CAORC Receives Contribution from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

January 27, 2012

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                            

Contact:

Dr. Mary Ellen Lane, Executive Director, Council of American Overseas Research Centers;

202-633-1599; lane.maryellen@caorc.org

Ms. Robin Presta Boone, Program Director, Council of American Overseas Research Centers;

202-633-1599; boone.robin@caorc.org

CAORC Receives Contribution from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

The Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) has been awarded a one-time contribution of $100,000 by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to support CAORC’s and several American overseas research centers’ most urgent operating needs.

During the past year, federal funding for international higher education, for U.S. scholars who need to conduct humanities research overseas, and for American overseas research centers’ core operating support has been drastically reduced. These cutbacks will have long-term deleterious consequences for American higher education at all levels. The Mellon Foundation’s contribution will enable CAORC to continue to promote and support higher learning and international scholarly research in the humanities and allied social sciences by U.S. scholars and academic institutions at several CAORC member centers in 2012.

CAORC and the centers are working conscientiously to diversify and increase their funding sources. However, in the short term, the abrupt and dramatic reduction of federal funding means that CAORC and many centers are facing cancellation or reduction of programs and services that are important to U.S. and host-countries area studies scholars.  Mellon Foundation funding for focused operational needs will make a substantial difference to CAORC and these cost-efficient centers as they maintain vital services for scholars in the face of drastic cuts.

The Mellon Foundation contribution will be crucial in helping CAORC and the most vulnerable centers survive and continue critical operations and programs in 2012, as they work to broaden their funding base. For CAORC and many of its member centers, 2012 will be a year of transition in which they will not only search for alternate and more diverse funding sources, but also develop plans aimed at putting them in a position of sustainability for 2013 and beyond. 

About CAORC: CAORC’s mission is to promote international scholarly research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, by U.S. scholars and academic institutions. Since 1981, CAORC has advanced higher learning and international scholarly research, particularly in the humanities and allied social sciences, by U.S. scholars and academic institutions through our network of American overseas research centers. The centers are strategic venues by which consortia of U.S. higher education institutions maintain a presence in the regions; they are also key means of fostering independent, top-caliber scholarly research and highest level exchange that pushes the frontiers of knowledge.

As a consortium of consortia, CAORC fulfills a unique role in international studies:  more than 470 universities, colleges, libraries, and museums worldwide hold almost 1,200 memberships in the 22 American overseas research centers in 24 countries throughout the Near and Middle East, North Africa, Europe, Central America, West Africa, and South, Southeast, and Inner Asia – a geographic breadth that is not represented by any other U.S. educational organization.

CAORC provides this network of Overseas Research Centers with administrative, financial, legal, and policy guidance and support, promotes communication and cooperation among the centers, coordinates multi-center and multinational activities, sponsors regional research projects, and facilitates the creation of new centers. One of the most important functions CAORC and the centers provide is an institutional network to connect U.S. academics to local scholars and resources in areas of the world where research access is difficult to obtain. 

Event: Tutankhamen in San Antonio

American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) Director Gerry Scott will give a talk about the legendary boy king at Trinity University's Chapman Auditorium January 26th at 7:30 p.m. This free event is hosted by the San Antonio chapter of the Archaeological Society of American (AIA) and is open to the public.

Dr. Scott will place Tutankhamen and his extraordinary "treasure" within a historical, archaeological, and cultural context. Topics will include a short account of Egypt's ancient history, Tutankhamen's family, and the role of ancient Egyptian royalty, burial practices, and religious beliefs. Highlighted will be selected objects from the Tut exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and what scholars believe happened during Howard Carter's discovery of the tomb and recovery of the objects.

For much of his professional career, Dr. Scott has been involved in museum work, serving in both curatorial and administrative capacities. Just prior to joining ARCE, he worked at the San Antonio Museum of Art for 15 years.

