Carl W. Ernst

Carl W. Ernst is a specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. His published research, based on the study of Arabic, Persian, and Urdu, has been mainly devoted to the study of Islam and Sufism. His book Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World (UNC Press, 2003) has received several international awards, including the Bashrahil Prize for Outstanding Cultural Achievement (Cairo, 2004). He has received fellowships from the Fulbright program and the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 2009 he received a John Simon Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His current research projects include a study of the Qur’an as literature, studies of Muslim interpreters of Indian religions, and a translation of the Arabic poetry of al-Hallaj. He studied comparative religion at Stanford University (A.B. 1973) and Harvard University (Ph.D. 1981). He has done extended research tours in India (1978-79, 1981), Pakistan (1986, 2000, 2005), and Turkey (1991), and is a regular visitor to the Gulf, Turkey, and Iran for lectures and conferences. He has taught at Pomona College (1981-1992) and has been appointed as visiting lecturer in Paris (EHESS, 1991, 2003), the University of Seville (2001), and the University of Malaya (2005). On the faculty of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill since 1992, he has been department chair (1995-2000) and Zachary Smith Professor (2000-2005). He is now William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor (2005- ) and Director of the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations. He and Bruce Lawrence are co-editors of the Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series at the University of North Carolina Press.