The Department of Religion is proud to announce the establishment of the annual Peter J. Awn Undergraduate Paper Award. Peter was a treasured colleague and friend who, in addition to serving as Dean of Columbia’s School of General Studies for twenty years, was an active professor of Religion, an erudite scholar of Islam and Islamic mysticism, and a brilliant teacher and mentor. Through his teaching Peter invited countless Columbia students into the modes of thinking, reading, and scholarly questioning that are at the heart of religious studies and of humanistic inquiry.
The Peter J. Awn Undergraduate Paper Award honors our colleague’s deep passion for undergraduate education by awarding $500 each spring to the best undergraduate paper written for a course in the Department of Religion. Further details regarding eligibility requirements and submission guidelines are forthcoming.