The American Political Science Association’s (APSA) Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Program has awarded $41,000 in professional development grants to MENA scholars in 2022. The MENA Program is a multi-year effort to support political science research and networking among early-career scholars across the Arab MENA region. Fellows who have participated in one of the annual MENA Research Development Workshops are eligible to apply for individual and collaborative professional development grants. Individual grants of up to $1,000 are awarded to support alumni in their field research or travel to regional academic conferences or workshops. Collaborative grants of up to $6,000 are awarded to two or more scholars to support collaborative research projects or to host a workshop or training at a university or research institute in the Arab MENA region. Since 2013, APSA has awarded more than $220,000 in professional development grants to MENA Workshops alumni. In addition, alumni are provided access to an array of scholarly networks and resources through three years of APSA membership and inclusion in APSA’s online member communities. For more information on APSA’s MENA Program, which is funded by Carnegie Corporation of New York through 2025, visit the project website: https://web.apsanet.org/mena/.

PROJECT TITLE:

Place-politics and Structuring Gender-Relations: A Comparative Study of Rural and Urban Egypt

GRANTEE: Dina Ibrahim Hassan, Cairo University

This grant will support field research in Egypt for a project titled Place-politics and Structuring Gender-Relations: A Comparative Study of Rural and Urban Egypt. The paper adopts an intersectional analysis of gender relations and place politics in urban and rural Egypt, focusing on Aswan and Fayoum. In order to better understand how different spatial contexts can construct and reconstruct gender relations unequally in rural areas, in-depth interviews and focus groups will be conducted in rural governorates of Egypt. Dina Ibrahim Hassan is a PhD Candidate & Assistant Lecturer, Cairo University, and was awarded $945 for this grant.

PROJECT TITLE:

No man’s land: Planning Mzab for a conflict yet to come

GRANTEE:

Nora Gueliane, Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou, Algeria

Nora Gueliane of Mouloud Mammeri University of Tizi Ouzou, Algeria, was awarded an individual grant of $1000 to support her fieldwork research in Algeria for a project titled No man’s land: Planning Mzab for a conflict yet to come. The study focuses on the intercommunity divisions in the M’Zab Valley, specifically conflicts that have led to a socio-spatial fragmentation. The grant will support a 20-day field survey in two neighborhoods, one occupied by the Mozabites and the other by Arabs, to interrogate the spatial practices of inter-neighborhood mobility and demonstrate how inter-individual and inter-community relations are made and unmade in these special divisions.

PROJECT TITLE:

Understanding Variation in Social Reintegration of IS-Affiliated Families in Iraq

GRANTEE: Raed Ahmed, al-Iraqia University and Mara Revkin, Duke University School of Law

This collaborative grant of $6,000 will support fieldwork research in Iraq for a study titled Understanding Variation in Social Reintegration of IS-Affiliated Families in Iraq. The project aims to explain variation in the social reintegration of returnees with perceived or actual ties to the Islamic State through in-depth qualitative interviews and comparative case study analysis. As the Principal Investigator, Raed will lead the research design, hire and train research assistants, design survey questionnaires, and conduct interviews with research assistants throughout a number of provinces in Iraq. Upon its completion, the study will be submitted for publication to peer-reviewed political science journals and other public outlets to facilitate the dissemination of key findings to peacebuilding policymakers and practitioners. Awardees plan to share the study’s key findings through public presentations at al-Iraqia University in Baghdad. The grant will contribute to the training and capacity-building of undergraduates as research assistants with the aim of improving the participation of Iraqi scholars in the production of knowledge about Iraq. Raed Ahmed is an assistant professor at al-Iraqia University, Iraq. Mara Revkin is an associate professor at Duke University School of Law.

PROJECT TITLE:

Political Ecology of Resource Development in the Levant

GRANTEES:

Mona Khneisser, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Taraf Abu Hamdan, Central European University

This collaborative grant of $6,000 will support fieldwork research in Lebanon and Jordan for a project titled Political Ecology of Resource Development in the Levant. The project seeks to examine the socio-ecological relics and ruins of development in the sites of hydro-dam projects in Lebanon and extractive development projects in the Jordanian Dadia. The research proposes an innovative approach to development projects with the goal of addressing several research gaps in environmental politics, political economy, and development of the Levant region specifically and MENA region more broadly. Informed by activist research approaches, the scholars will rely on a combination of research methods, including semi-structured interviews with key activists, local community actors and people impacted, examining socio-ecological impacts of extractive projects from community accounts and narratives, a content analysis of a range of primary resources including project documents, official statements and reports and historical records, as well as in-depth ethnographic fieldwork. Mona Khneisser is a PhD Candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Taraf Abu Hamdan is a PhD Candidate at Central European University.

PROJECT TITLE:

Workshop on Urban Politics in the MENA

GRANTEES:

Motasem Abuzaid, Marmara University; Munqeth Othman Agha, Marmara University; Laila Alrefaai, Marmara University; Obayda Amer, Marmara University; Lina Shami, Ibn Haldun University

This award of $6,000 will support the organization of a workshop on urban politics in Syria and the MENA region in collaboration with the Arab Center for Research & Policy Studies and Harmoon Center to be held at Ibn Haldun university in Istanbul in September. The workshop is being organized by five graduate students working on urban politics dynamics in Syria and the region: Motasem Abuzaid, Munqeth Othman Agha, Laila Alrefaai & Obayda Amer (Marmara University), and Lina Shami (Ibn Haldun University). The two-day program will convene researchers working on urban politics in the MENA region to encourage different scholars of urban politics in the Middle East to develop mini-datasets that could answer questions at the local level and arrive at a more rigorous codification of such datasets, to present short analytical papers that deal with interrelated aspect of urban politics using these datasets, and to open the space for constructive feedback from senior scholars in the field. The program will consist of closed morning research panels grouped around thematic subjects in which authors receive feedback on their papers from discussants and fellow participants. Afternoon sessions will include public panels to discuss larger trends on cities and conflict in the region and roundtables and training sessions regarding methods and datasets related to such questions. Themes such as local communities, social networks, urban space, and local governance will be discussed and integrated. A Call for Papers will be announced in May.