Bruce Jay Gould, a retired Philadelphia cardiologist who graduated from Swarthmore in 1954, said in a statement that he earmarked the gift for Islamic studies because understanding Muslim civilization is vital to living in today’s world.
The funds will establish the Bruce Jay Gould Endowment for Islamic Studies, which will serve as the cornerstone of an eventual $5 million endowment for the program. The endowment will support courses and other activities related to Islam in such departments as religion, political science, history and sociology/anthropology.
Swarthmore received a $670,000 grant last spring from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for Arabic language instruction. The funds, part of a $2 million grant shared by Swarthmore, Bryn Mawr and Haverford colleges, support a new faculty position for teaching Arabic at all three institutions.
Swarthmore College is located about 10 miles southwest of Philadelphia.
