2025 BRISMES Early Career Development Scholarship Winners Announced

We are delighted to announce that Dr Farida Soliman and Dr Dirwar Zawity have been awarded 2025 BRISMES Early Career Development Scholarships. These awards, established in 2021, support activities geared toward strengthening the academic profile and CV of early career scholars. 

Farida Soliman

From the Committee: Farida Soliman's application provides a unique proposal to disseminate her PhD findings on gender inclusive language in recruitment practices to academics more broadly as well as practitioners within Arab speaking countries. Her work highlights the biased impact of masculine grammatical gender on hiring decisions and attitudes and includes a plan to collaborate with stakeholders, recruiters, policymakers and local businesses through co-created workshops to design practical interventions that promote gender inclusive recruitment across Arab speaking concepts. Farida's work offers a valuable contribution to labour practices, language based discrimination, inclusion and DEI initiatives. It offers a unique opportunity to help bridge the gap between academia and industry.

Dirwar Zawity

From the Committee: Dirwar Zawity's project is an important and original contribution to contemporary Middle Eastern Studies. His research examines the complex interactions between non-state actors in Iraq’s disputed territories, offering fresh insights into political and security dynamics that remain critically underexplored. Building on his recently completed PhD, Dirwar plans to expand and deepen his analysis through high-impact publications and a future monograph. His work stands out for its clear ambition to bridge academic research with pressing real-world issues, and for its commitment to amplifying perspectives often overlooked in mainstream discussions. As an early career scholar based in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, Dirwar’s drive and scholarly focus demonstrate his commitment to enriching the fields of Middle Eastern politics, conflict studies, and international relations, and we are excited to support his journey.  

We would like to congratulation our winners and sincerely thank everyone who submitted an application!