Getty Research Exchange Fellowship Program
2012 Getty Research Exchange Fellowship Program for the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East
9 June – 16 July 2012
The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) is pleased to announce the Getty Research Exchange Fellowship Program. The fellowship program is open to scholars in participating countries* who have already obtained a Ph.D. or have professional experience in the field of art history and who wish to undertake a specific research project in Algeria or Turkey related to the seminar theme: Art and Archaeology of the Sacred (Algeria) or Vision and Visual Culture in Byzantium (Turkey).
Funded by the Getty Foundation, the fellowship includes a travel and living expense stipend of $7,500. The fellowship tenure will be June 9 to July 16, 2012, including an opening and closing seminar. Fellows will be required to conduct their research during this time period.
Yemeni scholars must apply through American Institute for Yemeni Studies (AIYS). Final award selection will be conducted by CAORC. Notification of fellowship status will be made available to each applicant via email by April 16, 2012.
* Participating countries include: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen. Please note: Algerian scholars may apply only for the fellowship in Turkey and Turkish scholars may apply only for the fellowship in Algeria.
Deadline: February 1, 2012
For details and application, please see the fellowship section of this website or caorc.org/programs
Proposals for AIYS-sponsored MESA panels
AIYS, as an organization affiliated with MESA, is entitled to sponsor three panels at the annual MESA meeting. Scholars wishing to propose a panel for AIYS sponsorship need to do so before submitting the panel proposal to MESA for consideration. Panels should conform to all applicable MESA rules and proposals should be submitted to AIYS on the MESA form; if in doubt about a projected speaker's eligibility to participate, contact MESA or the AIYS Executive Director. The annual deadline for submitting a panel proposal to AIYS for consideration by the AIYS Program Committee is February 1; the MESA deadline is February 15. For a list of panels sponsored in previous years, click here.
The Digital Library for International Research
Since 1999 AIYS has been acting as the lead institution, with the Council for American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), for what was originally known as the American Overseas Digital Library Project. This project was started with funding from a 4-year matching grant from the U.S. Department of Education under its program for Technological Innovation and Cooperation for Foreign Information Access (TICFIA). The initial stage of this project included libraries of CAORC member centers in Europe, the Near and Middle East, South Asia, and West Africa, to which the holdings of new and nascent member centers in Inner Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central America are also being added. In addition other collections in countries hosting CAORC member centers have become interested in participating in this project. To reflect this new range of interest and coverage in November 2004 the name of the project was changed to Digital Library for International Research (DLIR). AIYS Executive Director Dr. Maria Ellis is the Project Director and AIYS hosts the DLIR web site, which explains the project and gives access to those DLIR components that can already be visited on-line. Matching funds for the USED grant came from the Getty Grant program for the process of retroconverting the library catalogs of six center libraries in the Middle East, including the AIYS library, as well as from other private sources. The project also had funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Service for selective preservation and digitization of Middle Eastern research journals. Subsequent funding for additional projects that will add to DLIR has again come from the Education Department's TICFIA program. The first four-year matching grant, Local Libraries and Archives Project, went into effect on October 1, 2005 and is adding a variety of bibliographic and digitized materials from partner organizations abroad. As part of the multi-AORC project funding provided by AIYS enabled the Yemen Center for Studies and Research to create a digital catalog of its Arabic language library holdings. Another TICFIA matching grant, effective October 1, 2009, will digitize and post on line selected research materials from partner organizations. CAORC itself is undertaking the long-term maintenance of DLIR, including funding the position of a full-time Project Coordinator, and has successfully applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a matching grant to raise funds to endow the ongoing infrastructure of the digital library program. CAORC and the participating centers are still seeking matching funds from various private sources.
Occasional Publications
In 1999 AIYS started a new program of sending out occasional small publications, as they are published, to paid-up individual and institutional members of AIYS. In 1999 paid-up members received The Journey to the Tomb of the Prophet Hud; in 2001 Tim Mackintosh-Smith's translation of Wasf San'a (City of Divine and Earthly Joys) was sent out. Members who were paid up for 2002 were sent the trilingual publication documenting the 17th century mosque complex in Dhuran (Dhamar governorate). In 2003 members received AIYS President Tom Stevenson's "Visions of Yemen: A Filmography," and in 2006 members received a copy of former AIYS Resident Director Marta Colburn's From the Queen of Sheba to the Republic of Yemen: K-12 Resource Guide and Classroom Ideas. These and other AIYS publications may also be purchased directly from the Middle East Studies Association, which now distributes all of AIYS' publications except for Yemen Update.
Travel within Yemen
In spite of the travel warning that has been in effect for Yemen for the last several years, AIYS fellows and other researchers in Yemen have been very successful in carrying out their work. The U.S. embassy advises Americans in Yemen to observe security precautions in their daily routines and as they travel through Yemen. Travel permits are now necessary for surface travel outside Sana'a and other major cities. AIYS members who are in Yemen or plan to travel there may request that the Resident Director put them on the distribution list for U.S. embassy warden notices.
AIYS Survey
AIYS conducts an ongoing a survey of researchers and research interests in Yemen and needs your input. Click on the Survey tab above to see the survey.