Mairaj Syed Awarded Letters and Science Dean's Faculty Fellows Award

also affiliated with the Program in Jewish Studies.

The first three recipients of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science Dean’s Faculty Fellowships will give talks about the research they have been conducting with support from the fellowship. The three-year fellowships are part of the College of Letters and Science Faculty Investment Initiative to support early faculty research excellence and development.

"Computational Analysis of Ancient Islamic Literature (Hadith)" — May 17

Syed's research focuses on Islamic legal and ethical thought. His work applies computational methods to the study of hadiths, sayings attributed to the Islamic prophet Muhammad. The hadiths number in the hundreds of thousands, and large-scale data analysis on their provenance and authenticity has not been possible. The research will make available a comprehensive resource on when and where hadiths came into being and how they were transmitted. It will also introduce a system which could be replicated by scholars in other disciplines. Register for Syed's talk.