Nancy Khalek, assistant professor of religious studies, has been selected to receive the Henry Merritt Wriston Fellowship for the 2011-12 academic year. The Wriston Fellowship is one of the highest awards Brown bestows on its teaching faculty. A 2006 Ph.D. graduate of Princeton, Khalek specializes in the early classical period of Islam. Since joining the Brown faculty in the fall of 2008, she has worked to establish a vigorous Islamic studies curriculum within the Department of Religious Studies and to forge stronger connections with history, medieval studies, Middle East studies, and gender and sexuality studies. Established in 1972, the Wriston Fellowship is given annually to a junior faculty member who has demonstrated excellence in teaching and made significant accomplishments in research. Winners are awarded a semester of leave at full pay to develop new scholarly or creative projects. Khalek will use the Wriston Fellowship to work on her second book on Muslim hagiography and the emergence of a generation of early Muslim figures known as the Companions of Muhammad.