CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: MENA METHODS WORKSHOP Engaged Research in the Middle East and North Africa January 5-8, 2026 – Doha, Qatar The American Political Science Association (APSA) is pleased to announce a Call for Applications from early-career scholars who would like to participate in a four-day in-person workshop that examines the theme of participatory and engaged research in the MENA region. Organized in partnership with the Doha Institute (DI), the program will be held from January 5-8, 2026 at DI in Doha, Qatar. The organizers will cover participation costs, including travel, lodging, and materials for up to 20 qualified applicants. Following their full participation in the program, fellows will receive a one-year membership to APSA. The deadline for applications is Sunday, September 14, 2025. The workshop is part of a multi-year effort to support political science research among early-career scholars in the MENA region and to strengthen research networks linking Arab scholars with their colleagues overseas. More information on APSA’s MENA programming can be found online at http://web.apsanet.org/mena/. Eligible Participants: Applications are open to advanced doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and early-career scholars (those who received their PhDs within the past 5 years), as well as early-career PhD- holding practitioners who are citizens of countries in the MENA region. The program is tailored for scholars in political science and other social science disciplines—including peace and conflict studies, international studies, development studies, and adjacent fields undertaking research that seeks to consciously employ participatory and engaged research methods in the MENA region, particularly those working on projects that use in-country fieldwork, rely on original data collection, and explore methodological, ethical, and practical challenges of social science research in applied settings. Professional fluency in English is required.
This workshop has two central goals. First, we seek to de-center the academy as the only environment in which political scientists conduct scientific research and where knowledge is produced, drawing on the organizers’ collective experiences with applied scholarship and connections to others who do participatory and engaged research. In doing so, the workshop seeks to make visible some of the many ways in which political scientists can approach engaged work. Second, the workshop aims to provide participants with the methodological tools and professional vocabulary necessary to make applied research legible and relevant in academic spaces. The workshop organizers seek applications for projects that focus primarily on the following sub-themes: • Approaches to participatory research, with discussion of different modes of participatory research, the questions they can (and can’t) answer, and how to ground them in academic debates. • Real-world examples of successful participatory and/or engaged research projects. • The promises and pitfalls of survey research in the MENA. • The challenges of integrating diverse data sources (key-informant interviews, focus groups, survey data, participant observation). • Reflections on research collaborations, with discussion of philosophical, ethical, and pragmatic considerations beyond formal ethics review. • Reflection on positionality on and off the page and how it relates to political science research.
Call for applications! APSA-MENA Workshop on Engaged Scholarship in the Middle East and North Africa, hosted at the Doha Institute Jan 5-8 2026 & convened by @ammars.bsky.social, @philbrickyadav.bsky.social, Lara Khattab, & myself. See below.
Link to application: apsa.wufoo.com/forms/z14bkm...
