Fellowship Opportunity for Arab Scholars and Activists in the Arab Region: “New Paradigms Factory”
A new project of the Arab Council for the Social Sciences facilitating publishing of new thinking by critical, activist, young Arab scholars
Are you challenging ways of thinking about politics, culture, action, and social change?
Are you frustrated by the way Arab or Western journalists frame the events of Arab uprisings, new social transformations, state formations, and public cultures?
Do you think that contemporary social science paradigms are no longer useful or up-do-date?
Have you formulated a critique and an alternative way of analyzing or understanding contemporary and historical societal processes?
The ACSS is offering ten “Factory Fellowships” for the rethinking of social science paradigms. Winners will receive an honorarium, translation and editing support as well as intensive mentoring during the period between October 1 and December 3, 2012. A broad network will then be deployed to publish your work in a prominent, prestigious journal or respected online magazine. By publishing your own work, in a recognized publication, you will be able to stamp your vision on a “new paradigm” for the social sciences or offer a new frame for a debate that you feel has paralyzed thought, politics, and social change in the region. You will help ignite a new generation of scholarship and activist thought in the Arab region.
The Theme for the first class of “Factory Fellows” (October 1 – December 3, 2012) is “Sovereignty.”
“Paradigm,” for the purposes of this project, signifies any mainstream pattern of thinking or a predominant model for analyzing a set of social problems, cultural norms or political situations. A paradigm structures which phenomena should be observed and scrutinized, which questions should be asked, and how realities, data, and findings should be interpreted. A paradigm can also signify a well-established habit of linking cause and effect. A paradigm is both a mode of analysis predominant in the social sciences and also a worldview that underlies how the news media, public spheres, and the state, themselves, perceive social, political, economic and/or cultural problems. When an applicant identifies a paradigm that they wish to challenge, the applicant should give an example of how that paradigm appears in social science discourse and in the media. And then the applicant should specify what new data, findings, and/or cases will be presented to challenge this old paradigm and to propose a new model for thinking about a particular problem.
“Sovereignty,” the theme of this season of the New Paradigms Factory, is about who rules and how governing power is asserted over people, territory, culture, economies, bodies and/or law. Sovereignty can be about independence or autonomy of rule, modes of asserting self-governance, or about the definition of national security or national identity in relation to rule or governance. There are also revolutionary or insurgent forms of sovereignty – popular sovereignty or the sovereignty of “the people” versus “the regime;” youth or women’s sovereignty; sovereignty through or against globalization or imperialism; sovereignty within or over communities, resources, cultures, etc.
Project Aim:
The “New Paradigms Factory” project aims to identify and facilitate writing and publishing by innovative, critical-thinking, engaged Arab scholars and public intellectuals, particularly those thinkers who have faced restricted time or resources, or limited access to publishing venues. Our goal is to improve the visibility and accessibility of new work, and ensure proper recognition and professional credit for Arab social-science thought that generates novel paradigms and new frames for analyzing the key problems of the day, particularly those linked to the dynamics associated with the recent uprisings and transformations.
Fellowship Benefits:
- A “Factory Fellowship” honorarium of $1000 USD. This honorarium is designed explicitly to help you ‘buy time’ from studies or activism during the period October 1 to December 3, 2012 in order to focus on your ideas. One half of honorarium is given at the beginning of the fellowship, the second half at the completion of your article and its submission for publication.
- An intensive period of mentoring. We will help you extend, translate, and improve your draft article.
- Networking with editors of journals and different publishing venues. We will give you the best chance possible of being published in an internationally recognized publication.
- Presenting your work at an international conference. You will be invited to present your revised paper (in Arabic, French or English) at the first Conference of the Arab Council of Social Sciences to be held in Beirut on November 29-30, 2012 where you can network with other scholars and activist-scholars. Your travel, hotel, and expenses will be fully covered.
- Intensive workshop with the whole class and mentors to be held on December 1-2, 2012 in Beirut for improving essays and for defining new paradigms, research agendas and public policy initiatives.
- Future activities and networking. Forthcoming rounds of other activities with subsequent classes of “Factory Fellows” may follow.
Eligibility:
This competition is open to activist-scholars as well as academics currently resident in the Arab region. You have to be 40 years or younger. You should be currently enrolled in an MA or PhD program or have already obtained an MA or PhD. You do not need to be employed in a social science field or academic institution but you do need to be actively engaged in social-science debates and aware of current dominant paradigms, and concerned about their limitations.
Materials to Submit:
To apply, please submit the following materials:
- The application cover form, which contains basic information about your academic background and requests the name and contacts of one academic referee (no reference letter required at the time of the application).
- A draft essay of between 1500-2000 words (strict limit). In this essay, you must:
- Identify a particular paradigm or framework of knowledge in a particular social science (or a popular political or social theory that is powerful in the media) that addresses our theme for the first class of “Factory Fellows” (October 1 – December 3, 2012), which is “Sovereignty;”
- Explain what set of experiences or findings you have that challenge that “old” paradigm (please include information on relevant projects you have worked on or research you have undertaken);
- Outline which set of ideas, revised theoretical perspective, new method of research or way of seeing, or new framing of phenomena you are developing. How will your new paradigm or frame reveal more accurately and vividly the political, social, historical or cultural process that interests you?
- If you have a relevant publication, conference paper, newspaper or web article, blogs or other media output, please add to your application.
Submission Guidelines:
Applicants are requested to submit their application materials online through the ACSS website. Please click here for application cover form, with instructions on uploading your essay and a relevant publication. The essay should be uploaded as a Word document and be single-spaced, in a left justified format and in Times New Roman font (font size 12). Materials can be submitted in Arabic, English or French. Please feel free to email the ACSS with any questions regarding the project, eligibility or application procedures.
Click here to download the call for applications.
Click here to apply online.
If you have any questions, please contact the Research and Fellowships Manager, Arab Council for the Social Sciences.
- Email: grants@theacss.org
- URL: www.theacss.org
Deadline for Submissions: 12 September 2012