PHILADELPHIA -- John Ghazvinian, a senior fellow and lecturer in Penn’s Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, has been named a 2009 Carnegie Scholar.

PHILADELPHIA -- John Ghazvinian, a senior fellow and lecturer in Penn’s Center for Programs in Contemporary Writing, has been named a 2009 Carnegie Scholar.

He is among 24 awardees selected by the Carnegie Corporation for their originality, proven intellectual capacity and demonstrated ability to communicate their ideas in ways that can spark academic and public discourse on Islam. Each scholar is awarded a two-year grant of as much as $100,000.

As a Carnegie Scholar, Ghazvinian will work on a book entitled “Children of the Revolution: Iran and America from the Mayflower to the Mullahs,” an account of America’s relationship with Iran beginning in the early 1600s. His research will draw on archival material in the U.S. and Iran, including periodicals, newspapers and other sources.

The 2009 awardees are the fifth class to focus on Islam, bringing to 117 the number of Carnegie Scholars whose work and research is devoted to the topic. Additional information about the Carnegie Scholars Program is available at www.carnegie.org/sub/program/scholars.html.