Projects & Fellowships

Since ending its last project in Syria in the late 1980s, ACOR has continued to support the study of and intellectual exchange about Syria and its cultural heritage, including through annual lectures (since 2021, see here) and the regular award of fellowships, such as:

YearFirst NameLast NameAwardTitle
1988-1989JamesDeemerNEHJordan’s place between the two political poles of Cairo and Damascus in the Islamic Middle Ages; Formal continuity and regional autonomy in the development of geometric interlace patterns on Umayyad floor mosaics
1993-1994DaleLightfootUSIAFoggara Irrigation in the Jordanian-Syrian Desert: Contempo­rary Impacts of Ancient Technology
1995-1996BesharaDoumaniNMERTPFamily and Society in Greater Syria: A History of the Merchant Families in Jerusalem and Nablus
2004-2005R. StephenHumphreysCAORCChristianity and Islam in Early Islamic Syria 634-809
2007-2008StephaniePryorCAORCPersonae Feminae: Representing Female Rulership in Arabia and Syria-Palestine (4th Century BCE – 3rd Century CE)
2009-2010WilliamZimmerleKressMapping the Neo- Assyrian empire in Northern Jordan – Southern Syria: Imperial Landscape Change and the Archaeology of Trade Networks in Iron Age Gilead
2009-2010BalazsMajorMellonComparative Study of the Medieval Rural Settlements of the Syrian Coast and the Western Part of Jordan (11-14th century)
2011-2012NoraBarakatCAORCRethinking the Modern – Animals, Pastoral Nomads and Property relations in Late Ottoman Syria
2013-2014Patrick JohnAdamiakCAORCImporting Ottoman Nationals: The Ottoman Settlement of Caucasian Refugees and Ottoman Governance in Anatolia and Greater Syria 1860-1918
2014-2015TareqRamadanCAORCAn Archaeology of the Political Economy of Umayyad Syria: Re-examining State Formation through an Examination of State-produced Inscribed Material Culture
2015-2016AliHamdanCAORCTracing the Roots of Conflict: Geographic Perspectives on Sectarian Violence in Syria
2016-2017LillianFrostCAORCRedefining Co-Nationals: Variations in States’ Citizenship Policies Over Time
2016-2017RanaKhouryCAORCBlurred Boundaries: External and Local Determinants of Social Order in Syria’s Civil War
2017-2018RawanArarCAORCShouldering the Refugee Burden: Jordan and the Global Refugee Crisis
2018-2019JuliaGettleCAORCPopular Politics in Greater Syria: Marxism and the Clash of Nationalisms, 1948 to 1970
2019-2020NajibHouraniCAORCUrban Reconstruction in Syria: Toward a Positive Peace?
2020-2021VeronikaPoierde VriesHuman Mobility and the Technical Parameters of Transmitting Traditional Syrian Stone Carving Methods
2022-2023AhmadAbabnahJGSThe Mamluk and Ottoman Mosques on the Shami Pilgrimage Route
2022-2023SarahIslamCAORCBlasphemy (Sabb al-Rasūl) as a Legal Category in Islamic Law: Historical Formulations and Contemporary Applications
2023-2024BenjaminAllisonBikaiThrough the Cracks of Détente: The Superpowers, the Arab “Radicals,” and the Coming of the Second Cold War, 1977–1984

Updated 11 December 2025 – more information to come.

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