Celebrating 30 Years of Helping Preserve International Cultural Heritage

In 2011/12, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of helping preserve international cultural heritage:

CAORC and its member centers have a strong interest, institutional commitment, and successful track record in working with host-country scholars and institutions to study, protect, and preserve host-countries’ cultural heritage.

Over the last 30 years, CAORC and the centers have worked with host-country scholars and institutions to initiate several important cultural heritage projects, including:

American Institute of Indian Studies Islamic Heritage Project

With support from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), CAORC worked with the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) to implement the AIIS Islamic Heritage Project, which surveyed, mapped, and documented rapidly disappearing monuments in predominantly Muslim regions of India. This project, a priority for both the government of India and the Department of State, filled a gap in AIIS documentation of predominantly Hindu monuments throughout India.

American Research Center in Egypt Programs

For more than a century, Americans have been active and productive partners with Egypt in the recovery and preservation of Egypt's cultural heritage. For the past half century, the American Research Center in Egypt (ARCE) has filled a critical leadership function within the community of Egyptian and foreign scholars in Egypt who are active in the excavation, exploration, scholarship, and conservation of the country's cultural heritage.

ARCE is a key contributor to Egyptian governmental efforts for the sustainable management of historic sites and monuments through its training and conservation programs. ARCE’s collaboration with Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities assists the Egyptian Ministry of Culture to preserve the country’s cultural heritage from human and environmental damage. ARCE’s archaeological field schools in documentation, site management, and conservation and salvage archaeology and its registrar training program at the Egyptian Museum have begun the formation of a cadre of Egyptian professionals capable of preserving the country’s cultural heritage for generations to come.

Cultural Heritage Institute/Iraq

In 2004, CAORC partnered with the U.S. Department of State and the Smithsonian Institution to implement the Cultural Heritage Institute/Iraq program. This brought 22 young Iraqi museum professionals to the U.S. for an intensive five-week program of training and collaboration with their American counterparts. The program’s goals were to help prepare the next generation of Iraqi cultural heritage stewards and to forge ongoing partnerships between Iraqi and American institutions and colleagues. Several Iraqi program participants took part in subsequent training programs in Amman, Jordan, on various topics, including a course sponsored by the Getty Conservation Institute/World Monuments Fund Iraq Cultural Heritage Conservation Initiative in collaboration with the American Center for Oriental Research (ACOR). The American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) played an important role in developing and implementing the Iraq program and is continuing to build on and expand the linkages established.

Cultural Heritage Institute/South Asia

In 2007, CAORC partnered with the U.S. Department of State and the University of Wisconsin to implement the Cultural Heritage Institute/South Asia program for museum and cultural heritage specialists from India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The Cultural Heritage Institute/South Asia program met its goals of exposing ten South Asian museum professionals and cultural heritage specialists to U.S practices and standards of cultural heritage institutions; it also developed and enhanced national and regional communications among the South Asian participants and developed and enhanced professional networks between South Asian and U.S. museum and cultural heritage specialists.   The American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), American Institute of Pakistan Studies (AIPS), and the American Institute of Sri Lankan Studies (AISLS) played an important role in developing and implementing the program and are continuing to build on and expand the linkages established. AIPS was able to host an additional Cultural Heritage Workshop for Pakistani museum specialists with support from the U.S. Embassy.

Getty Foundation Middle East and Mediterranean Basin Research Exchange Fellowship Program

With support from the Getty Foundation, CAORC is helping to build cooperative networks among practitioners and scholars from Afghanistan, Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen through the Getty Foundation Middle East and Mediterranean Basin Research Exchange Fellowship Program. From 2007 to 2010, the program focused on scholars, museum curators, and others whose research and professional interests focused on studying or preserving cultural heritage.

