The Board of Directors of Middle East Medievalists (MEM) awarded the following graduate students a prize for the best graduate student paper on a medieval topic in the years below.
Winners of the MEM Graduate Student Prize:
2016
Yusen Yu (Heidelberg University), “Chinese Gold-decorated Paper and the Persianate Book Arts.”
2013-2015
Not Awarded
2012
Majied Robinson (Edinburgh University), “The Concubine in Statistical Context: A Prosopographical Analysis of the Arab Genealogical Tradition.”
AND
Rachel Friedman (University of California, Berkeley), “Religious Longing in the Ghazal of an Andalusi Muslim Convert.”
2011
Mushegh Asatryan (Yale University), “Bankers and Politics: 8th Century Kufan Moneychangers and Their Role in the Shi`a Community.”
2008-2010
Not Awarded
2007
Christine D. Baker (University of Texas, Austin), “Rebellion and the Rise of the Fatimids: The Crafting of Foundational Narratives.”
2006
Michael E. Pregill (Columbia University), “ Ahab, Bar Kokhba, Muhammad, and the Lying Spirit: Prophetic Discourse before and after the Rise of Islam.”
2005
Uriel Simonsohn (Princeton University), “Muslim Intervention or Non-Muslim Appeal: The Question of Communal Demarcation in Medieval Islam.”
2004
Behnam Sadeghi (Princeton University), “How Law does not Mirror Values: Two Case Studies in Women in the Public Space.”
2003
Elizabeth Alexandrin (McGill University), “Sibt Ibn al-Jawzi’s Mir’ât al-Zamân and the Basâsîrî Débâcle.”
2002
Tamer El-Leithy (Princeton University), “Between Assimilation and Resistance: New Evidence on Conversion Practices in Mamluk Society.”
2001
Dagmar A. Riedel (Indiana University), “Of God and Sultans: Leadership and Royal Ethics in the Rahat al-Sudur by Rawandi (fl. 1180-1200).”
2000
Deborah G. Tor (Harvard University), “Historical Representations of Ya‘qub ibn al-Layth: A Reappraisal.”
1999
Oya Pancaraglu (Harvard University), “Socializing Medicine: Illustrations of the Kitab al-Diryaq.”
1998
Amina A. Elbendary (American University in Cairo), “The Sultan, the Tyrant and the Hero: Changing Medieval Perceptions of al-Zahir Baybars.”
1997
Maya Yazigi (UCLA), “Reaching a Viable Truce: Medieval Muslim Women and the Art of Compromise.”
1996
Marianne Engle Cameron (University of Chicago), “Sayf at First: A Comparison of Conquest Narratives in Ibn Asakir’s Recension of Sayf b. ‘Umar with al-Tabari’s Recension of Sayf.”
1995
Paul M. Cobb (University of Chicago), “Al-Mutawakkil in Damascus, 244/858.”