San Diego State University political science professor Ahmet Kuru has chosen a fellowship at Oxford University's Centre for Islamic Studies after receiving overlapping offers from Oxford and the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, the university announced Monday.
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The Fulbright award would have sent Kuru to Indonesia to teach and conduct research in spring 2027. He withdrew from that award in favor of the Oxford fellowship, which he said offers greater flexibility for research, guest lectures and academic networking as he finishes a book about alliances among religion, populism and nationalism.
Kuru has taught at SDSU for two decades and studies the relationship between church and state. His 2019 book, 'Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment: A Global and Historical Comparison,' has been translated into 15 languages and earned three awards, according to the university.
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