For example, in 2009, the Palestinian American Research Center (PARC) sent Dr. Hamdan Taha to the American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman. While there, Dr. Taha conducted research and made contacts that enabled him to participate in several prestigious international activities, publish chapters in several major archaeological books, and led to his current position as Assistant Deputy Minister, Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage in the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities in Palestine. In his new position Dr. Taha is co-directing a project for reassessment, management, and site development at Tell Balata in Ramallah, a collaboration between the Palestinian Department of Antiquities, the University of Leiden, and UNESCO.

In 2011, CAORC revised the Getty Fellowship Program structure as a combined fellowship and seminar program to deepen and strengthen the networks established through this program. CAORC also refocused the program more specifically on the field of art history, to target more faculty and scholars in universities and research centers in addition to practitioners from government departments and official projects, thus creating greater and deeper scholarly connections, both in quantity and quality. In 2012 the Getty Fellowship Program will be open to art history scholars from Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen who wish to undertake a specific research project in Algeria or Turkey related to the seminar theme: Art and Archaeology of the Sacred (Algeria) or Vision and Visual Culture in Byzantium (Turkey).

The Getty Fellowship Program has had expected benefits (increased cross-cultural research, scholarly networking, publishing, and promotions for promising cultural heritage specialists) and unexpected benefits (e.g., University of Pennsylvania Professor of Archaeology Brian Rose’s appointment by the U.S. Department of State to be a special consultant on preservation and reconstruction of Ur, mentioned in an earlier post). 

Media and Conflict: A Conference of West African Journalists and Researchers

The final conference of The West African Peace Initiative (WAPI), a major project of the West African Research Association, brought together researchers and journalists from 14 West African countries. This exchange between journalists and researchers led to rich discussions and a commitment to continuing collaboration across national and professional boundaries in the interest of building and maintaining sustainable peace in the region.

Present at the opening ceremony were the Honorable Pedro Pires, former president of Cape Verde; the Honorable Jorge Borges, Minister of Foreign Affairs; and Her Excellency Adrienne O’Neal, US Ambassador to Cape Verde. The conference was opened by President Pires, who gave a keynote address on the challenges of peacebuilding in the region, with particular emphasis on the key role played by Cape Verde in brokering peace in recent conflicts.

Conference participants enjoy a stroll through Cidade Velha

 The first day of the conference was devoted to reports by WAPI Fellows on the research they conducted on conflict   resolution in the region.The second day of the conference, organized by Cape Verdean scholars and policy makers, provided a view of the Cape Verdean experience. Presentations focused on the democratic process in Cape Verde, the accomplishments and the challenges of creating and maintaining an open and participatory society. The first session was chaired by the Honorable Antonio Mascarenhas Monteiros, former president of Cape Verde, and the second by Colonel Antero Matos of the Cape Verdean Ministry of Defense. The final day of the conference was devoted to the work of 11 of the journalists who participated in the Dakar Journalism Institute, an integral part of the WAPI project. Each journalist conducted a research project, exploring the role of media in peace and conflict.

The closing address for the conference was presented by the Honorable Jorge Carlos Fonseca, President of Cape Verde, who underscored the importance of this conference and of continuing efforts to build cultures of peace.

The WAPI conference was the result of close collaboration with WARA’s Cape Verdean colleagues. It was also a milestone in bringing together two groups who rarely have the opportunity for in-depth interaction, and whose role in peacekeeping is critical: journalists and researchers.

