SGP Grantees (2019)

The ACSS Small Grants Program (SGP) is a funding opportunity that aims to support individual Arab researchers and activists who reside in the Arab region, and whose work focuses on Arab societies.

Small grants averaging $4,000 fund five types of activities: conference presentations, internships, pilot studies, dissemination events, and workshops.

The 2019 Cycle of the program is funded by grants provided to the ACSS by the Ford Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida).

Selection Committee

The Selection Committee for the 2019 Cycle of the Small Grants Program was made up of the following scholars:

Abdullah Al-Kafri is the Executive Director of Ettijahat – Independent Culture. A playwright and cultural activist, Abdullah works as a trainer in various cultural fields with organizations including Culture Resource (Al Mawred Al Thaqafy) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung. Since 2015, he has been a member of the artistic committee of Sundance Institute’s MENA Theatre Lab, and is a regular participant at conferences and forums on culture and art. He has also collaborated with art organizations such as Lift and The Royal Court in the UK and the Lark in the US.

Lahcen Ameziane received his PhD in Sociology in December 2005 from the University of Mohammed Bin Abdullah in Fez in Morocco. His dissertation focused on local communities and development. He co-founded and served as an associate researcher in the Laboratory for Sociological and Psychological Research and Studies (LAREPS) at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Dhar El-Mehraz in Fez. He previously worked as a consultant on foreign interests at the Ministry of Housing and Construction, and as a senior consultant at Omrane-Meknes (formerly known as the Lodging and Construction Company). He has been teaching Sociology at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat since September 2009. He is currently an active member of the Sociological and Anthropological Research team (ERSA). In addition to a book on the political behavior of the local elite in Morocco, hepublished several articles in international and Moroccan journals. He also currently coordinates the Master’s Program in Sociological Transformations and Social Movements at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities in Rabat, which are also related to his current research in the fields of urban sociology, the sociology of organizations and social change.

Lina Abou-Habib is the Executive Director of Women’s Learning Partnership, and Executive Director of the Collective for Research and Training on Development–Action (CRTD-A), which promotes women’s leadership, political participation, and citizenship and economic rights in Lebanon and the MENA region. Abou-Habib is a co-founder and coordinator of the Machreq/Maghreb Gender Linking and Information Project. She has collaborated with a number of regional and international agencies, as well as public institutions, in mainstreaming gender in development policies and practices and in building capacities for gender mainstreaming. She is a former chair of the board of the Association for Women’s Rights in Development (AWID), and she currently is a MENA advisor for the Global Fund for Women and on the editorial board of Oxfam’s journal, Gender and Development. Abou-Habib is a PhD candidate at the Auckland University of Technology. Her interest areas include action-oriented research on the impact of the denial of citizenship rights to women in MENA countries, active citizenship and gendered social entitlements in Lebanon, Palestine and Egypt, and topics related to women and their political participation, invisible care work, economic contribution in rural communities and access to markets, faith-based organizations, migrant women, and women in post-war Lebanon.

Small Grants Program Grantees (2019) Cycle 1

Themes: Youth and Urban Spatial Inequalities

Pilot Study

Abdul-Rahim Al-Shaikh

Nationality: Palestinian

Project Title: The Camp/Cemetery: The Politics of Life and Death in Palestinian Camps

Farida Naceur

Nationality: Algerian

Project Title: The Impact of the Informal Sector in Urban Cities in Algeria: The Case of the Informal Urban Sector in Medium-Sized Cities

Fouad Ghorbali

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: Clandestine Sex Workers in the City: An Anthropological Study of the Urban Uses of Public Spaces in Tunis by Clandestine Sex Workers

Hajar Bouzid

Nationality: Moroccon

Project Title: Growing Old on the Margins: A Sociological Study of the Elderly’s Strategies to Fight Spatial Marginalization: Takaddoum Neighborhood as a Case Study

