Timothy Dobe Wins Grant for Research on Gandhi

Timothy Dobe, associate professor and chair of religious studies, has received the Frederick Burkhardt Residential Fellowship for Recently Tenured Scholars for his research on Mahatma Gandhi's engagement with the Muslim community.

The Burkhardt Fellowship, funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, is awarded each year by the American Council of Learned Societies to scholars in the humanities and social sciences to support long-term projects that are likely to have a lasting impact on their fields. The fellowship enables recipients to undertake a residency in a humanities center or academic department of their choice at another institution.

Dobe will receive $95,000, plus funds for research costs and related scholarly activities. He will spend the 2018-19 academic year at Duke University's Islamic Studies Center. There he will work on his project, titled "The Muslim Gandhi: Islamicate Hinduism, Alternative Communities, and Radical Religious Love."

"It is an honor to receive this award," Dobe says. "This work has developed directly out of my teaching here at Grinnell and will feed back into it. The award will give me the resources and the time to further develop this major research on Gandhi, and I look forward to conversation and collaboration with colleagues at Duke."

Dobe's research focuses on the importance of Gandhi’s underexplored engagement with Islamic traditions and Muslim leaders. He examines ways in which Gandhi himself engaged with Islam, as well as how Muslim and Hindu communities continue to make sense of Gandhi's legacy. Gandhi was the primary leader of India’s fight for independence from British colonial rule though nonviolent civil disobedience.

"The connections Timothy will make at Duke University will not only further his research, but contribute to his innovative teaching and outstanding student mentoring here at Grinnell," says Michael Latham, vice president for academic affairs and dean of Grinnell College.