WAPI is funded through a generous grant from the US State Department

AIIrS Sponsors Iranian-American Artists’ Day Workshop at The Metropolitan Museum

As part of its funding of special public programs at The Metropolitan Museum in New York, in conjunction with the opening of the new galleries if Islamic Art, AIIrS sponsored an Iranian-American Artists’ Day Workshop at the Museum on December 5, 2011.  Twenty-five artists working in New York and environs attended the workshop.  The artists had sole run of the new galleries for the Art of the Arab Lands, Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, and Later South Asia, as well as the galleries of Ancient Near Eastern Art, accompanied by the curators of these two departments.  Following a catered lunch on the Great Hall Balcony, the curators along with specialists from the Education department moderated a round-table discussion about the artists’ reactions to the galleries, what sorts of museum programs would benefit practicing artists and Iranian-Americans, and potential new public programs that might integrate the perspectives of artists with the Islamic and Iranian works in the exhibit to reach out to a new audience of museum-goers who combine art historical and contemporary arts interests.  This was the first workshop of its sort held by the Museum and proved enlightening for all involved.  The curators and educators raised the possibility of holding similar workshops with other artists’ communities also represented by the collections, including Arab-American, Turkish-American and South Asian-American.

CAORC: 30 Years of Promoting Advanced Scholarly Research

In 2011, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of promoting advanced scholarly research:

CAORC and its member centers administer a wide variety of fellowship programs that allow students and faculty from American institutions to pursue independent scholarly research overseas. Together, CAORC and the centers directly fund approximately 500 pre-and post doctoral fellowships each year, as well as field expeditions, small travel grants, and scholarly conferences and seminars.  

Additionally, each year the centers host and facilitate overseas research for thousands of students, teachers, and scholars supported by the Fulbright programs, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Social Science Research Council, as well as hundreds of independent U.S. scholars and study groups. For 30 years, CAORC and the centers have partnered with numerous foundations and agencies to design, develop, and execute cultural and scholarly fellowship and exchange programs, including:

Multi-Country Regional Research Fellowship Program

Since 1993, with funding from the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), CAORC has enabled more than 170 American pre- and post-doctoral scholars in the humanities, social sciences, allied natural sciences, historical and current research fields, and international and area studies, the rare opportunity to carry out regional and trans-regional research in several countries and to surmount the boundaries imposed by current national politics. It also allows scholars who focus on particular countries that may be considered marginal within their region to broaden their research achievements with the logistical and intellectual support of ORCs.

The Multi-Country Program has enabled the participating American overseas research centers to expand their research agendas and broaden their practical and theoretical scope. Participating centers are able to improve their regional program cooperation with each other, expand their audiences, represent a wider range of disciplines and concentrations, and serve their constituencies more effectively as international exchange resources. The Multi-Country Program also promotes programmatic coherence among centers and helps diversify area studies as well as broader humanities and social science inquiry to encompass underserved institutions, populations, professions, and research topics. The program supports U.S. institutions of higher education as they continue to regionalize research, by making American overseas research centers a primary vehicle in this endeavor.

The Multi-Country Program is directly responsible for the ground-breaking collaboration between the American Institute of Maghrib Studies and the West African Research Association in the new bi-annual Saharan Crossroads conference series, which was launched by two Multi-Country fellows, Prof. Ghislaine Lydon (UCLA) and Prof. Cynthia Becker (Boston University). This conference series explores and reinforces the cultural, artistic, and historical connections between populations living in and on both sides of the Sahara. The first conference, “Views from the North,” was held in at the Tangier American Legation Museum Institute for Moroccan Studies in Morocco, in June 2009; anthropologists, archaeologists, architects, historians, musicians, visual artists, and other scholars from the U.S., Algeria, France, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tunisia made presentations. The second conference, “Views from the South,” was held in Niger, in July 2011.

Borderlands Interdisciplinary Project

In 2004, the CAORC Executive Committee, led by Profs. I. William Zartman (Johns Hopkins-SAIS) and Kenneth Sams (UNC-Chapel Hill) initiated the first Interdisciplinary Project, the Borderlands Interdisciplinary Project (BLIP), which brought together scholars from many disciplines of historical and contemporary research to draw out conceptual characteristics of the human condition in borderlands across enormous variations in time, development, and history. BLIP brought together scholars from the Multi-Country Regional Research Fellowship Program, the centers, and the CAORC Mellon Program (see below) to examine dynamic social processes in borderlands across time, disciplinary approach, and history. Recently, CAORC- and center-supported scholars brought together multiple strands of scholarship covering four millennia and four continents in Understanding Life in the Borderlands, a book edited by Prof. Zartman and published by the University of Georgia Press.

Getty Foundation Middle East and Mediterranean Basin Research Exchange Fellowship Program

Since 2007, the Getty Foundation has awarded CAORC a grant to help build cooperative networks among practitioners and scholars from Afghanistan, Algeria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen whose research and professional interests focus on cultural heritage or art history. As an example of the success of this program, in 2008 the American Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TAARII) sent Dr. Abdulamir Hamadani as a Getty Fellow to the American Academy in Rome (AAR), where he established working relationships with academic institutions in Italy. As a result of his fellowship and contacts he made while in Rome, Dr. Hamadani facilitated the University of Rome’s successful submission of a proposal to the Iraqi Board of Antiquities for an excavation project at the archaeological site of Ur. Because of his Getty Fellowship, Dr. Hamadani was able to collaborate with the Italian Ministry of Culture to reach a joint agreement to implement a conservation project at Ur to be funded by the U.S. Army in Nasiriya. As an unexpected benefit, while at AAR Dr. Hamadani met University of Pennsylvania Professor of Archaeology Brian Rose, whom he invited to visit archaeological sites in Iraq. Thanks to this serendipitous meeting, Professor Rose was subsequently appointed by the U.S. Department of State to be a special consultant on preservation and reconstruction of Ur.

The Coulson/Cross Aegean Exchange Fellow Program  

Since 1990 the Coulson-Cross Aegean Exchange has brought Turkish scholars to Greece and Greek scholars to Turkey, using as a base for their research the American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) and the Ankara or Istanbul branch of the American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT). The fellowships promote scholarly exchanges between Turkey and Greece by supporting the research of nationals of Greece or the Republic of Turkey in any field of the humanities and social sciences from pre-historic to modern times who need to conduct their study in the other country.

Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center Fellowship Program

In 2010 the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center asked CAORC to initiate a fellowship program for American pre- and post-doctoral scholars to carry out research in Oman in the humanities, social sciences, and allied natural sciences. This program represents a remarkable opportunity to promote advanced research in the Sultanate of Oman. CAORC and the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center hope to expand the fellowship program in the future based on the results of the pilot fellowship.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation East-Central European Research Fellows Program

In the early 1990s, after the demise of communist regimes in East and Central Europe, one of the academic community’s most urgent priorities was to reconnect scholars in these countries with their counterparts in the West. This was especially important in the humanities disciplines, since scholars in these areas had been essentially cut off from contact with the West during the communist era. To address this, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded CAORC more than $10,000,000 to establish and coordinate a program of fellowship residencies for East and Central European humanities scholars at institutes of advanced study in Western Europe. From 1993 until this year, CAORC enabled more than 600 Bulgarian, Czech, Estonian, Hungarian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Polish, Romanian, and Slovak scholars in the humanities and related social sciences to carry out research at one of 17 designated institutes in Austria, England, France, Germany, Greece, India, Israel, Italy, Jordan, the Netherlands, Norway, Scotland, Spain, Turkey, and Yemen (seven of which are CAORC member centers). This program successfully created a significant cadre of younger East and Central European scholars (Ph.D.s under 40 years old) in the humanities and social sciences who were able to carry out individual research projects and to engage in interdisciplinary research projects with other international scholars.

Getty Research Exchange Fellowship Program for the Mediterranean Basin and Middle East

The 2012 fellowship program is open to scholars in participating countries* who have already obtained a Ph.D. or have professional experience in the field of art history and who wish to undertake a specific research project in Algeria or Turkey related to the seminar theme: Art and Archaeology of the Sacred (Algeria) or Vision and Visual Culture in Byzantium (Turkey).

Funded by the Getty Foundation, the fellowship includes a travel and living expense stipend of $7,500. The fellowship tenure will be June 9 to July 16, 2012, including an opening and closing seminar. Fellows will be required to conduct their research during this time period.

