About the IAL Award
The Ibrahim Abu-Lughod Award is an annual fellowship at Columbia University, which was established in 2010. The award recognizes and seeks to foster innovative and groundbreaking scholarship on issues related to Palestine and Palestinians. The award will support a post-doctoral scholar working on a book project in any field of the humanities or social sciences.
The Fellow will spend one full academic year at Columbia University, pursuing her or his research and writing, and participating in the intellectual life of the Center for Palestine Studies at the Middle East Institute. In exceptional cases, as when research elsewhere is necessary for the completion of the project, shorter-term residence at Columbia (no less than 8 weeks during term time) can be considered. The Fellow will present a seminar paper in the Middle East Institute’s colloquium series and may be invited to speak at other universities in the United States.
This award has been made possible through the generosity of Abdel Mohsin Al-Qattan in honor of his friend, the Palestinian scholar and intellectual, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod (1929-2001). Their close friendship began in the aftermath of the nakbah of 1948 and evolved into a shared commitment to justice for Palestinians to be realized in part through support for excellence in higher education and scholarship. In later years, upon the establishment of the A.M. Qattan Foundation in Palestine, Ibrahim Abu-Lughod helped found the Qattan Centre for Educational Research and Development, one of the Foundation’s core programs. Additional support for the award comes from Dr. Sahar Huneidi and the Abu-Lughod family.