MESA/ACSS/OIB/AUC Call for applications
Deadline for submission of Applications: February 28, 2025
The Middle East Studies Association, the Arab Council for the Social Sciences, the Orient Institute in Beirut, and the American University in Cairo (AUC) are organizing a five-day workshop at AUC from June 29-July 3, 2025. The workshop will bring together a select group of doctoral students from North American, German and Arab universities to discuss the possibilities, critical approaches, epistemological and practical challenges of undertaking archival and/or ethnographic research in the Arab region.
The aim of the organizers is to foster a transnational interdisciplinary community of emerging scholars. Two main questions inform the workshop:
- How do different locations of research in the North and Global South, in our case the Arab region, frame epistemic postulations and research methodologies?
- How does knowledge production and the theories and methodologies that undergird interpretive communities change when young scholars from the Atlantic North and those from the Global South meet to discuss their research in an Arab capital of learning/higher education?
Academic mentors – independent and university-based scholars in the Arab world and North America – will lead sessions of small groups of participants drawn from different disciplines and countries.
Workshop sessions will be conducted in Arabic and English. Participants will present their work and write in either English or Arabic, but all participants need to have facility in both languages to ensure that everyone can participate fully in discussions and read one another’s work.
Applicants from disciplines in the social sciences and humanities are encouraged to apply.
Eligibility Requirements:
Applicants must be:
- Doctoral students conducting research on the Arab region.
- Doctoral students already engaged in writing their doctoral theses and whose dissertation projects have been approved.
- Proficient in both English and Arabic.
Application Requirements and How to Apply:
Interested applicants must submit an application on the ACSS Applications Platform. On the applications platform, applicants must select the chapter titled “MESA/ACSS/OIB/AUC Workshop”.
Applications must include:
- A completed profile on the ACSS Applications Platform.
- An application form including the following:
- A 1000-word description of the applicant’s project.
- A short paragraph (250 words) on how location has informed or might inform their epistemic and research methodologies.
- A copy of their academic transcript.
- A letter of recommendation from their advisor.
- An updated CV including a list of publications, grants and distinctions (where applicable).
The ACSS will cover travel, transportation, accommodation, and meals for participants from the Arab region for the duration of the workshop.
For any questions about the program, please contact Jamil Bazzi on bazzi@theacss.org.
If you have technical difficulties with the application, please contact Wassim Alam on alam@theacss.org.