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NEH Summer Institute Scholar Awarded Carnegie Scholarship

Hussein Fancy (History, University of Michigan) has been awarded a Carnegie Scholarship to work on a project relating to his work at the Mediterranean Seminar's 2008 Summer Institute in Barcelona. Fancy's book-length essay tentatively entitled, "Medieval Violence and Modern Tolerance," argues that the language of tolerance has held back our understanding of both the historical past and contemporary conflict.  Moving between political discourse around the 'War on Terror,' medieval and early modern history, as well as historiography, his work aims to demonstrate that deeply rooted myths and dismissive attitudes about not only religion but also the medieval past ground the idea of tolerance.  Without negating the aims of mitigating or understanding conflict, this work therefore urges scholars to abandon the language of tolerance, which has only masked and impeded the aims of justice and equality.

The Carnegie Scholars program was established by Vartan Gregorian to revitalize individual scholarship by supporting men and women to address some of the most critical research questions of our time. The 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. By identifying and investing in some of the brightest and most innovative contemporary thinkers, the foundation seeks to inform its own programs as well as to advance and diffuse knowledge that will uplift our nation and humanity. Since 2005, the program has supported scholars whose work seeks to promote American understanding of Islam as a religion, the characteristics of Muslim societies, in general, and those of American Muslim communities, in particular.