In our June 2020 Statement on Anti-Racism, the Board of Directors of Middle East Medievalists (MEM) committed to creating a fellowship to support graduate students of color in medieval studies. The fellowship is designed to assist students to present at and/or attend the annual meeting of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). These funds can, in principle, be used to pay the conference registration fee or to defray other travel expenses. MEM typically puts out a call for applications in the early spring, prioritizing applicants who have had papers accepted for MESA. If funding allows, a second call for applications will go out in the summer.
To apply, please send a paragraph containing the following information to the MEM secretary (haugrt@ucmail.uc.edu): your graduate program/institutional affiliation; whether or not you are a MESA member; a brief statement about why you wish to attend the MESA annual meeting; and any other sources of funding available to you. We will review applications as they come in, so that we can fund as many students as possible before MESA’s September pre-registration deadline. We will continue to consider applications as long as we have funds available. Please note that we are willing to reimburse participants or attendees who have already paid the registration fee, if they demonstrate need. Any questions about the process should be directed to the MEM secretary (haugrt@ucmail.uc.edu).
We started this fellowship with MEM’s own funds, but we need your help to make it grow. Do you want to help MEM create a more diverse field of study of the medieval Middle East? Then use the form below to make a donation! (As always, gifts to MEM are tax-deductible in the US.)