UR Journalism Professor Wins Prestigious Book Award

UNIVERSITY OF RICHMOND — Shahan Mufti, associate professor of journalism at the University of Richmond, has won a 2020 J. Anthony Lukas Work-In-Progress Award for his forthcoming book AMERICAN CALIPH: The True Story of the Hanafi Siege, America’s First Homegrown Islamic Terror Attack (Farrar, Straus and Giroux).

Presented by the Columbia Journalism School and the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University, the Lukas Prize Project Awards honor the best in American nonfiction writing.

Mufti is one of two authors to be awarded a $25,000 J. Anthony Lukas Work-in-Progress Book Award. The awards are given annually to support the completion of what are considered to be significant works of nonfiction on American topics of political or social concern.

Mufti’s AMERICAN CALIPH investigates the Hanafi Siege, the first attack by Muslim militants on American soil, and explores issues of race, immigration, foreign policy, Islam and terrorism in 20th-century America.

“I've been working on this project for five years now and there could have been no better encouragement for me at this stage,” said Mufti. “I hope that the finished work will live up to this great honor.”

Mufti has worked at the University of Richmond since 2012. His first book, The Faithful Scribe: A Story of Islam, Pakistan, Family, and War, was the first faculty publication to be chosen for UR’s One Book, One Richmond common reading program. Prior to his time at UR, Mufti worked as a freelance journalist with national publications like The Atlantic and The New York Times Magazine. 

“In the world of journalism, this award is second only to the Pulitzer,” said Robert Hodierne, chair of the Department of Journalism at UR. “We are thrilled that Shahan’s important work is being honored.”

More information about the 2020 Lukas Prize Project Awards can be found here.

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