Research Grants Program

The ACSS has held three successful cycles of its Research Grants Program (RGP) in 2013, 2014 and 2015 on the theme of “Inequality, Mobility and Development.”

One of the core goals of ACSS is to encourage the production and publication of independent high quality social science research in the Arab region. Towards achieving this goal, the Research Grants Program provides funding for junior and senior Arab scholars, selected through a competitive process, to conduct research across disciplinary boundaries and methodological traditions on key themes of concern to the Arab region. Through a competitive application process, applications are reviewed by a Selection Committee composed of a mix of senior and junior scholars who review the applications on the basis of merit and potentially to contribute to existing knowledge in the Arab region. The program provides forums for exchange and communication among researchers and particularly encourages the publication and dissemination of research results, whether in international or local journals, other relevant outlets or through audiovisual material, conferences, seminars and other venues.

Current Theme: Inequality, Mobility and Development in the Arab Region

The theme of the RGP competition for 2013-2016 is Inequality, Mobility and Development in the Arab Region. Under this broad theme, RGP aims at canvassing a wide range of research proposals from different disciplines from across the region. Proposals may focus on any of the three sub-themes of (1) inequality; (2) mobility; (3) development, but the most competitive proposals will be those that examine linkages across at least two of these themes. We also encourage comparative studies that look at more than one country or location in the region. While the focus of the theme is largely contemporary, historical studies that examine these processes over the long term are also welcome. Quantitative as well as qualitative projects are eligible and mixed-methods, as well as interdisciplinary, approaches are encouraged. Successful proposals will also critically examine whether current social science frameworks are adequate to conceptualize and empirically study these issues in the Arab region and suggest new approaches and methodologies.

Inequality:

The theme of inequality can be understood broadly to encompass regional inequalities (between states and localities), inter-regional inequalities (the economic and political status of the Arab region in global context) as well as societal inequalities including those based on class, gender, race, and ethno-cultural collective identities. Topics can cover any facet of disparities within and between societies; including income, education, health, employment, housing and access to public and private goods and natural resources, such land and water. Inequality has become one of the prominent themes in the social sciences of the 21st century and the proposed projects may examine the theme from different angles, for example: issues of measurement and comparison, cultural understandings of social inequality, manifestations of inequality in urban and rural space and so on. In addition, current upheavals in the Arab region point to the urgency of analyzing the relationship between inequality and social movements.

Mobility:

Mobility is broadly used here to refer to different types of movement, both social and physical. Social mobility is a concept that has long been associated with education and employment opportunities. However, an increasing number of studies have shown that in practice, education and employment institutions may reinforce rather than dissolve social inequalities and/or produce new inequalities. This theme particularly lends itself to an examination of the relationship between physical and social mobility, especially among youth seeking to escape increasing inequality at home and the failing dreams for social mobility. Migration was well studied in the period of the 1960s - 1980s in the Arab region, whether in terms of rural/ urban migration, or migration to the oil-producing countries. However it has fallen into relative neglect in recent decades. While advances have been made in the study of transnational migration and in the study of Arab communities in Europe, the U.S. and Australia, these are often not linked back to the dynamics in the home countries and to the newly emerging ‘push factors’. Likewise, migration within the region and migration into the region (e.g. domestic worker migration) are generally understudied.

Development:

This theme takes up the impact of prescriptive concepts and planning associated with the powerful “development industry” on Arab societies in their national, regional and international contexts. Despite the proliferation of literature on development plans, visions and projects in the Arab region, this field of study lacks convincing frameworks and compelling arguments especially concerning the specificity and/or comparability of the region and countries within it. This theme especially raises the important issue of the complex sources and agents that produce prevailing notions of modernity and development as well as ‘solutions’ to issues that are seen as symptomatic of underdevelopment. In other words, the theme requires an examination of the relationship between international organizations, states, NGOs and academia in producing powerful discourses and practices (such as those encapsulated by the term “neoliberalism”) with immense impact on peoples’ lives. Proposed projects could focus on actors and agents engaged in producing such discourses and practices in particular localities, or could focus on regional dynamics, including the changing economies of the oil-producing countries, or could take up particular “sectors” and social groups that constitute a focus of development projects, such as poverty, youth, women, education, public sector reform, corruption and governance, environmental issues, urban and rural planning and infrastructure development. Proposals may also engage with issues around ‘political development’ initiatives such as training and support to political parties, advocacy groups or labor unions and collectives. As with the other themes, successful proposals will engage with these issues through a critical perspective, evaluating the literature and prevailing concepts as well as examining specific case-studies and examples.