Hicham Ganich

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: Urban Life and the Emergence of Sub-Identities: A Preliminary Sociological Study of the Cultural Alternatives among Young Urban Women: Rabat as a Case Study

Nadia Elatfani

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: New Cities in Morocco and Residents’ Strategies to Fight Socio-Spatial Marginalization: Tamesna as a Case Study

Nouran El-Marsafy

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: The Notion of Urban Market District and People’s Right to Heritage

Sofiane Bouhdiba

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: Towards Improved Political Participation of Young Women in the Arab World: A Comparative Study between Morocco, Tunisia and Jordan

Youssef Soubai

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: Youth Perceptions of Spatial Culture and Justice: Guelmim as a Case Study

Zeinab Al-Baqary

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: Pets in the City as a Prelude to Studying Spatial Inequality in the Modern City: A Socio-Anthropological Study of Cairo

Organizing a Workshop

Areej Hamdan

Nationality: Palestinian

Project Title: Young Palestinian Women’s Participation in Civil Life: The Right to Forming Non-Profit Civil Society Organizations

Rand El-Hajj Hasan

Nationality: Jordanian

Project Title: Anthropological and Architectural Mapping of Semi-Public Spaces

Travel Grant

Ahmed Al-Kubaisi

Nationality: Iraqi

Project Title: The Dynamics of Sustainable Urban Development in the Organization of Future Cities (Paper to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Geographers (AAG))

Nashwa Khedr

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: Teaching for Social Justice in ESD Programs: A Case Study from Egypt (Paper to be presented at the2019 Conference of the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES))

Sahera Bleibleh

Nationality: Emirati

Project Title: T Rebuilding the Camp: Narratives of Refugees’ Everyday Place (Paper to be presented at S.ARCH 2019)

Suliman Abusalama

Nationality: Palestinian

Project Title: The Legal Framework of the Electronic Public Utility in Palestine (Paper to be presented at the Conference on Digital Cities, Electronic Disputes and E-Environment Protection)

Dissemination Event

Monica Basbous

Nationality: Lebanese

Project Title: Planning the City through Play: Informal Making of Communal Football Fields in Beirut’s Neighborhoods

Salma Belkebir

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: Socio-Spatial Effects of Metropolization and Socio-Spatial Inequality in the City of Ain El-Aouda, Morocco

Small Grants Program Grantees (2019) Cycle 2

Pilot Study

Faten Mbarek

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: التعبيرات الشبابية والديمقراطية الثقافية. دراسة مقارنة بين تونس المغرب لموسيقات الشارع في ما بعد 2011

Houda Grimli

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: الثقافة الرقمية ورهان الهوية الدينية عند الشباب المغربي

Oumar El Hamdani

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: شباب الأحياء العشوائية وأشكال التفاوض على استعمال المجال العمومي: مدينة الرباط نموذجا

Abdeslam El Fakir

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: المعيش اليومي لشباب الهامش، سياسة الشارع واستراتيجيات المقاومة

Sahar Abdel Khalek

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: الأسواق الأسبوعية في الريف المصري: دراسة في اللاحركات الاجتماعية

Youness Loukili

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: الشباب واللامساواة الاجتماعية في مدينة الدار البيضاء: أشكال إدراك الهامش والتعبير عنه في الشبكات الاجتماعية

Mahmoud Abdalel

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: تأثير المسجد في تشكيل الوعي السياسي للشباب الجامعي: دراسة ميدانية على عينة من الشباب في جامعات القاهرة، وسوهاج، والأزهر

Zaimen Fouad

Nationality: Algerian

Project Title: البحارة الصيادين الشباب بين التهميش والاندماج، مقاربة سوسيو-اقتصادية: دراسة حالة مدينة جيجل بالجزائر

Hind Siyouri

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: Les injustices du sexisme au bled de l’armoise et du vent La jeune épouse entre la victimisation et la réplique agressive

Kaouther Douzi

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: الحانات كمدخل لدراسة التهميش في المدينة العربية: دراسة أنثرو- سوسيولوجية في مدينة القاهرة

Azzeddine El Faraa

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: الحُدود كمدخلٍ لتفسير اللاّمساواة من منظُورٍ عابرٍ للحُدود

Travel Grant

Hala Makhlouf

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: In and Beyond the City: Emerging Ontologies, Persistent Challenges and Hopeful Futures

Rozana Darwich

Nationality: Lebanese

Project Title: 2019 AESOP Annual Congress in Italy

Sandra Frem

Nationality: Lebanese

Project Title: Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism 2019- The Collective City

Brahim Alhiani

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: Visual Imperatives/ Visual Uncertainties

Rima Majed

Nationality: Lebanese

Project Title: Conceptualizing Sectarianism(s): Structures and Changes in Modern Lebanon

Shereen Abouelnaga

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: The Question of Agency in African Studies

Organizing a Workshop

Perla Issa

Nationality: Lebanese

Project Title: Research training workshop I

Small Grants Program Grantees (2019) Cycle 3

Pilot Study

Amal El Hattab

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: ماذا يعني أن تكون شابا في المغرب؟ تمثلات الشباب لأدوارهم في عملية التغيير الاجتماعي والسياسي ما بعد

El Houcine Talbioui

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: الشباب وأشكال التهميش الثقافي و اللامساواة المكانية بمدينة الدارالبيضاء الشباب ممارسي "فن الشارع" بساحة الأمم المتحدة (أنموذجا)

Hassan Hassan

Nationality: Somali

Project Title: Exploring the Challenges and Opportunities in Youth Civic Engagement

Fidae El Hassouni

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: الشباب والعمل بالتعاونيات النسوية بالمغرب : أنماط التدبير والحوكمة

Hicham Seghiri

Nationality: Algerian

Project Title: Disparités socio-spatiales dans l'accès à l'eau : cas de l'agglomération de Tlemcen en Algérie

Noha Atef

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: المواطنين الصحافيين العرب وسطاء لتوعية الشباب والمراهقين

Omar Ahmed

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: Open space justice and traffic-permeability dialogue in Historic Cairo

Omnia Khalil

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: Dispossession and Violence shaping Urban Subjectivities in Cairo

Ahmed Abouelella

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: ثورة 25 يناير وإحياء الحراك نحو العودة للنوبة القديمة - دراسة استطلاعية للشباب النوبي

Alia Okasha

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: دراسة استطلاعية لجدوى إقامة حديقة تاريخ علوم طبيعية بيئية، في حلوان

Mohammed El Fatehy

Nationality: Moroccan

Project Title: الشباب والمجال العمومي بالوسط الحضري المغربي : مُقاربة سوسيو-أنثروبولوجية لأشكال مُقاومة اللاّمساواة المكانية المدينيّة

Heba Mousa

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: Justice in provision of bicycle infrastructure in Egypt and bicycle usage

Travel Grant

Soha Mneimneh

Nationality: Lebanese

Project Title: A Segment of Beirut’s Real-estate Machine: Housing Production and Exchange in Tariq el-Jdide (1996-2018)

Mennatullah Hendawy

Nationality: Egyptian

Project Title: Knowledge as Power: Communication/Visualization of Urban Planning in a Mediatized Age yet Centralized Context. Towards Spatial-Social-Visual Justice in Egypt

Hatem Jemmali

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: Dynamic Impacts of Climate Changes and Agricultural Sustainability on Food-Water Poverty in a Panel of Selected MENA Countries

Chiheb Yahyaoui

Nationality: Tunisian

Project Title: الحكم المحلّي وخصوصية الفاعل التنموي المحلّي قراءة سوسيوتنموية في قانون الحكم المحلي 2018 تونس

Hussam Hussein

Nationality: Jordanian

Project Title: Water politics in Jordan: unpacking discourses, power, and geopolitical dynamics

Organizing a Workshop

Rana Hassan

Nationality: Lebanese