Law School’s Samuel Rascoff Named 2009 Carnegie Scholar

By Jason Casell

      The Carnegie Corporation of New York recently named School of Law assistant professor Samuel Rascoff a 2009 Carnegie Scholar, the fifth academic affiliated with the school in the last seven years to be selected for the prestigious award.
      Rascoff was selected as one of 24 well-established and promising young thinkers, analysts, and writers who will receive two-year grants of up to $100,000 from the foundation. His project is entitled “Understanding How the U.S. Government Understands Islam.” The 2009 awardees are the fifth class to focus on Islam, bringing to 117 the number of Carnegie Scholars devoted to the topic since the program began in 2000.
      A specialist in national security law and counterterrorism, Rascoff will focus on how the U.S. government acquires knowledge and sets policy in the area of Islamic thought and practice. The government’s concept of Islam, which he refers to as “official Islam,” is enormously consequential. Unlike academic accounts, “official Islam” reverberates throughout society as a function of national policies.
      “In recent years, the study of Islam has proliferated across American government,” Rascoff says. “From military headquarters to congressional committees, and from federal courts to local police precincts, officials have sought to understand Islamic practice and thought, especially its more radical expressions. My research will focus on assessing the government’s efforts and on addressing the substantial legal, policy, and practical questions raised by the emergence of ‘official Islam.’”
      Rascoff’s examination will draw on comparisons with the “Sovietology” of a previous generation, as well as with current policies in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. Through a monograph, articles, and talks, Rascoff aims to disseminate his findings to a wide audience of academics and policymakers as well as to members of the military, law enforcement, and intelligence communities. He intends to offer recommendations on how the U.S. approach to acquiring and analyzing information on Islam might be improved.
      Previous Carnegie Scholars from NYU School of Law are: Stephen Holmes (2003), Walter E. Meyer Professor of Law; Richard Pildes (2004), Sudler Family Professor of Constitutional Law; Noah Feldman (2005), faculty advisor at NYU School of Law’s Center on Law and Security and formerly the Cecelia Goetz Professor of Law; and Aziz Huq (2006), former deputy director of NYU School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice.