2024 Research Grant Program

To stimulate new and diverse lines of discourse about the Middle East and Africa, ASMEA’s Research Grants Program seeks to support research on topics that deserve greater attention. The topic areas and sub-topics listed below are intended as a guide for potential participants in the program and constitute the types of subjects that ASMEA intends to support. An applicant may submit a proposal on any topic as long as it is directly relevant to the five broad areas outlined below, and constitutes new and original research. Grants of $2500 will be awarded. For eligibility and requirements, refer to the grant guidelines.

Topic Areas:

Minorities and Women
  • Feminism, women’s rights, family law
  • Christians in the Middle East and Africa
  • Alevis, Bahai, Berbers, Druze, Kurds, Yazidis
Military History
  • Terrorist groups- ideologies, intentions, and methods
  • Conventional conflict and proxy war
  • Approaches to national security, deterrence, and proliferation
Governance and Economy
  • Maintaining power- elections, patronage, coercion
  • Political and economic reform movements
  • Economy and state corruption
  • Dealing with bounty: oil, gas and other resources
Faith
  • Islamism
  • Islamic heterodoxy
  • Islamic reform movements
  • Shia/Sunni rivalry
Iran
  • Current political affairs
  • Center vs. periphery and Persians vs. minorities
  • Traditional approaches to domestic rule and empire
  • Expressing opposition- protest, culture, youth, migration, violence

Guidelines:

  • Applicants must be current members of ASMEA and engaged in ongoing study of the Middle East or Africa. Applicants also must be enrolled in a Ph.D. program (with M.A. complete), or; serve in a post-doc capacity, or; serve as a visiting/assistant/associate/full professor teaching two or more courses per semester at an accredited institution. Applicants may be affiliated with any academic discipline.
  • Applications must be accompanied by a paper proposal that represents new and un-published research relevant to ASMEA's areas of study. Research grant proposals must be related to the qualifying research areas designated for that program.
  • First time and junior grant applicants are preferred but each application will be judged on its merits.
  • Applicants to the Research Grants Program must submit a brief letter of reference from their department chair. For student applicants, a letter from a dissertation advisor is acceptable.
  • Students must submit proof of enrollment and expected graduation date.
  • Applications will be accepted only via the ASMEA website.
  • Successful Research Grant Program applicants will be required to present their research at the Seventeenth Annual ASMEA Conference in Washington, D.C. Research grant winners also must provide ASMEA the right of first refusal for potential publication of their papers in the peer-reviewed, Journal of the Middle East and Africa.
  • Research grants may be used to cover any costs associated with conducting research for the specified proposal.
  • All research and writing must be completed by the deadline for final papers. Projects that go into 2025 will not be considered.
  • All grant applicants are eligible to win only one grant of any kind in 2024.
  • All submissions submitted with a Research Grant will be considered in our Call for Papers regardless of whether awarded a grant or not. No separate paper submission is necessary to be considered in the general Call for Papers.
  • Download a grant flyer here.

  • The deadline has passed and we are no longer accepting submissions.

Contact ASMEA at [email protected] for questions.