This competition is funded by a grant provided to ACSS by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA). These grants will be available to both individual researchers (up to USD $20.000) and teams of researchers (up to USD $50.000) from the Arab region, whether currently resident in or outside the region, and whose research focuses primarily on Arab societies. Grants are intended to support a maximum time-line of 15 months.

Cycles 1-3 of the Research Grants Program: 2013- 2016

Selected competitively under the theme of “Inequality, Mobility and Development”, the projects under cycles 1-3 tackle important issues across the Arab region; and represent a wide range of expertise in diverse research fields and a mixture of senior and junior scholars. Topics and research sites range from water governance in Amman, Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Turkey, urban development in Bahrain, peasant strategies in rural Egypt after the Revolution, academic international mobility and knowledge production in the case of Lebanon, and Pharmacovigilance in the Arab World. Most of the projects deploy intensive fieldwork- some in multiple sites- and several involve teams of two or more researchers.

A. Cycle One of the Research Grants Program:

Selection Committee Members for RGP Cycle 1:

- Dr. Rami Daher: Associate Professor at the School of Architect and Built Environment at the German Jordanian University (GJU) and a practicing architect. He taught at the American University of Beirut's Department of Architecture & Design and at Jordan University of Science & Tech (holding position of Department Head between 2003 and 2006). Daher had earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Jordan (1988), a Master of Architecture from the University of Minnesota (1991), a PhD in Architecture from Texas A&M U (1995), and did his post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley (2001). Daher is a co-founder and a principal of TURATH: Architecture & Urban Design Consultants (1999-present), and Metropolis: Cities Research Council (2008- Present), the research arm of TURATH.

- Dr. Abdelaziz EzzelArab: Professor of Political Economy and History at the American University in Cairo (AUC). EzzelArab earned his BA from AUC in Economics and Political Science in 1975. He earned an MA in Economics from University of Toronto in 1977, and a Diploma in the Program on Investment Appraisal and Management from Harvard University in 1987. His Ph.D. in Islamic Studies came from Mc.Gill University in 2000.

- Dr. Ruba Salih: Reader in Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, UK. Salih is a social anthropologist by training, is a Reader in Gender Studies at SOAS. She has worked and published extensively on transnational migration, diaspora and multiculturalism from a gendered perspective. In the last two years she has been involved (together with Sophie Richter-Devroe, Exeter University) in a research project on the Palestinian refugees, for which she is conducting fieldwork in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.
 

B. Cycle Two of the Research Grants Program:

Selection Committee Members for RGP Cycle 2:

- Dr. Rami Daher: Associate Professor at the School of Architect and Built Environment at the German Jordanian University (GJU) and a practicing architect. He taught at the American University of Beirut's Department of Architecture & Design and at Jordan University of Science & Tech (holding position of Department Head between 2003 and 2006). Daher had earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Jordan (1988), a Master of Architecture from the University of Minnesota (1991), a PhD in Architecture from Texas A&M U (1995), and did his post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley (2001). Daher is a co-founder and a principal of TURATH: Architecture & Urban Design Consultants (1999-present), and Metropolis: Cities Research Council (2008- Present), the research arm of TURATH.

- Dr. Ruba Salih: Reader in Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, UK. Salih is a social anthropologist by training, is a Reader in Gender Studies at SOAS. She has worked and published extensively on transnational migration, diaspora and multiculturalism from a gendered perspective. In the last two years she has been involved (together with Sophie Richter-Devroe, Exeter University) in a research project on the Palestinian refugees, for which she is conducting fieldwork in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

- Dr. Samer Attalah: Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics, School of Business at the American University in Cairo (AUC). He previously taught at the Department of Economics at McGill University. He earned his MA and PhD in Economics from McGill University and a B.Sc. in Engineering from the American University in Cairo.

