Over the course of six decades, The American Research Center in Egypt’s fellowship program has benefited more than 700 scholars, whose research interests span the diversity of Egypt’s periods and cultures. ARCE offers funded fellowships and a research associate program for a wide range of scholars looking to conduct research in Egypt. Previous fellows have represented the fields of anthropology, archaeology, architecture, fine art, art history, Coptic studies, economics, Egyptology, history, humanistic social sciences, Islamic studies, literature, political science, religious studies and even music. Program alumni include directors and faculty of Middle Eastern studies and history departments at leading universities in the United States and abroad, and curators of Egyptian and Near Eastern art at major museums and research institutions. Collectively, the publications resulting from ARCE fellowships constitute a substantial collection of all scholarly output on Egypt by Americans since 1957.
Decades of close collaboration with the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities (MoA) and Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) enable ARCE to provide fellows with solid administrative support and advice that eases access to Egyptian museums, monuments, archaeological sites, research libraries, archives and Egyptian institutions of higher education.
ARCE-CAORC Research Fellowships: This fellowship is open to U.S. citizen pre-doctoral candidates (ABD), postdoctoral scholars, faculty and senior scholars at museums, universities and institutions worldwide for a minimum stay of three months and a maximum stay of 12 months. The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs funds the fellowship through a grant to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).
ARCE-NEH Fellowship: This fellowship is open to U.S. citizen postdoctoral scholars, faculty and senior scholars at universities, museums, and institutions worldwide and to foreign nationals who have been a resident in the United States for three (3) consecutive years immediately preceding the application deadline. Advanced degree candidates must have completed all requirements—except for the actual conferral of the degree—by January 15, 2020.
Coptic Icons Postdoctoral Fellowship: This two-year fellowship is open to U.S. citizen postdoctoral scholars. The successful applicant will work in the ARCE Project Archives in Cairo with materials from a USAID-funded project (1998-2004) that documented and conserved Coptic icons from the Byzantine to Ottoman periods. The successful candidate will assess the Coptic Icons database and project documentation, and crosscheck and reference the meta-data contained in the database against some 3,000 images.
Scholars who focus on Coptic or Byzantine iconography from disciplines such as art history, history, philosophy and theology/religious studies or other related humanities disciplines are encouraged to apply. Doctoral candidates who have successfully defended their dissertation by March 1, 2020, with a PhD in hand by September 15, 2020, are eligible to apply. The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs funds the fellowship through a grant to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC).
Pre-dissertation Travel Grant: This fellowship is open to U.S. citizen pre-doctoral candidates who have completed all coursework prior to arriving in Egypt. The grantee may have completed their comprehensive exams and/or been granted approval for the dissertation proposal. It is not necessary to have advanced to ABD status. The grantee will conduct exploratory research to identify sources, build professional networks and visit heritage sites, research libraries and archives in Egypt. The U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs funds the fellowship through a grant to the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC). The minimum stay is one month, with a maximum stay of two months.
Research Associates: This unfunded research status enables independent scholars with funding from private sources to affiliate with ARCE. Research associates receive the same administrative support in terms of clearances, permissions and mentoring as ARCE Fellows, but do not receive ARCE funding. U.S. citizens and foreign nationals at U.S. universities are eligible to apply.
Theodore N. Romanoff Prize: The Theodore N. Romanoff Prize is open to doctoral candidates (ABD) and recent Ph.D. recipients (degree granted between 2015-2019) conducting research on the language or historical texts of Ancient Egypt, including the Coptic language, as the final stage of historic Egyptian languages. U.S. scholars worldwide and non-U.S. scholars studying or teaching at an American university in the United States are eligible to apply. Research must be conducted in Egypt.
Applicants may apply for this funding as a stand-alone fellowship or in conjunction with other funding sources, including the ARCE-CAORC or NEH-funded fellowships.