Research Projects

New Funding Scheme

CBRL-BRISMES Research Network Award 2012-2013

'The Middle East after the Arab Uprisings: New Directions for Politics, Society and Culture'

The Council for British Research in the Levant, in partnership with the British Society for Middle East Studies, has launched a new scheme to support research networks exploring the impact of the Arab uprisings on politics, society and culture in the region. The scheme invites applications for funding of up to £10,000 to build a network of UK and Middle Eastern scholars and social actors to develop a deeper understanding of the causes and consequences of the Arab spring.

The scheme is open to all fields of Middle East Studies (including, but not limited to, political science, sociology, international relations, anthropology, geography, economics, history, religious studies, media and cultural studies, linguistics, and literature). Inter-disciplinary approaches are welcome.

While the usual focus of the CBRL is the countries of the Levant, for the purposes of this scheme the geographical remit has been extended to include Egypt and other Arab countries involved in the uprisings.

For further information, visit www.cbrl.org.uk/support

The deadline is 27 February 2012.

Funding for Doctoral Research in Arab World Studies and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Manchester

The University of Manchester is offering a range of awards to which candidates working on topics related to Arab World Studies are eligible to apply. The two main awards, which comprise a fee-bursary and a maintenance grant, are ESRC studentships in Language-Based Area Studies and the University-funded President's Doctoral Scholar Awards.

1. The North West Doctoral Training Centre, jointly run by the Universities of Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester, is offering 3 PhD studentships in Language-Based Area Studies, in fields which include Arab World Studies. This award covers home/EU fees and offers a maintenance grant. (Last year the value of the grant was £13,590.) Successful candidates will be based at the University of Manchester. The University has wide-ranging expertise in Arab World Studies and Middle Eastern Studies, with relevant members of staff based across the Faculty of Humanities, particularly in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures and the School of Social Sciences. We will be able to offer supervision in a wide range of topics concering the societies, politics, history and literature of the Arab World.

For a description of the North West DTC and of the opportunities for post-graduate studies which it offers, please go to http://www.nwdtc.ac.uk/ and http://www.nwdtc.ac.uk/programmes/pathways.html

For all funding opportunities in the discipline, see http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/

The application deadline for the ESRC studentships is 23 March, 2012. Please note that you should apply for a place on the PhD programme in one of the two Schools mentioned above by 7 March at the latest. The choice of School will depend on the location of the member of staff you wish to be supervised by.

For informal inquiries, please contact: Dr Ron Buckley, School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

2. This year, the University of Manchester has launched a new £2.5m investment in PhD training with the creation of the President's Doctoral Scholar Awards. These awards are open to all new PhD students (home, EU or overseas) and all disciplines. The Department of Middle Eastern Studies in the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures is welcoming applications for this funding scheme from candidates working on any topic related to the history, cultures, religions, languages and literature of the Middle East, including Arab World, Persian, Palestine and Israel Studies, as well as Jewish Studies in any period. The award covers tuition fees (home/EU or international, as appropriate) and the equivalent of the research council stipend (£13,590 in 2011-12). The following application deadlines should be observed in relation to this award:

An application for a place on a doctoral programme should be submitted to the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures by Wednesday 15 February 2012 at the latest; a completed funding application form should be submitted by Friday 1 March 2012 at the latest.

For guidelines about how to apply, please visit http://www.llc.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/funding/

For informal inquiries about the academic side of the application process, please contact

Dr Ron Buckley at mailto: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it %20or Professor Alex Samely at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

For questions about the administrative side of the application process, please contact

Ms Rachel Corbishley at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Culture and Learning in the Seminaries of Iraq and Iran

Dedicated project website

Introduction

This project is collaborative grant, awarded by the British Academy, and administered by BRISMES.  The total award is circa £142k over three years, 2009-2012.  It is informally referred to as the “Hawza project” as it aims to encourage research, particularly from doctoral, post-doctoral and emerging scholars on the system of clerical seminary education known as the Hawza.  One additional aim of the project is to increase scholarly traffic between the Hawza and western academic research on the Hawza.

The project’s activities include:

(1)   a series of workshops (some large and more formal, and some small and more intimate).  The most recent workshop was held on 24th September 2010 at Birkbeck College, London, as part of BRISMES Summer Event to showcase the work of our research networks.  The previous workshop was held on 9^th December at the University of Exeter.  Details can be seen online at:  http://people.exeter.ac.uk/rmg205/hawzaprojectworkshop2.htm

The final workshop of year 1 was held at Royal Holloway, University of London on 30^th March 2010.

(2)   annual research programme grants (4 each year, totalling £5000 each)

(3)   visiting scholarships (one month visits from scholars based outside of the UK to be stay at a UK institution, work with a UK-based academic on an agreed programme of research work).

(4)   Publication of proceedings (projected as three collections of papers, relating to the research sponsored in each year of the project).

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