After graduating from Harvard with an A.B. the comparative study of religion, Scott went on to Columbia University in New York where he earned the M.A. and Ph.D. in the history of religions, with a concentration in Islamic studies.
From 1986 to 1990, Scott taught courses on Islam and the history of religions at Columbia, Fordham, and Princeton University, and in 1991 he took a position on the religious studies faculty of Indiana University in Bloomington where he taught as an assistant professor of Islamic studies from 1993 to 2000.
He is currently Associate Professor of Islam at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago, where he is also director of the school’s Catholic-Muslim Studies Program. Scott is the author of a number of articles on Islamic history and religion published in scholarly journals and encyclopedias such as the Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East (Macmillan, 1996) and the Encyclopedia of the Qur’an (E.J. Brill, 2001-2005). In addition to sitting on the editorial board of the Journal of Islamic Law and Culture, Scott is the editor of a forthcoming collection of essays entitled, Sisters: Women, Religion, and Leadership in Christianity and Islam (Rowman and Littlefield, Fall 2007). His most recent book project is entitled The Race to Goodness: an End to Triumphalism in Christianity and Islam.
Therefore, I am delighted to present tonight’s “Outstanding Gulen Award” to Mr. Scott Alexander, in grateful appreciation for his years of outstanding service and devotion to dialog and peace and understanding.
