Xplaining the Relegation of the Social Sciences Humanities and the Arts in the Arab Region

Posters from "Woman, Arab and … Filmmaker" by Touda Bouanani, Léa Morin and Maya Ouabadi

Research on the Arts Program

FRENCH VERSION

The Research on the Arts Plan (RAP) is a articulation programme between the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC) and the Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) which aims to support research on all creative practices across disciplinary boundaries and methodological approaches on central themes of business to, and in, the Arab region*.

The program is co-funded by AFAC and the ACSS (funds to the ACSS are provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation). Grants are bachelor to private researchers (up to USD 15,000), teams of researchers or collectives (up to USD 25,000), and institutions (up to USD 35,000).

RAP seeks to promote and develop the field of research on the art in the Arab region, a geographical and cultural space rich with art legacies and contemporary fine art practices waiting to exist researched and analyzed. It seeks to empower the production of unlike kinds of bookish and artistic knowledge that adds value to the field. Open to artists, practitioners and academics, RAP encourages these to undertake disquisitional inquiry on different aspects of the arts using experimental approaches that seek to create new openings in understanding art and culture in the region (RAP Choice Commission, 2020). RAP supports inquiry on the arts, with an involvement in what information technology reveals most aesthetics, and what information technology uncovers about society, as well as the interplay betwixt them. Social, economic and political contexts matter, and nosotros encourage social scientists and artists working collaboratively or independently to engage with the surrounding environment and examine the role of artists and the arts in the wider community. We are interested in research that unpacks art every bit a subject of study, also as the role of social, economic and political processes in shaping artistic practices, production and dissemination, and vice-versa.

RAP is open to a broad range of writing and research strategies and a variety of audiences. However, the research output must include a written component, where concepts and theory, context, connections, reflections, and systematic investigations are shown and communicated. The program aims at canvassing a broad range of research proposals from across different countries, disciplines and professions. We also highly encourage analytical research that studies more than one country or region, interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral collaborations, and comparative perspectives.

Exciting proposals are those that contribute disquisitional knowledge, that crosses disciplinary boundaries between arts, the social sciences and other disciplines.

Examples of the areas that can be addressed include but are not express to:

• Arts as part of everyday life
• Historical and contemporary fine art practices
• The temporality and spatiality of artistic practices and related knowledge production
• History of art
• Folk art
• Arts and the surroundings
• Inquiry on archives related to the arts
• Art and the country
• Pop culture
• Meaning and impact of art
• Art in exile
• Genres of artistic writing
• Forms and functions of creative works
• Fine art/lodge relationships
• Suppressed and marginalized fine art histories and practices
• Artistic production, circulation, consumption and audience

ELIGIBILITY GUIDELINES

Nationality/Residence

Applicants must be citizens of an Arab country (defined as a member of the League of Arab States) or nationals of an Arab country (divers equally long-term residents, fifty-fifty if they practice not hold citizenship as in the case of refugees or stateless residents) and must exist based in the Arab region.

In the instance of teams and collectives, the team leader must be a citizen/national of an Arab country and must be based in the Arab region. Nonetheless, teams, collectives and institutions may include Arabs in the diaspora or non-Arabs, yet at least ii members of the team/collective/institution must be citizens/nationals of an Arab land and must exist based in the Arab region. Institutions must be based and registered in the Arab region. (Branches of foreign international organizations are non eligible to apply.)

Disciplines

This program is open to researchers from diverse backgrounds in the arts, humanities and social sciences, too as allied fields. Arts and humanities disciplines include art history, comparative literature, gimmicky art, curatorial studies, fine arts, graphic pattern, architecture, languages and literature, folklore studies, media studies, musicology, performance arts, and visual arts. The core social science fields include disciplines such as anthropology, census, economics, history, political science, psychology and folklore. Allied fields include educational activity, gender studies, cultural studies and urban studies. Interdisciplinary proposals are encouraged.

