Carl W. Ernst (born September 8, 1950, in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

) is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor Emeritus of

Islamic studies Islamic studies is the academic study of Islam, which is analogous to related fields such as Jewish studies and Quranic studies. Islamic studies seeks to understand the past and the potential future of the Islamic world. In this multidiscipli ...

at the Department of Religious Studies at the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

. He was also the founding director (2003-2022) of the UNC Center for Islamic and Middle East Studies.Carl Ernst's web page
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Life

Ernst received his A.B. in comparative religion at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1973, and his Ph.D. at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in 1981. He taught at

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

from 1981 to 1992.''Contemporary Authors'', Vol. 163, p. 132. He was a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1992 to 2022. It was his suggestion that set in motion the UNC-Qur'an Controversy in 2002, when UNC's Summer Reading Program required incoming students to read Michael Sells' ''Approaching the Qurʼan''.

Awards and honors

Ernst's book, '' Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World'' (UNC Press, 2003), received several international awards, including the 2004 Bashrahil Prize for Outstanding Cultural Achievement. His book Ruzbihan Baqli: Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism won the Farabi Award. His translation from the Arabic, Hallaj: Poems of a Sufi Martyr, was supported by a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, and it was the first recipient (2017) of the Global Humanities Translation Prize from the Buffett Institute at Northwestern University. Ernst has received several Fulbright fellowships (India, 1978-9; Pakistan, 1986; Spain, 2001; Malaysia, 2005), plus grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has also been a visiting professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (1990, 2003, 2019, 2022).

Bibliography

* ''Refractions of Islam in India: Situating Sufism and Yoga'', SAGE Publications India. (2016) *
Islamophobia in America The Anatomy of Intolerance
',

Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains offi ...

(2013, editor) *''How to Read the Qur'an: A New Guide, with Select Translations'', University of North Carolina Press. (2011) *'' Following Muhammad: Rethinking Islam in the Contemporary World'', University of North Carolina Press. (2003) *''Sufi Martyrs of Love: Chishti Order in South Asia and Beyond'' (co-authored with Bruce Lawrence) (2002) *''Teachings of Sufism'' (1999) *A translation of ''The Unveiling of Secrets: Diary of a Sufi Master'' by Ruzbihan Baqli (1997) *''The Shambhala Guide to Sufism'' (1997) *'' Ruzbihan Baqli: Mysticism and the Rhetoric of Sainthood in Persian Sufism'' (1996) *''Eternal Garden: Mysticism, History, and Politics at a South Asian Sufi Center'' (1993) *''Words of Ecstasy in Sufism'' (1985)

References

External links

Carl Ernst's web page

Audio recording
of a talk by Carl Ernst given at the University of Chicago. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ernst, Carl Living people American Islamic studies scholars Stanford University alumni 1950 births Harvard University alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill faculty Place of birth missing (living people) Pomona College faculty