Conference Awards Recipients

Each year at the Annual Conference, ASMEA selects winners for best paper prizes in the categories of Middle East, Africa, and Student as well as Best Poster. 

2023 Conference

Best Middle East Paper
An Entangled History and Memory: Jewish Celebration of Abrahamic Tradition and Longing for Jerusalem in Arabic Poetry from the Cairo Genizah
Dr. Ahmed Sheir, Trinity College Dublin

Best Africa Paper
Uganda, Invisible Children Inc. and the United States' Role in Countering the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)
Dr. Curthberth Onek, Millersville University

Best Student Paper
The Challenge of Legitimacy and Governance in Afghanistan
Mr. Ahmad Partaw, University of South Florida

Best Poster
The Pandemic and Terrorism: A Comparative Study of Terrorist Narratives during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Ms. Hannah Maniscalo, Abilene Christian University

2022 Conference

Best Middle East Paper
Litani 1978: Incursion on the Road to the First Lebanon War
Prof. Zach Levey, University of Haifa

Best Africa Paper
Cycles of Violent Displacement: Tigrayan Refugee Women, 1974-2022
Mrs. Francesca Baldwin, University of Reading

Best Student Paper
Colonial Paranoia: French Carcerality Amidst the Algerian Struggle
Ms. Shirley Le Penne, Cornell University

Best Poster
The Art of Attack: Comparing Palestinians' High-tech and Low-tech Resistance
Ms. Zoe Jackowitz, St. Lawrence University 

2021 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Amal Cavender (George Washington University)
Minorities in Turkey: The Unwanted Citizens

Africa Category
Prof. Stephen Z. Onyeiwu (Allegheny College)
Institutions and Foreign Direct Investment in the MENA Region

Student Category
Changwook Ju (Yale University)
Rainfall as an Instrument? Revisiting Economic Shocks and Civil Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa

Best Undergraduate Poster
Ms. Sierra Shoaff (Abilene Christian University)
Shin Bet's Cell Phone Tracking: A Violation of Civil Liberties and the Basic Law

2020 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Lindsay Benstead (Portland State University)
Do Islamist Parties Reach Women?

Africa Category
Dr. Aldrin T. Magaya (DePauw University)
‘Change within Continuity:’ Sacred and Holy Spaces and Socialization in Bocha, Zimbabwe, c1910 -1960s.

Student Category
Mr. Oliver McPherson-Smith (University of Oxford)
Better Off Alone: Somaliland, Institutional Legacy, and Prosperity

Best Undergraduate Poster
Mr. Noah Pruitt (Abilene Christian University)
Entrenched Politics: Relationship between the Length of Tenure in Office and the Freedoms Experienced by Peoples in the Middle East and Africa

2019 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Seckin Sertdemir Ozdemir (London School of Economics)
Citizenship Deprivation, Securitization, and the Neoliberal Academy: Academic Purges in Turkey, 1933–2019

Africa Category
Dr. Nicolas de Zamaroczy (O.P. Jindal Global University)
Accounting for the East African Community: East African Politics as a Competition between Elite Coalitions

Student Category
Mr. Bright Alozie (West Virginia University)
“A Privileged Communicative Space”: Nigerian Soldiers’ Petitions During the Two World Wars

Best Undergraduate Poster
Ms. Francesca Masso-Rivetti (The Ohio State University)
Perceptions of Confession and Forgiveness among Reintegrated Perpetrators in Post-Genocide Rwanda

2018 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Ramin Ahmadoghlu (Georgia Gwinett College)
Azerbaijani National Identity in Iran: Roots, Development, and Limits

Africa Category
Dr. Tricia Bacon (American University)
The Domestication of al-Shabaab

Student Category
Mr. Jeremiah Rozman(University of Virginia)
Socializing the PLO: Testing a Bargaining Framework Based on a New Non-State Actor Typology

2017 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Joel Parker (Tel Aviv University)
The Failure of the Syrian Opposition 2011-2017: What Went Wrong?

Africa Category
Dr. Jochen S. Arndt (Virginia Military Institute)
Struggles for Power, Identity and Language in Post-Apartheid South Africa: The Case of the AmaHlubi

Student Category
Mr. Amir Mahdavi (Brandeis University)
Why is Studying Iranian Elections Politically Important? Facts Understood from the Electoral Behavior of the Constituencies Loyal to the Two Major Political Factions in Iran

2016 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Bosmat Yefet (Ariel University)
Authoritarianism, Jihadist Ideology, and Renewal of the Religious Discourse in Egypt

Africa Category
Dr. Robert Houle (Fairleigh Dickinson University)
From Christian Brother to Native: Claiming and Rejecting Christianity, Commerce, and Civilization in Early Twentieth Century Natal

Student Category
Mr. Eoghan Stafford (University of California, Los Angeles)
Stop the Presses: The Rise and Fall of Media Reform in Ben Ali’s Tunisia

2015 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Carlos Segovia (University of St. Louis, Madrid Campus)
The Jews and Christians of Pre-Islamic Yemen (Himyar) and the Elusive Matrix of the Qur’an’s Christology

Africa Category
Maj. Bonnie Kovatch (United States Military Academy)
Sexual Exploitation & Abuse in UN Peacekeeping Missions: A Case Study of MONUC & MONUSCO

Student Category
Ms. Rahel Fischbach (Georgetown University)
Rereading the Qur’ān – Challenging Traditional Authority: Political Implications of Contemporary Qur’ān Scholarship 

2014 Conference

Middle East Category
Prof. Francisco del Rio Sanchez  (University of Barcelona)
The Rejection of Muhammad’s Message by Jews and Christians and Its Effect on Islamic Theological Argumentation 

READ the story: ASMEA awards prize to University of Barcelona professor.

Africa Category
Prof. Eric Lob (Florida International University)
The Overseas Operations of the Iranian Construction and Agricultural Jihad in Sub-Saharan Africa (1984-2009)

Student Category
Mr. Justin Fantauzzo (University of Cambridge, Darwin College)
Ending Ottoman Misrule: British Soldiers, Liberal Imperialism and the First World War in Palestine 

2013 Conference

Middle East Category
Prof. Banu Eligür (Baskent University)
The Arab Spring: Implications for U.S.-Israeli Relations

Africa Category
Prof. Jan Záhořík (University of West Bohemia in Pilsen)
Ethiopia’s Hegemony in the Horn of Africa: Internal Tensions and External Challenges Before and After Meles Zenawi

Student Category
Ms. Sarah J. Feuer (Brandeis University)
The Politics of Islamic Education in Morocco and Tunisia: Historical Trends and Current Debates

2012 Conference

Middle East Category
Prof. Nikolas Gardner (Royal Military College of Canada)
Indian Morale in the Mesopotamia Campaign 1914-1917

Africa Category
Prof. Nick Biziouras (United States Naval Academy)
The Genesis of the Modern Eritrean Struggle (1942-1961)

Student Category
Ms. Krisztina Szilagyi (Princeton/Cambridge – Post-Doctorate)
Muslim Conversion to Christianity in the Islamic World, 700-1000 AD

2011 Conference

Middle East Category
Dr. Dany Badran (Lebanese American University)
Rhetoric and Democracy in the Arab World: The Outlook for the Future

Africa Category
Prof. George “Larry” Simpson (High Point University)
Becoming Samburu: The Ethnogenesis of a Pastoral People in Nineteenth-Century Northern Kenya

Student Category
Mr. Julian Fuchs (University of Erlangen-Nuremberg)
The Military in Algeria-Changing Rule, Consistent Ideas

2010 Conference

Middle East Category
Prof. John Dunn (Valdosta State University)
Clothes to Kill For: Uniforms and Resistance in 19th Century Ottoman and Egyptian Armies

Africa Category
Prof. Amanda Kay McVety (Miami University)
The Rinderpest Campaign

Student Category
Mr. Michael O’Neal (Tel Aviv University)
Ghaza and Political Legitimacy in the Ghurid Empire