<p>Abbas Amanat, professor of history and former chair of the Council on Middle East Studies at the Yale Center for International and Area Studies, has been selected as a Carnegie Scholar for 2006.</p>
<p>Amanat will explore Defying Islamic Conformity: Skeptics, Heretics and Rebelling Dervishes. His research will concentrate on the study of nonconformity in the Muslim world through a historical assessment of Muslim societies, dissenters and heretics in the period between the 15th and 20th centuries in the eastern Muslim world, with particular attention on Anatolia, Asia, Iran and South Asia. By highlighting social dissenters, the study will demonstrate the historical absence of a monolithic Islam. Further, it will examine how the political and religious authorities were often unwilling or unable to oppose these trends of openness. </p>
<p>President of Carnegie Corporation of New York Vartan Gregorian announced on April 25 the names of the 20 scholars who were chosen to study issues relating to Islam and the modern world. Each scholar will receive a grant of up to $100,000 to pursue specific Islam-centered research themes over the next two years...</p>