Interested in deepening or sharing your knowledge of the Arab world? The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies is pleased to offer a range of scholarships, fellowships, and awards to Georgetown and non-Georgetown academics who are interested in Arab studies. To support original research and hear fresh perspectives, the Center offers the Sultan of Oman Scholarly Paper Prize of $2,000 to the most original scholarly paper in modern Arab studies. For recent PhDs exploring US-Arab Relations, Arab or Islamic Studies the Center offers a one-year Post-Doctoral fellowship, made possible by the State of Qatar. There is also an opportunity to study Arabic at the University of Qatar on a scholarship program administered by CCAS.
Specifically, the Oman Paper prize is awarded to a scholar whose writing illustrates innovation, has a strong theoretical component, and advances our knowledge of the Arab world. Ranging from 10,000-20,000 words, these papers must be comparable to the standards of leading scholarly journals. The papers must be exclusive to the Oman Paper prize and cannot have been published elsewhere.
While the Paper prize allows scholars to demonstrate their knowledge, opportunities abound for students looking to advance their understanding of the Arab world and perfect their Arabic skills, such as the Qatar Scholarship Program. Awarded to five committed Arabic language students from the US, the program is designed to help these students master the language by living and studying in Doha, Qatar. As students at the University of Qatar for a year, they attend classes with highly specialized and experienced instructors to master the Modern Standard Arabic and formal spoken Arabic. Through reading, composition, phonetics, and grammar exercises coupled with a study of Arabic literature, the Quran, Hadith, and poetry, these non-native speakers soon develop a strong command of the language.
Finally, for those with PhD’s, the Center awards a Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellowship to a fellow hoping to publish his or her dissertation. In return, the fellow is asked to teach a seminar in their area of expertise and give a lecture highlighting their research.
Last year’s post-doctoral fellow, Kenneth Garden, said, “My research for the rest of my career will be much more fruitful as a result of my year as a Qatar post-doctoral fellow, which allowed me to delve further into the implications of my dissertation rather than immediately immersing myself in full-time teaching.”
The program allowed Garden the time and resources to formulate a paper on “The Controversy Over Al-Ghazali’s Return to Teaching in Nishapur—499/1106-503-1109.” While at Georgetown, he also taught a course on the “Narratives of Islamic Revival.” In addition, he delivered a lecture entitled “al-Ghazali the Reviver” to the religious studies department of Stanford University.
The Center is able to provide these exciting and resourceful programs because of generous contributions from individuals, organizations, corporations, and several Arab governments. For instance, a grant from the State of Qatar to the Center finances the Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellowship, and the Oman Prize is made possible through the Sultanate of Oman Outreach, Research and Publications Endowment. We rely on these contributions in order to uphold our commitment to supporting student research and advanced study. If you are interested in learning more about opportunities to contribute to the Center’s research fund, please contact Liliane Salimi.