Doctoral Dissertation Summer Workshop: Researching Lebanon, 13-24 June 2016, Beirut, Lebanon

The Arab Studies Institute (ASI) and AUB’s Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies (CAMES) are pleased to announce the first Lebanon-focused Doctoral Dissertation Summer Workshop, to be held 13-24 June 2016. The program aims to provide a framework for facilitating and advancing rigorous inter-disciplinary doctoral dissertation research on Lebanon.

Scholarly literature on Lebanon is seldom fully integrated into the graduate coursework of PhD students focusing on the Middle East and North Africa region. Furthermore, such students rarely find themselves at institutions with access to a scholar of Lebanon to fulfill the role of course professor, academic advisor, field examiner, or dissertation committee member. These dynamics are particularly important given the frequent and problematic ways that historical and contemporary political, economic, social, and cultural dynamics in Lebanon are exceptionalized vis-à-vis the comparative study of societies in general and the Middle East in particular.

By bringing together PhD students of various disciplinary training and topical foci, this program creates a space to interrogate, modify, and develop critical approaches to the study of Lebanon. Central to this process is increasing students’ familiarity with the contours of knowledge production as well as field research in Lebanon.

Eligibility

In order to apply and be considered for admission into the doctoral dissertation summer workshop, individuals must fulfill the following criteria:

1. Currently enrolled in an accredited doctoral program. Please note: applicants can be based in humanities or social science divisions of their academic institutions, and can be seeking a discipline-specific or interdisciplinary degree.
2. Advanced to candidacy or ABD (i.e., have formally defended their dissertation research proposal and passed their general and/or qualifying exams) by no later than 1 June 2016.
3. Possess advanced Arabic proficiency in reading and speaking and intermediate Arabic proficiency in writing.

Application

Application Deadline: 15 February 2016

Notification of Decision: By 1 April 2016

All applicants must submit the following materials via email to Lebanon.Dissertaton@gmail.com :

1. Cover Letter (must include reasons for applying to the workshop; summary of research agenda; description of academic preparation; and mention of prior experience in the region and/or Lebanon).
2. Current Curriculum Vitae (CV).
3. Letter of Recommendation from Primary Advisor and/or Dissertation Chair.
4. Copy of Research Prospectus Approved by Home University (15-page limit).
5. Completed Academic and Language Training Form (click here to download).

Schedule and Preliminary Program

Participant Arrival: Sunday 12 June 2016

Summer Workshop: Monday 13 June – Friday 24 June 2016

Participant Departure: Saturday 25 June 2016

Syllabus

The workshop program will begin on 13 June 2016 and end on 24 June 2016. It will be comprised of eleven working days and one day off. Each working day will be made up of three components: seminar discussion, state-of-the-field lecture, and site visit. The seminar will be based on a pre-circulated inter-disciplinary reader, and will be facilitated by the institute co-directors, Ziad Abu-Rish and Nadya Sbaiti. The lectures will be given by invited established scholars, highlighting the current state of academic literature on Lebanon in a given discipline (e.g., history, political science, and anthropology) or topic (e.g., urban studies, political economy, and migration). Key in this respect will be how that literature has changed over the past few decades in terms of questions, theoretical frameworks, and methodologies. Site visits will include archives, libraries, and research centers, as well as walking tours and public events. Such visits will be conducted in collaboration with local researchers, practitioners, and activists.

Organizers

This doctoral dissertation summer workshop is being organized under the auspices of the Arab Studies Institute in partnership with the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies, American University of Beirut. It is co-convened and co-directed by Ziad Abu-Rish and Nadya Sbaiti.

Contact

• Co-Conveners/Directors: Ziad Abu-Rish and Nadya Sbaiti
• Email: Lebanon.Dissertation@gmail.com