The Middle East Section awards an annual Student Paper Award. Both undergraduate and graduate students are eligible. The winner will receive a prize of $500, plus a chance to summarize the award winning paper in AN and at the AAA meeting. Papers should be no longer than 10,000 words (not including notes and bibliography) and must have been completed no earlier than January 1 of the previous year. The paper should include a cover page with the name of the professor and class for which the paper was written and email addresses for both the student and professor.
2023 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Hazal Aydın
“Open Body, Theatrical Intimacy and Sexual Harassment: Understanding Gendered Embodiments Through Turkey’s Theatre Industry”
Boston University
2022 MES Student Paper Award Honorable Mention
Tony J. Chamoun
“Violent Histories in a Diasporic Register: Between Bodily Durabilities, Sacrificial Others, and Racialized Strangers”
Syracuse University
2022 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Stuart Ahn Sones
“Conspiracies from the Unseen: Authenticating Islamic Discourse in a Neoliberal Moment”
Indiana University
2021 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Alia Amr Amin Shaddad
“al-Dar is Where the Heart is”
American University of Cairo
2021 MES Student Paper Award Honorable Mention
Kyle Benedict Craig
“Chromo-Topia: Amman Graffiti/Street Art and the Spatiotemporal Politics of Color”
Northwestern University
2020 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Naye Idriss
“Pedagogies of Becoming — An Ethnography of Readings and Resistance”
Columbia University
2020 MES Student Paper Award Honorable Mention
Timothy Y. Loh
“Language in Medical Worlds: The Politics of Hearing Technology, Speaking, and Arabic for Deaf Children in Jordan”
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2019 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Alize Arican
“Behind the Scaffolding: Manipulations of Time, Power, and Delays in Tarlabaşı Istanbul”
University of Illinois at Chicago
2019 MES Student Paper Award Honorable Mention
Elizabeth Derderian
“Playing with the Rules: Critique and Freedom of Artistic Expression in the UAE”
Northwestern University
2018 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Noha Fikry
“Spaces of Life, States of Death”
American University of Cairo
2017 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Guy Shalev
“Helsinki in Zion: Ethics Committees and Political Gatekeeping in Israel/Palestine”
UNC Chapel Hill
2016 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Noga Malkin
“My Brother’s Keeper: The Double Experience of Refugee Aid Workers”
Georgetown University
2016 MES Student Paper Award Honorable Mention
Kelda Jamison
“Hefty Dictionaries in Incomprehensible Tongues: Commensurating Code and Language Community in Turkey”
University of Chicago
2015 MES Student Paper Award Winner
Valerie Giesen
“‘At Least I’ve Done Something!’ Living with Integrity: Ethical Engagements in Israel/Palestine”
Columbia University