Words of Experience

Born in 1950, Carl W. Ernst is an academic specialist in Islamic studies, with a focus on West and South Asia. He studied comparative religion at Stanford University (B.A. 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 has been a regular visitor to the Gulf, Turkey, Iran, and Southeast Asia for lectures and conferences. He has taught at Pomona College (1981–1992) and has been appointed as visiting lecturer in Paris (EHESS, 1991, 2003, plus each May, 2018–20), the University of Seville (2001), and the University of Malaya (2005, 2010). 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 Term Professor (2000–2005) as well as member of the Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association. He is now William R. Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor (2005– ), Co-Director of the Center for Middle East and Islamic Studies, and President of the American Society for the Study of Religion. With Bruce Lawrence, he is co-editor of the Islamic Civilization and Muslim Networks Series at the University of North Carolina Press.