The Palestine Exploration Fund/Albright Institute Fellowship

The Palestine Exploration Fund – Albright Institute Fellowship

London and Jerusalem.

An award of £3,000 to support research that requires access to the PEF archives and collection and also time spent in residence at the Albright Institute (AIAR) in Jerusalem. The Fellowship requires a minimum of 10 working days at the PEF in Greenwich, London, and a 1 month minimum stay at AIAR in Jerusalem. The room and half-board at the Institute ($1,500 per month) will come from the award, with the rest a flexible stipend for the other activities. This Fellowship is open to doctoral and post-doctoral researchers of all nationalities. This Fellowship is for a residential period between 1 September and 31 May in the following calendar year. The working days at the PEF may be completed anytime from the granting of the award until 31 May the following calendar.

Queries related to the PEF should be sent to grants@pef.org.uk. Queries related to the AIAR should be sent to c_shafer-elliott@baylor.edu. Applications should be made through the AIAR website here https://aiar.org/fellowships


2023 - 2024 PEF-Albright Institute Fellowship

Unfortunately,  Madaline Harris-Schober, a PhD candidate at The University of Melbourne, who was awarded the PEF-AIAS Fellowship for her project, ‘Ritual architecture, Material Culture and Practice of the Philistines’, was unable to take up her fellowship. 

Previous PEF-Albright Institute Fellowships

Margaret Freeman (MIT) , Explorers, Archaeologists, and the Bedouin in the Built Environment of Late Ottoman Palestine.

Dr. Morag Kersel (DePaul University)  Hidden Histories – the private lives of Levantine Neolithic masks

Jon Ross (University of Manitoba) – Fingerprint evidence for the division of labour and learning: a longitudinal study on pre-Classical pottery making in the western southern Levant-

The Routledge Philip R. Davies Early Career Publication Award 2023-4

This annual award honours the memory of Professor Philip R. Davies, prior Chair of the Fund, who died suddenly and before his time in May 2018. The Award recognises his unique contribution to scholarship, his enthusiasm for academic publishing, and his desire to develop younger scholars.  The award encourages early career scholars in producing original, high quality research articles. To this end, rather than a single prize, the Fund offers prizes to the winner and up to two runners up, as well as the chance to publish their articles in the PEF’s own peer-reviewed journal, the Palestine Exploration Quarterly (PEQ). The PEQ focuses on the study of the Levant in the areas of archaeology, history, anthropology, geography, art, and languages. 

Who can apply?

The award is open to scholars of all nationalities who have completed their Ph.D within 10 

years of the submission deadline.

What is required?

Entries of original, unpublished research up to 6,000 words in length (including footnotes, 

but not bibliography) in areas covered by the PEQ will be considered for this award. 

Papers should be of publishable quality, but must not have been previously published or 

submitted for review in another location. 

How to enter?

More details will be given in due course.

What is the Prize?

The winner will receive a cash prize of £750, with the first runner up awarded £350 and 

the second runner up £100. All three winning pieces will be considered for publication in 

PEQ, subject to the normal peer review process.

Deadline: 

To be announced

Philip R. Davies. Photo by Birgit Manze-Davies.

Previous Davies Publication Awards

Winner – Dr. Joseph Scales (University of Birmingham) ‘Bathing Jewish, bathing Greek: Developing an Approach to De-Categorising Hellenism and Judaism

Runner-up – Dr. Assaf Kleiman (Leipzig University) ‘The Cultural Heritage of Two Volute Capitals in Iron Age Hazor’

Second Runner-up – Dr. Marieke Dhont (University of Cambridge/Harvard University) ‘The Use of Greek in Palestine: Eupolemus as a Case Study’

Annual Research Grants 2024

 The PEF Annual Research Grants for 2024 are now closed. 

Applications will next be accepted from mid December 2024 until late February 2025.

 The Committee welcomes  application for grants to support research into the archaeology and history, ethnography, anthropology and culture, topography, geology, and natural sciences of Palestine and the Levant. Research projects involving the PEF’s own collections and archives are welcome. We accept applications from researchers of all nationalities. Membership of the PEF is a prerequisite for application.

Grants, normally between £450 and £2,000, are available to support field work (including museum, and archival work). 

Applicants must be current members of the Palestine Exploration Fund (see https://www.pef.org.uk/join-us/membership/ for more details). Projects must avoid political, religious, or ideological bias, and must respect International laws relating to antiquities and archaeological activity in the Occupied Territories. Projects incorporating interviews with living subjects must ensure that proper procedural and safeguarding protocols are followed. Applications are welcomed from mid December to late February the following year, and awards will be announced in mid-March. Please email execsec@pef.org.uk if you have any questions or require further information.

Successful projects from previous years are listed below. Follow our grants researchers in the field by visiting our blog.

Reports will be published in PEQ, and blogs will be posted on the PEF blog. Click on the link above to see these reports.

Previous Research Grant Awards

Alex Worsfold, Leeds University

British Women in Palestine: Teaching in Revolt, Opportunity and Lived Experience.” 

£900

 

Bruce Routledge, University of Liverpool 

Reconstructing the Surface of Tell Dhiban.” 

£453

 

Eleri Connick, University of Amsterdam 

“If the house could speak”: Imagined Spaces of Nationhood in Nahr al-Bared.” 

£1529

 

Loay Abu Alsaud, An-Najah National University, Nablus

The Prominent Palestinian Archaeologists in the Twentieth and Twenty-first Centuries.”