Individuals, Teams, Collectives and Institutions

The program is open up to individual researchers/artists/practitioners, inquiry teams, as well every bit collectives of researchers and institutions (universities, research centers, arts centers, enquiry NGOs, etc.). For the purposes of this call:

• Individual researchers could be academics or art practitioners
• Research teams include researchers from the same or different institutions, geographies and disciplines, besides every bit a combination of researchers, artists and art critics, who have an interest in conducting multidisciplinary research on the arts
• Collectives are independent groups of researchers or artists and/or blended teams of researchers and artists that have been working collaboratively on a specific theme for years and have a mission statement, a set of practices or a set of outputs that reverberate their identity and purposes
• Institutions could be a university or a university section, a think-tank, a inquiry NGO, an arts and culture institution, etc.

Research teams, collectives, and institutions must present their applications in teams of upward to four members, including a master investigator and co-investigators.

Educational Requirements

Individuals

An applicant should be:

• A holder of a Ph.D. degree in one of the disciplines or fields described above; or
• An art practitioner with extensive practical experience

Teams, collectives and institutions

• Teams and collectives may comprise up to 4 research squad members
• Team construction may take one of two forms:
  - A PhD holder (principal investigator) in one of the disciplines or fields described in a higher place, and up to three team members including MA degree holders (at least) and/or art practitioners
  - An art practitioner with extensive feel (principal investigator) and up to three team members including MA degree holders (at least) and/or art practitioners

ACSS grantees (principal and co-investigators) who take benefited previously from an ACSS grant are only eligible if their grants were airtight earlier 2020. AFAC grantees who accept a current open grant are not eligible to utilise.

TIMELINE OF THE GRANT

Grants are for the duration of 18 months for individuals, teams and collectives (starting Feb 2022 and ending July 2023) and for up to 24 months for institutions (starting February 2022 and ending February 2024).

PROGRAM'Due south AREAS OF Back up

This plan supports inquiry projects at whatsoever phase of their development. Research proposals can be submitted for new or ongoing projects.

PROGRAM'Southward OUTPUTS

The proposed outputs of the project must be commensurate with the research plans and must include a substantial written component, such as publications (spider web and/or print) and scholarly resources (e.k. visual products, websites, databases, curricula, bibliographies, maps, policy briefs). Additional outputs tin can include performances, exhibitions, and installations, etc. We likewise encourage new and artistic forms for disseminating knowledge. Creative forms could include a colloquium on the arts in the Arab region that initiates dialogue between artists and social scientists, as well every bit audiences.

For the purposes of this program, films and documentaries are not considered as suitable projection outputs.

APPLICATION PROCESS

one. Applicants are required to submit an online application form and a narrative proposal (including appendices and supporting cloth) on the AFAC website. If you're already a registered user on AFAC's website, please login with your username and countersign. Once yous login, please visit the program's folio to employ. In instance you don't have an existing account, delight create 1 here.
Completed proposals can be uploaded to the awarding portal at any time before the application deadline on Baronial 31, 2021 past 5:00 pm (Beirut time). Please bide by the Application Checklist.

two. In addition to submitting the awarding course on AFAC's website, applicants must fill out a profile folio on the ACSS Website.

Proposal materials can be submitted in Standard arabic, French or English. Proposals and attachments should be written entirely in one of these languages; mixing dissimilar languages in the same proposal disqualifies the application. But consummate proposals volition be examined by the Choice Committee. Concluding proposals should include all data and details necessary for the Selection Committee to empathise the research ideas, argument, contribution to knowledge, fieldwork and publications programme. The final proposal should be between 7 to 10 typed, 1.5 spaced pages in length (12-signal font). This 10-page limit does not include the proposal appendices, including the project timeline and outputs, budget request, and curriculum vitae (see below).

