,
she also enjoys teaching her students, whom she calls “delightful.”
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Department of Classics
Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts