Annual Research Grants 2022
The PEF Annual Research Grants for 2022 are now closed.
Because the coronavirus pandemic continues to make much fieldwork very difficult or even impossible for the near future, we are continuing to focus this year on post-field work, publication, and online resources projects. Expenses eligible for funding include lab costs, illustration costs, image license costs, and online resource development. In every other respect the aims of the grants remained the same, to promote research into the archaeology and history, ethnography, anthropology and culture, topography, geology and natural sciences of Palestine and the Levant.
The Committee welcomes interdisciplinary applications relating to the Fund’s aims, as well as those relating to the PEF’s archival collections. Applications are welcomed from researchers of all nationalities. Membership of the PEF is a prerequisite for application (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. Grant awards range from about £450 to £2,000, and applications are welcomed from December 13th 2021 to February 24th 2022. Please email execsec@pef.org.uk if you have any questions or require further information.
2022 Annual Research Awards
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
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
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
The Palestine Exploration Fund/Albright Institute Fellowship 2022-23
London and Jerusalem.
An annual 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 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 ($1,200 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 September and the end of May. The working days at the PEF may be completed anytime from the granting of the award until 31 May.
Queries related to the PEF should be sent to chair.pef@gmail.com. Queries related to the AIAR should be sent to gatesfos@email.unc.edu.
Deadline:
1st November, 2021
2022 - 2023 PEF-Albright Institute Fellowship
Congratulations to this year's winner, Margaret Freeman (MIT), for her project "Explorers, Archaeologists, and the Bedouin in the Built Environment of Late Ottoman Palestine."
Previous PEF-Albright Institute Fellowships
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 2022
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?
When the award is announced as open for applications, entries should be sent in an email
that indicates the entrants name, contact details, and date of PhD award. Please attach to
the email an anonymised PDF version of the article including a 250 word abstract,
the article, any supplementary material (illustrations, figures, etc…), and a complete
bibliography to the Palestine Exploration Fund at chair.pef@gmail.com.
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:
3rd December, 2021

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’