CHAMPAIGN, Ill. – Valerie Hoffman, a professor of religious studies at the University of Illinois, has been selected as a 2009 Carnegie Scholar.
Hoffman, an authority on Islam, was selected as one of 24 well-established and promising young thinkers, analysts and writers who will receive two-year grants of up to $100,000 from the New York-based foundation. Each year, nominations for Carnegie Scholars are invited from more than 500 nominators representing a broad range of disciplines and institutions, including academia, research institutes, non-profit organizations, the media and foundations.
Hoffman was selected for her commitment to enriching the quality of the public dialogue on Islam, the foundation said. Hoffman’s project, “Islamic Sectarianism Reconsidered: Ibadi Islam in the Modern Age,” explores the impact of globalization on Ibadism, a marginalized strand of Islam distinct from the two dominant branches, Sunni and Shiite.
“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 Vartan Gregorian, the president of the Carnegie Corp. of New York.
Hoffman’s scholarly exploration of Ibadism’s response to globalization will “shed light on the potential for a rigid, closed sect to embrace the diversity of the global age,” the foundation said.
The Carnegie Scholars program was established to allow intellectuals 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 also for their demonstrated ability to communicate their ideas in ways that can inspire public discourse.
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