Scholars must apply through the American Overseas Research Center in their home country. Final award selection will be conducted by CAORC. Notification of fellowship status will be made available to each applicant via email by April 16, 2012.

* Participating countries include: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, Italy, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, Turkey, and Yemen. Please note: Algerian scholars may apply only for the fellowship in Turkey and Turkish scholars may apply only for the fellowship in Algeria.

For more information and application details, click here.

CAORC Celebrates its 30th Anniversary

In 1981, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC) was founded as a locus for cooperation among the then existing American overseas research centers. In 1986 CAORC launched full-time operations with grants from the Andrew W. Mellon, Rockefeller, and Exxon foundations, and the J.P. Getty Trust.  CAORC now has 22 member centers in 24 countries, supporting American scholarship around the world.

Over the last 30 years, CAORC’s mission and activities have broadened, and CAORC has been in the forefront of advancing higher learning and international scholarly research, particularly in the humanities and social sciences, by U.S. scholars and academic institutions.

In 2011, CAORC is celebrating 30 years of:

• Serving American Scholars and Helping Them Carry Out Their Research Overseas
• Promoting Advanced Scholarly Research
• Helping Preserve International Cultural Heritage
• Expanding Access to Little-Known or Hidden International Scholarly Resources
• Sponsoring Language Study in Critical and Less-Commonly Taught Foreign Languages
• Facilitating Collaborative International Research Projects
• Initiating, Sponsoring, and Coordinating Multi-Center, Multi-National, and Regional Research and Collaborative Projects
• Reaching Out to New Audiences in the U.S. and Overseas
• Building Enduring Relationships between U.S. and Foreign Scholars and Institutions
• Advocating for the Importance of Increased Support for International Scholarly Programs

The Results – we are:

• Furthering Higher Learning and International Scholarly Research, Especially in the Humanities and Social Sciences; 
• Strengthening Research and International Connections That Are Vital to Continued U.S. Global Competence;
• Advancing Cordial Relations between the United States and the Host Countries;
• Increasing Americans’ Knowledge of and Ability to Interact Successfully with the Rest of the World; and
• Helping to Meet the National Need for American Experts in and Citizens Knowledgeable about World Regions, Foreign Languages, and International Affairs.

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Dear Colleague Letter from Amy Newhall, MESA Executive Director

November 1, 2011

Dear Colleagues: 

The cards are on the table for the 2012 Federal budget and the hand of area studies does not look promising. Fulbright Hays may be eliminated entirely (and how did YOU fund your dissertation research?  The Mellon Foundation stepped in this year and saved some of the grantees, Hurray Mellon! But this was a one-time rescue), CAORC funds could be cut completely again (have you spent time at ARCE, ARIT or AIMS centers lately, it might turn out to be for the last time), Title VI funds for the National Resource Centers may stay at 2011 levels (decreased 50% from 2010) or be cut entirely, and that staple of graduate education, FLAS grants (some of us knew them as NDFL), face an uncertain future.  Not since 1973 has the danger been so acute. 

Many of the former champions of these programs in the Senate and in the House have retired. Speak up and use any avenue to well-connected people from any circle and get them to chime in. Talk to your representatives (or their staff) and to your university’s Federal Relations officers. They can’t read your minds. 

See the National Humanities Alliance website on this important issue. 

The Facts: National Humanities Alliance "Issue Brief" on Title VI

The Issue: National Humanities Alliance Action Alert [read and click: “Take Action”, or go directly through the next link]

The Need for Action: Contact your Congressional Representatives   

[Fill in form; Click: “Review Message” PERSONALIZE by adding to the prepared text how these programs helped you in your career and what outcomes have resulted like public service, economic competitiveness, numbers of students and teachers, etc.; Click “Send Messages”]

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Amy Newhall, MESA Executive Director