This is part of the MENA Politics Newsletter, Volume 2, Issue 1, Spring 2019. Download the PDF of this letter here.
Hello and greetings from APSA!
Congratulations to the new MENA Politics Organized Section on the publication of this issue of the newsletter. We are delighted that the community of MENA Politics research continues to grow within the association, as we continue to seek new opportunities for engagement and collaboration between scholars based in and outside the United States. Over the past couple of months, the APSA MENA Program has extended our support to early career scholars attending quantitative and qualitative methods training; collaborated with political science departments in the region on projects benefiting graduate students and faculty; and recruited fellows for the 2019 APSA MENA Workshop.
At the start of the year, we held the second week of the MENA workshop on “The Evolving Role of Political Institutions in the Arab World,” which was held from January 28 to February 1, 2019 in Tunisia. Across the five days of the workshop, fellows presented and received feedback on their own research and attended a variety of professional development sessions on publishing and job market strategies, among other useful skills. Following this workshop, alumni received 3 years membership to APSA and the MENA Politics Organized Section. We are now selecting fellows for the 2019 Workshop on “Women and Politics: MENA Experiences.” This year’s workshop is led by Naima Benlarabi (Ibn Tofail University, Morocco), Rachel Brulé (New York University-Abu Dhabi, UAE), Hanane Darhour (Polydisciplinary Faculty of Ouarzazate, Morocco), Liv Tønnessen (Chr. Michelsen Institute, Norway), and Aili Mari Tripp (University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA), and will take place in Abu Dhabi, UAE from June 9-13, and in Rabat, Morocco from October 14-18.
Aside from the MENA Workshops, we are expanding our support to Arab scholars interested in undertaking rigorous training in quantitative and qualitative methods. In collaboration with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) APSA is sponsoring 5 Arab scholars to participate in ICPSR’s summer institute at the University of Michigan from June 24 to July 19. Similarly, APSA is sponsoring 3 MENA-based scholars to attend the Institute of Qualitative and Multi-Method Research (IQMR) at Syracuse University, NY from June 17-28.
The departmental collaboration initiative continues to seek proposals from departments of political science in the region. APSA is supporting a week-long workshop in April on the use of machine text analysis software for PhD students and junior faculty at Cairo University. APSA also extended a 2-year grant to the American University in Cairo to organize research methods workshop for MA students in the Spring semester and a teaching workshop for junior faculty in the Fall semester.
APSA is also lending support to the Arab Political Science Network (APSN), a non-political scholarly initiative led by a group of APSA MENA alumni that seeks to support and increase Arab scholars’ research and teaching outputs in the study of political science, and its sub and related fields. APSN, with support from the Ford Foundation and the Asfari Institute for Civil Society and Citizenship at the American University in Beirut (AUB), is holding its first research feedback workshop in Beirut on April 11.
Following the success of last year’s MENA Research Development Group (RDG) at the APSA Annual Meeting, APSA will provide travel grants to 6 early-career Arab scholars taking part in the 2019 MENA RDG. The RDG is an annual event organized by the MENA Politics organized section, featuring a full day of research feedback and professional development discussions that take place the day before the APSA annual meeting. We invite all members of the MENA Politics section to take part in APSA’s MENA Program.
Please contact us directly for more information or to discuss ways of getting involved. Best to all in the coming months and stay well!
Ahmed Morsy and Andrew Stinson, APSA International Programs