Georgetown University News

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Georgetown graduate Carolyn Barnett of Chapel Hill has been selected as a recipient of the 2010 Marshall Scholarship to pursue graduate studies in the United Kingdom next year.

"I congratulate Barnett on this major accomplishment," said Georgetown President John J. DeGioia. "Her academic success, as well as her personal and professional endeavors, are exemplary, and I am sure she will continue to make her mark on the world through her leadership, drive and determination while in United Kingdom next year."

Barnett, currently living in Cairo, is on a 12-month Fulbright scholarship studying advanced Modern Standard and Egyptian Colloquial Arabic at the Center for Arabic Study Abroad.

"My Fulbright year in Cairo has led me now from study to participation," Barnett wrote in her personal statement to the Marshall committee. "I am using my contacts among Islamist women here in Egypt to extend my research on their views of women's rights in Islam and how that impacts their activism."

Barnett joins 16 other Georgetown alumni who have been awarded Marshall Scholarships. The scholarship recognizes young Americans of high ability who hold an undergraduate degree from an accredited four-year college or university in the United States with a minimum GPA of 3.7. The program links future American leaders to the United Kingdom by funding two years of graduate study at a university in the U.K.

As a Marshall scholar, Barnett plans to undertake two years of study at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London, during which she will pursue a Master of Arts degree in Islamic studies and a master of science in Middle East politics.

"I hope to find metrics that would allow us to evaluate the effectiveness of movements that encourage ijtihad on women's rights," Barnett wrote, referring to the process of Islamic scholars interpreting or reinterpreting sources of Islamic law in cases where no clear directives exist. "The urgency here is clear -- improving the position of women is increasingly viewed as the closest thing to a silver bullet in the struggle against global poverty, and one of the most important elements of stable, democratic governance."

John Glavin, university fellowship secretary and director of the John Carroll Programs, described Barnett as a private person who is engaged with and on behalf of others.

"She is a scholar who performs ... She is a thinker who does ... and she has now focused this formidable combination to working on causes that have unlimited potential to alter the lives not only of women in the Islamic world but of lives everywhere," Glavin said.

A PEEK AT THE PORTFOLIO

While at Georgetown University, Chapel Hill native Carolyn Barnett served as editor-in-chief of the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs; president of Our Moment, a student organization devoted to international development issues; and a research assistant at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs. She studied culture and politics and received a certificate in international development from the Walsh School of Foreign Service.