Two PhD candidates in the Social Sciences Doctoral Program at Birzeit University win competitive international scholarship award

The PhD Program in the Social Sciences is very proud to announce that two of its PhD candidates, Kholoud Nasser and Yasmeen Qadan, have been awarded the highly competitive Tanya Baker- Asad Scholarship for 2024-2025. The two Birzeit PhD candidates garnered two out of the three available scholarships in competition with more than 60 PhD candidates who applied from universities around the globe.

The Tanya Baker-Asad Scholarship for Palestinian women pursuing PhDs in the Humanities and Social Sciences is open to candidates of Palestinian origin wherever they may be. It was established in honor of the late Tanya Baker-Asad, an Anthropologist, a feminist, and a strong supporter of the Palestinian cause by Baker-Asad’s husband, the renowned scholar and thinker, Talal Asad who newly inaugurated the Scholarship fund this year. The Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) is the manager of the Scholarship.

.

PhD Candidate Kholoud Nasser will use the award to finalize her dissertation entitled, “Agency of the Palestinian society in the face of Israeli Hydro-apartheid”. She recently published in article in the highly ranked academic journal, Water Alternatives, entitled, “Spring-Based Irrigation in Battir, Palestine: A Locus of Social Agency in the Face of Hydro-Hegemony”.

PhD Candidate, Yasmeen Qadan will use the award to complete her fieldwork for her dissertation entitled, “Environmental ontology in the temporality of the Palestinian farmer: paths of movement in daily livelihood”. She recently published an article in the peer reviewed multi-lingual, Moroccan Journal for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, under the title “The politics of movement flow in Ramallah: one-way street architecture of contemporary Palestinian place”.

The award’s jury praised the level of the two students, including the quality and originality of their proposals, and their crystallization as independent researchers, which reflects positively on the program’s reputation and its Arab and international standing. The Doctorate Program in Social Sciences at Birzeit University extends its most sincere congratulations to the two winners and wishes them further success.