Grants and Awards

This grant awards up to $700 each to affiliated faculty members and graduate students who present a paper or organize a panel at the Middle Eastern Studies Association annual conference. Awards must be claimed by May 15 each year.

Affiliated faculty members at Syracuse University may apply to this grant to support the development of graduate-level courses or units within existing courses that would increase the coverage of the MENA region. MESP will award two graduate course development grants at $2,000 per course. The application deadline is April 1 each year.

Syracuse University graduate students may apply for this grant award to support research for a master's thesis or doctoral project concerning the Middle East. The application deadline is April 1 each year. These awards are funded by the Goekjian and Perryman endowments.

The Middle Eastern Studies Program will grant $250 to students taking study abroad courses in the Middle East. Please note that MESP doesn't offer funds for courses that have their own funding.

This award recognizes a Middle Eastern Studies Program affiliated faculty member for their quality of teaching, number of courses taught in the past three years and excellence in the full range of pedagogical and curricular activities in which our faculty are engaged. The recipient receives a plaque and monetary gift of $500. The nomination deadline is April 1 each year.

To support research collaborations between MESP faculty and undergraduate students, the program awards two Undergraduate Research Assistant (RA) Fellowships each academic year in the amount of $1,500. The fellowships are awarded to Syracuse University faculty who work on Middle Eastern studies-related research projects to hire undergraduate students to work as RAs on the project. Interested faculty should submit their applications by November 1.

This annual essay contest is open to all Syracuse University undergraduate and graduate students. The Young Scholar Prize is awarded to the best two essays dealing with any aspect of the Middle East written by one undergraduate and one graduate student. The authors of the winning papers are presented with an award of $500 and a certificate. The submission deadline is April 1 each year.

The Middle Eastern Studies Program is pleased to invite applications from Syracuse University faculty for two research grants of up to $2,000 per project to support faculty research in the MENA region. Applications must be received by November 1, 2023. Those who received an MESP faculty research grant within the last 24 months are not eligible.