£2000

 

Matthew Suriano & Daoud Ghool, University of Maryland & University of Newcastle “The Monolith of Silwan: Integrating Silwan Narratives into Historic Photographs.” 

£1150

 

Grants will reopen for new applications in December 2023.

 


TOTAL AWARDED IN 2023:  £6,032

James Donaldson, University of Queensland

“The Shellal Mosaic: Archaeological, Textual and Visual Traditions.”

£1,400

 

Micaela Sinibaldi, CBRL

“Towards a chronological framing of the two mosques of Islamic Baydha.”

£1,550

 

Mariana Ribas Albuquerque & Qwendolin Maurer, Institute of Archaeology, UCL

“Investigating changing socio-economic landscapes from the Early Bronze 1-111 in the Levant through Zooarchaeology.”

£1,700

 

Loay Abu Alsaud, Dept. of Tourism & Archaeology, Faculty of Humanity, Nablus

“Contribution of 2oth Century Palestinian Archaeologists, Yosra Al-Haifaweyeh, Nasr Dwekat, and Ibrahim Al-Fanni, to the Development of Archaeology in Palestine.”

Up to £3,500

 


TOTAL AWARDED IN 2022:  £8,150

Alexandra Ariotti, Independent

“Dating the Lost Fortress of Umm Tawabin”

£2,500


Melissa Cradic & Samuel Pfister, Bade Museum, Pacific School of Religion

Digitising Primary Source Material for Open Access Virtual Exhibitions

£1,000


Claudine Dauphin, Independent

“Towards final publication of the Umayyad Syro-Jordanian Hajj Roads to Mecca and their Pilgrim Camps: Mapping ‘Sacred Landscapes.'” 

£2,194.45


John Green, Independent

“The Tell es-Sa’idiyeh Cemetery Publication Project”

£1,000


TOTAL AWARDED IN 2021:  £6,694.45

£12,000 was available for grant awards in 2020

The following awards were made:

Angelos Papadopoulos, College Year in Athens

“Cypriot and Mycenaean pottery at Tel el Hesi – a Comparative Study” 

£750

Claudine Dauphin, Independent

“Sacred Landscapes”: The Ummayyad Syro-Jordanian Hajj Roads to Mecca and their Pilgrim Camps 

£1,500

Chris Wilson, University of East Anglia  

“Palestinian Psychiatric Patients in Lebanon during the Mandate Period” 

£1,033 

Diederik Halbertsma, University of Liverpool                             

“Episodic Labour Mobilisation During the Levant’s ‘Dark Ages’: The View from Khirbet al-Mudayna al-‘Aliya”  

£500

Emanuel Pfoh, IMHICIHU-CONICET Buenos Aires              

“The Ethnographic Construction of Palestine in the Works of Claude Reignier Conder” 

£1,500

James Fraser, University of Sydney                                                

“The Khirbet Ghozlan Excavation Project: Investigating Bronze Age horticulture in the Jordan Valley escarpment.” 

£2,350

Mahmoud Hawari, University of Bethlehem

“Khirbat al-Mafjar Archaeological Project, Jericho” 

£711

Omar Joseph Nasser-Khoury, Independent

“Phase III: Documentation of the British Museum’s Palestine Textile Collection: A Knowledge Exchange Fellowship 2018-2019″ 

£1,500 

Will. M. Kennedy, Friedrich-Alexander Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg

“The Petra Hinterland Social Landscapes Project” 

£2,00

£12,000 was available for grant awards in 2019

The following awards were made:

James Fraser:

The Khirbet Ghozlan Excavation Project: Investigating Bronze Age horticulture in the Jordan Valley escarpment. £2,000

Yorke Rowan: 

Eastern Badia Archaeological Project: Wisad Pools £3,500

Omar J Nasser Khoury:
Phase II: Documentation of the British Museum’s Palestine Textile Collection: A Knowledge Exchange Fellowship. £2,000

Pascal Flohr:
More than Meets the Eye: Locating Late Neolithic sites on the Kerak Plateau, Jordan. £1,060

Jeffrey Auerbach:                                                                                                                                                                        

Exploring Palestine, 1865-1885: Public-Private Partnership and the origins of the British Mandate in Palestine. £2,000

£12,000 was available for grant awards in 2018

The following awards were made:

Charlotte Kelsted:
British Women’s Perceptions of Arab and Jewish Child-Rearing Practices and Family Relationships in Mandate Palestine: An Initial Research Trip £450

Yorke Rowan:
Eastern Badia Archaeological Project: Wisad Pools £4,325

Omar J Nasser Khoury:
Documentation of the British Museum’s Palestine Textile Collection: A Knowledge Exchange Fellowship £2,000

Micaela Sinibaldi:
Islamic Bayda Project £2,730

£12,000 was available for grant awards in 2017

The following awards were made:

Crispin Paine:
Religion, Modernity & the Material: Reception of the Holy Land £3,000

Gregory Bilotto:
A study of Fatimid metal Objects in the Keir Collection at the Dallas Museum of Art £500

Alexandra Ariotti:
‘Umm at Tawabin’: A Nabataean/Roman Military Camp, Ghor as-Safi, Jordan £3,000

Bruce Routledge:
Food production and consumption in times of change: the case of Tall Dhiban, Jordan £1,980

Monika Wanis:
Differences in Traditional Health Seeking Practices Between Rural and Urban Negev Bedouin Populations £500

Micaela Sinibaldi:
The Islamic Bayda Project £3,000