- Dr. Hassan Rachik: An anthropologist and Professor at the Hassan II University in Casablanca, Morocco. He is also visiting professor in several American, French and Arab universities. In his first researches he worked on the field of sacrificial rituals interpretation, from 1990 to 1992, and of social changes in rural environments, until 2000. Afterwards, he focused on the usage of ideologies (2003 – 2006), on the ideologization processes in religion and on the sociology of anthropological knowledge (2012). At the moment, he is working on common knowledge and its connections in political and religious ideologies. Among his publications: Le proche et le lointain. Un siècle d’anthropologie au Maroc (2012), L’islam au quotidien (2007) and Usages de l’identité amazighe au Maroc (2006).

- Dr. Abdelkader Latreche: Population Expert at the Permanent Population Committee of the Ministry of Developmental Planning and Statistics in Doha, Qatar. He previously worked at the Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute and has earned his PhD in Statistics, Demography and Sociology from Paris 1 University in Paris, France.
 

C. Cycle Three of the Research Grants Program:

Selection Committee Members for RGP Cycle 3:

- Dr. Rami Daher: Associate Professor at the School of Architect and Built Environment at the German Jordanian University (GJU) and a practicing architect. He taught at the American University of Beirut's Department of Architecture & Design and at Jordan University of Science & Tech (holding position of Department Head between 2003 and 2006). Daher had earned a Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Jordan (1988), a Master of Architecture from the University of Minnesota (1991), a PhD in Architecture from Texas A&M U (1995), and did his post-doctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley (2001). Daher is a co-founder and a principal of TURATH: Architecture & Urban Design Consultants (1999-present), and Metropolis: Cities Research Council (2008- Present), the research arm of TURATH.

- Dr. Ruba Salih: Reader in Gender Studies at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, UK. Salih is a social anthropologist by training, is a Reader in Gender Studies at SOAS. She has worked and published extensively on transnational migration, diaspora and multiculturalism from a gendered perspective. In the last two years she has been involved (together with Sophie Richter-Devroe, Exeter University) in a research project on the Palestinian refugees, for which she is conducting fieldwork in Palestine, Lebanon and Jordan.

- Dr. Chahir Zaki: Assistant Professor of Economics at Cairo University in Cairo, Egypt. Dr. Zaki teaches and conducts research on trade policy. He holds a B.A. in Economics from Faculty of Economics and Political Science, Cairo University, an M.A. in Economics from Université Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne, and a Ph.D. in Economics from Université Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne. His area of specialization is development economics. His research interests include international trade, trade policy, trade in services, computable general equilibrium modeling, and gravity models.

- Dr. Fadma Ait Mous: Assistant Professor at Ain Chock Faculty of Letters and the Humanities (University Hassan II of Casablanca) and Researcher at the Centre Marocain des Sciences Sociales (CM2S) at the same university. She is also research manager at Centre de Recheche Economie, Société et Culture (CRESC) de l'EGE Rabat (Université Mohamed VI Polytechnique).
She holds a PhD in Political Science from Hassan II University in Casablanca where she wrote her thesis on the emergence of Moroccan nationalism from local to national networks.
Her research is mainly focused on issues related to nationalism and social movements, gender and socio-political transformations, history and memory, social media, citizenship and migration; and her recent publications include the book “Le métier d’intellectuel. Dialogues avec quinze penseurs du Maroc” (With D. Ksikes, En Toutes Lettres, 2014) ; “The Interest of Moroccans toward their Euro-Med Neighbours”, In The Anna Lindh Report 2014 ; "Terres collectives et inégalités: le combat des soulaliyates" (with Yasmine Berriane, in La Revue Economia, April 2014).

- Dr. Abdelkader Latreche: Population Expert at the Permanent Population Committee of the Ministry of Developmental Planning and Statistics in Doha, Qatar. He previously worked at the Consortium for Applied Research on International Migration at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute and has earned his PhD in Statistics, Demography and Sociology from Paris 1 University in Paris, France.