Option PROCESS

A multi-disciplinary Selection Commission - equanimous of distinguished Arab scholars and art practitioners with established research and publication records and experience in regional research and teaching - will review and select proposals for funding. The selection procedures abide by the highest standards of academic and ethical judgment. Final decisions are based on the following evaluation criteria:

1. Contribution to knowledge: How does the project contribute to new knowledge on the arts? How does the knowledge produced fill gaps, cantankerous over, connect, open up and bridge fields and sectors?
2. Significance, originality and relevance to the region: Why is information technology important to undertake this inquiry? How is it different from other works in the area? How is it relevant to needs and priorities in the Arab region?
3. Artistic approaches or methods (including attention to enquiry ethics): Does the researcher adopt novel tools and methods to undertake the enquiry? Are they appropriate to the research questions and objectives? Does the researcher have into consideration ideals in undertaking the research?
4. Outputs, plans of dissemination: Does the researcher have appropriate and realistic outputs too as sound and effective dissemination plans? Is the researcher targeting new audiences? How do the findings impact dissimilar communities?
5. Feasibility (CVs/researcher'due south qualifications/timeline/budget)
6. Extra points volition be given to projects that promote dialogue between academia and practice and adopt inter- and cantankerous-disciplinary approaches

Results volition exist communicated to applicants by November 2021. Successful applicants volition receive provisional award letters confirming their selection. If applicative, selected applicants will receive requests for clarification and elaboration from the Selection Committee.

OVERVIEW OF GRANT Atmospheric condition

Awarded individuals, teams of researchers, collectives or institutions are expected to abide by the post-obit project requirements:

1. Submit a revised proposal, timeline, and budget request by December 2021, responding to requests for clarification or elaboration put forward by the Selection Committee in its preliminary acceptance determination.
2. Make full out the research ethics questionnaire.
3. Sign a contract which specifies the upkeep, timeline, outputs, and obligations of the researcher(southward).
4. Attend a workshop during Jan 2022 to meet the Selection Committee members, present projects for feedback, receive orientation about AFAC-ACSS reporting and financial and ideals procedures, and sign their grant contracts. In the case of teams, collectives and institutions, the primary investigator and one of the co-investigators are required to attend the workshop. (Costs of attendance at this event should not be budgeted for in the proposals. They will exist covered directly by AFAC and the ACSS.)
5. Nourish and present at the sixth ACSS Conference to be held in Spring 2023. (Costs of attendance at this result should not exist budgeted for in the proposals. They will be covered directly by AFAC and the ACSS.)
6. Produce project-related content for the ACSS and the AFAC websites (such as project descriptions and profiles of researchers).
7. Submit interim narrative and financial reports. Financial reports should include the original receipts for all project expenses.
8. Submit the final narrative and financial reports within thirty days of the end of the grant term.
9. Produce the outputs identified in the submitted proposal in accordance with the project timeline (Appendix ane).

TIMELINE

• June 1, 2021: Application fabric available online.
• Baronial 31, 2021: Final and complete enquiry proposals are due past 5:00 pm (Beirut time). Incomplete proposals will not be reviewed by the Selection Committee.
• November 2021: Decisions volition be communicated to applicants.
• December 2021: Submission of final proposals revised according to the Option Commission's comments.
• January 2022: Workshop in Beirut.
• February 1, 2022: Projects may begin upon signature of the contract between selected grantees, ACSS and AFAC.
• Jump 2023: Sixth ACSS Briefing takes place in Beirut, Lebanese republic.
• July 2023: Projects for individual researchers, research teams and collectives must be completed.
• Feb 2024: Projects for institutions must be completed.

Prospective applicants may approach both AFAC and the ACSS with questions about whatsoever attribute of the call. Delight electronic mail both AFAC ([email protected]) AND the ACSS Grants and Fellowships Unit ([email protected]).

Please review the program'south Frequently Asked Questions prior to submitting your application.

*(For the purposes of this program, the Arab Region is defined as the 22 countries that are officially members of the League of Arab States. This includes: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanese republic, Libya, Mauritania, Kingdom of morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.)

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Virtually the Arab Council for the Social Sciences
The Arab Council for the Social Sciences (ACSS) is a regional, independent, non-turn a profit arrangement defended to strengthening social science research and noesis product in the 22 countries of the Arab region every bit well every bit the diaspora. By supporting researchers and academic/research institutions, the ACSS aims to contribute to the cosmos, dissemination, validation and utilization of social science enquiry, and to enhance the office of social science in Arab public life and inform public policy in the region. The four main principles guiding the ACSS are quality, inclusivity, flexibility, and independence. Its programs include grants, fellowships, conferences, inquiry forums, training workshops and publications.

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Source: https://www.arabculturefund.org/Programs/8

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