International Association for the Study of Arabia (IASA) South Arabia and Sudan that throw light on contemporary events. The Committee administering the Sir William Luce Memorial Fund reserves the right not to make an appointment to a Fellowship. The Fellowship, tenable jointly in the Institute for Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies and Trevelyan College, entitles the holder to full access to departmental and other University facilities and also carries a grant, accommodation and all meals. The Fellow is expected to deliver a lecture on the subject of his or her research which will be designated ‘The Sir William Luce Lecture’, and should be cast in such a way as to form the basis of a paper to be published in a special edition of the Durham Middle East Papers series. Due to the covid-19 pandemic the 2020 fellow's residency has been put forward to 2021. Consequently no fellow will be recruited this summer. The application period for the 2022 fellowship will begin in June 2021 and run to a date in the autumn that will be announced here: https://www.dur.ac.uk/ imeis/flagship/luce/
SOAS Scholarships and Studentships
The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of
London, offers numerous scholarships with relevance to Arabian studies. The focus ranges from supporting students from specific countries to particular degrees or areas of research. For further information see https://www.soas.ac.uk/registry/ scholarships/
Thesiger-Oman Fellowships The Thesiger-Oman International Fellowships offer two awards annually of £8,000 to post-doctoral researchers to advance geographical knowledge, involving fieldwork, in an arid or semi-arid environment. Preference will be given to research in the Middle East and other areas visited by Sir Wilfred Thesiger. One award is given for human and one for physical geography. These awards were founded with the support of the late Sultan of Oman, Qaboos bin Said al-Said as a memorial to Thesiger. Applicants must be Fellows or members of the Society with at least three years' post-doctoral experience. The Fellowships are open to applicants of any nation. Individuals or groups may apply for this award. Deadline: 23 November. See https://www.rgs.org/in-the-field/in-the-field-grants/ research-grants/thesiger-oman-fellowship/
CONFERENCES & EVENTS A number of conferences, events and exhibitions were postponed in 2020, but we are pleased to report on some conferences and workshops that went ahead virtually. Language and Nature in South Arabia Workshop: A Pandemic Success!
Kamala Russell (UC Berkeley), Janet Watson (Leeds), Fabio Gasparini (Freie University Berlin) As the COVID-19 pandemic made the use of Zoom and the scheduling of virtual seminars routine, Janet Watson (Leeds) saw an opportunity to form a new scholarly community. Starting on March 23, 2020, the day the UK went into lockdown, she initiated the Language and/ or Nature in Southern Arabia workshop. Since then, this workshop has become a sustainable and regular platform to bring together researchers from across the world, native speakers, professionals, and others through their interests in the diverse and at times precarious linguistic, cultural, and natural resources of Southern Arabia. The workshop met weekly from 23rd March until 14th July, 2020, after which it became bimonthly, and now, the workshop continues into 2021 with monthly meetings. At the time of writing, 27 online workshops had been held. The 2021 schedule of workshops features keynotes from speakers who have had long careers doing research in Southern Arabia (Marie-Claude Simeone-Senelle, Miranda Morris, Leonid Kogan and Maria Bulakh) as well as symposia 54
highlighting the work of PhD student and early-career researchers from the Arabian Peninsula. Over the past year, the Language and/or Nature in South Arabia workshop has convened researchers from over 20 countries across Europe, the Middle East, and the Americas, at times with up to 60 attendees! Through the work of Professor Janet Watson at the University of Leeds, Kamala Russell (PhD Candidate, Anthropology, UC Berkeley) and Dr. Fabio Gasparini (Freie University Berlin), the workshop has hosted many distinguished speakers, early-career researchers and members of Southern Arabian communities. Notable for their interdisciplinarity, distinguished speakers have included: Sam Liebhaber (Middlebury), Ahmed alJallad (Ohio), Becki Maddock (Permanent Committee on Geographical Names, London), Miranda Morris (St Andrews), Jane Bickmore-Jaffer MBE (Let’s Read Programme, Oman), Richard Porter (Friends of Soqotra), Shahina Ghazanfar (Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew), Craig Cornelius (Google), Nick Jeffries (Ellen MacArthur Foundation), Denzil Phillips (Global Frankincense Alliance), Trygve Harris (Founder and CEO Enfleurage, Inc.), Barry Heselwood (Leeds) and Ahmed al-Harrasi (University of Nizwa). A key feature of the workshop series has been its diversity both in terms of content and speakers, and the way it highlights the symbiotic relationship between indigenous languages and the natural environment in which they develop. It has featured talks of ongoing and polished
