Opportunities

Institute for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies, Durham University

The Sir William Luce Memorial Fund committee welcomes applications for the 2027 Sir William Luce Fellowship, 26 April - 25 June 2027.

The Sir William Luce Fellowship is awarded annually to a scholar at post-doctoral level, diplomat, politician, academic or business executive, working on those parts of the Middle East to which Sir William Luce devoted his working life (the Gulf monarchies, Yemen, Iran, Sudan, and South Sudan). The fellow is hosted by Durham University during the Easter term of each academic year. Recent fellows have included Mark Katz, Edward Thomas, Helen Lackner, Richard Barltrop, Ambassador John W. Limbert, Dr Altea Pericoli and Professor Simon Smith. 

The Committee seek to appoint a Fellow whose work might offer, for example, fresh perspectives on political, social, economic and security issues in the area comprising Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, the Gulf monarchies, and Iran. These perspectives might be historical or contemporary in their disciplinary focus. Fellows are expected to engage with academic staff at Durham and with the distinctive resources available at Durham - The Sudan Archive and the extensive documentary and library collections relating to the MENA region and Gulf in particular. The fund also makes available limited funds for the successful applicant to visit the Luce papers held at the Gulf Studies Centre at Exeter University.

The NYU Abu Dhabi Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World program invites applications for its upcoming Graduate Student Research Workshop to be hosted on April 5-7, 2027 at NYU Abu Dhabi.

We welcome applications from international doctoral students with the opportunity to present and thoroughly discuss their Ph.D. projects related to the Arab world.

Participants will read and discuss each other’s work in addition to presenting their own. They will be required to prepare a 10-minute presentation of their research project, which will be followed by 10 minutes of commentary from an assigned discussant, and a 35-minute open discussion.

NYUAD-based scholars in a variety of disciplines will offer feedback on the students’ projects and questions related to research, writing, and professional development. The workshop is also an opportunity to meet, learn from, and develop relationships with colleagues in the field.

Applications are encouraged for projects that range across the arts, humanities, and social sciences related to the study of the Arab world, broadly defined, its rich literature and history, its cultural and artistic heritage, and its manifold connections with other cultures.

The Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World program will cover travel costs to and from Abu Dhabi, accommodation, and meals during the three-day workshop. 

The Humanities Research Fellowship for the Study of the Arab World invites applications from established scholars for its Research Writing Residency, to be held at NYU Abu Dhabi from January 11-29, 2027.  

The three-week residency will bring together an international cohort of up to ten scholars to advance an existing research project toward completion. We welcome projects in all areas of the Humanities related to the study of the Arab world, its rich literature and history, its cultural and artistic heritage, and its manifold connections with other cultures. Scholars may work on any type of academic writing, including a research article, book manuscript, chapter, or essay. 

The residency is designed for scholars who are already well advanced in a research project and are in the writing, revision, or final stages of completing it. It is not intended for developing or beginning a new research project.

The research proposal should indicate the current stage of the project, what the applicant aims to accomplish during the three-week residency and how being at NYUAD and/or the UAE would specifically support or benefit the project. 

The fellowship will cover scholar’s travel to and from Abu Dhabi, accommodation, and meals for the duration of the residency.

Atlas of Today's World is a nonprofit online encyclopedia that aims to help the general public worldwide better understand the broad socio-political situation in today’s world. By providing a broader and more comprehensive perspective on current events, our goal is to enable the general public to access academic-quality "big-picture" portraits of long-term social and political realities. The lack of a systematic, high-quality, and accessible overview of the world in the current information landscape is the gap we intend to fill.

We are currently accepting contributions to our Middle East and North Africa Profile, covering topics including:

• Human Rights, Minorities and Gender
• Living Standards & Impacts of Conflict
• Environmental Conditions
• Economic Systems and Corruption
• Ideology and Religion (including Sunni-Shia dynamics and religious minorities)
• Society, Demography, Migration & Social Tensions
• Nature of the State (democracy, autocracy, monarchy, hybrid structures)
• Major Non-State Actors (religious institutions, tribal structures, civil society, media, armed groups)
• International Relations & Regional Power Dynamics
• Colonial Legacy, State Formation & Post-Independence Transformations
• Political Upheavals, the Arab Spring, Youth and Digitalization

Interested contributors can submit a 100-word abstract to navarro-mana@atlasoftodaysworld.org on a rolling basis, with priority given to applications sent by October 31, 2026. Submissions are reviewed and edited by our editorial team for clarity, accuracy, and rigor. You can find examples of entries here.

BRISMES Trustee and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature, Dr Feras Alkabani, has been commissioned to edit The Bloomsbury Handbook to LGBTQ+ Culture in the Middle East and North Africa, and would like to invite scholars working on relevant areas covered in the edited collection to contribute a chapter. 

The Bloomsbury Handbook to LGBTQ+ Culture in the Middle East and North Africa offers an exploration of LGBTQ+ culture across a region often overlooked or misrepresented in global queer narratives. Through a blend of historical context and contemporary cultural analysis, the book challenges monolithic portrayals and highlights the resilience, creativity and complexity of queer identities across diverse MENA societies and in their diaspora.

Chapters will typically be around 8,000 words (with some flexibility); first drafts are expected to start arriving in early 2027. 

If you are interested or would like to discuss your potential contribution, please contact Dr Alkabani directly: f.alkabani@sussex.ac.uk. 

This edited volume centers the space that is bounded by an Arab East, a European North, an African South, and an Atlantic West. Generally encompassing Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia, the label used to name this region variously includes or excludes Mauritania, Libya, and Egypt. Tamazgha, the Maghreb, al-Maghrib al-‘Arabi, and North Africa: each label originates in specific historical-political junctures and comprises particular power relations. 

This collective book seeks to provide a view of visual, literary, and cultural aspects of the region to explore and critically interrogate the multifaceted encounters between the peoples and ideas of Tamazgha, the Maghreb, North Africa, and the world. It invites chapters that examine how Western images of this region have evolved over time and how local representations of the West have developed in response—including through trans-Saharan and trans-Mediterranean networks, borderland formations, and other sites of mobility and encounter. 

Emphasizing a contrapuntal reading and a multidisciplinary and decolonial methodology, the book seeks to reassess how this region of complex and contested identities and cultures have been shaped by engagements with Western and non-Western thought, aesthetics, and ideology. It centers local and indigenous perspectives in shaping and contesting cultural representations, while fostering dialogue across disciplines. The book encourages innovative methodologies that challenge previous approaches and discourses while also opening space for more nuanced and decolonial readings of cultural production and exchange.