ANN ARBOR—Ashutosh Varshney, a political science professor at the University of Michigan, has been named a 2008 Carnegie Scholar for his research about peace, conflict and Muslim communities.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York attempts to build thoughtful and original scholarship that encourages the development and expansion of the study of Islam in the United States.

Varshney is one of 20 individuals chosen this year for the two-year scholarship. The 2008 awardees are the fourth consecutive annual class to focus on Islam, bringing to 91 the number of Carnegie Scholars devoted to the topic since the program began in 2000.

“We are pleased and proud that Professor Varshney has been named a Carnegie Scholar,” said Terrence McDonald, dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. “His work on ethno communal violence in Islamic communities in four countries will help policy makers, scholars and citizens to understand these important phenomenons. Professor Varshney’s models are novel, refreshing and hopeful.”

The Department of Political Science is part of LSA.

Varshney said the argument that Islam preaches violence has become a master narrative in the West, yet the data shows that most Muslims continue to live peacefully with other communities. His multi-country study, built around 15 cities?some violent, others peaceful?explores why violence marks the relationship of Muslims with non-Muslims in some cities, but not in others.

“The Carnegie Corporation of New York is among the leading Western institutions promoting research on Islam and Muslims,” Varshney said. “I am glad to have their recognition that my book will deepen the understanding of Muslim communities in different parts of the world.”

This is the second recent award to recognize Varshney’s work. He was one of seven U-M faculty members to receive the 2008 Guggenheim Fellowships, a coveted national honor recognizing distinguished achievement in many fields.

Varshney has been a U-M faculty member since 2001. His research and teaching cover three areas: ethnicity and nationalism; political economy of development; and South Asian politics and political economy.

He has served on the former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Millennium Task Force on Poverty (2002-5); the South Asia Task Force of the Council on Foreign Relations (New York); and is an adviser to the Club of Madrid.

He is a consultant to the World Bank, and had consulted with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Human Rights Watch and Freedom House.

Links: For more on Varshney, visit: www.ns.umich.edu/htdocs/public/experts/ExpDisplay.php?ExpID=64

Scholars Program www.carnegie.org/sub/program/scholars.html

Ashutosh VarshneyScholars Program