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| Tunisian Minister of Higher Education and Dr. Azmi Bishara in the awards ceremony |
ACRPS awarded the winners of the third annual Arab Prize for the Social Sciences and the Humanities in a ceremony that culminated the proceedings of the Center’s third annual Social Sciences and Humanities Conference, held on March 20-22 in Tunis. The awards ceremony was attended by Minister Tawfiq Jelassi, the Tunisian Minister of Higher Education, Scientific Research, Information and Communication Technology, who commended ACRPS’s efforts in promoting scientific and academic research and in keeping pace with the transformations underway in Arab countries.
This third year of the award considered two main categories: the first amounting to a total of $100,000 awarded to scholars writing on “Stages of Historical transition and the Prognosis for Arab revolutions” and “Development Policies and the Challenges of Revolution in Arab countries”, the conference’s topics this year.
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| Dr. Kamal Abdul Latif announces the results of the Arab prize for Social Sciences and Humanities 2013-2014 |
The second category, awarding a total of $60,000, honored research papers published in Arab and international journals over the year. The prize committee had received 50 nominations for awardees this year with 20 expert evaluators having assessed the submitted research papers. A total of 6 papers were considered in the first category, and 13 in the second.
In the first category the first place prize of $25,000 was awarded to Sudan’s Dr. Hassan al-Hajj; the second place prize of $15,000 was awarded to Egypt’s Dr. Najla’ Mar’i and the third place prize of $10,000 was awarded to Morocco’s Dr. Khalid al-Isri. In the category of “Development Policies and the Challenges of Revolution in Arab countries”, a third place prize of $10,000 was awarded to Iraq’s Dr. Daram al-Basam. In the second category comprised of researchers who published in Arab and international journals the second place prize of $10,000 was awarded to Egypt’s Dr. Ahmad al-Maghazi. Prizes for publication of articles in international journals went to Jordan’s Dr. Asma al-Makkawi (first place, $15,000), Bahrain’s Dr. Umar al-Ubaidli (second place, $10,000) and Kuwait’s Dr. al-Unood al-Sharikh ($5,000). Some prizes were withheld following careful consideration of the evaluation committee.
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| The Tunisian Minister of Higher Education Dr. Tawfik al-Jelassi delivers his speech at the award ceremony, Arab Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities |
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| Dr. Azmi Bishara, speaking at the award ceremony, Arab Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities |
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ACRPS General Director Azmi Bishara emphasized the importance of fostering a competitive spirit among researchers and stressed that no renaissance or nahda could take place in the absence of an enabling environment for scholarship and scientific research, particularly in the social sciences and humanities – fields typically shunned by oppressive regimes. He further stated that: “In the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies we consider ourselves to be a renaissance project that strives to clarify the way to a better future.”
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| From the prize distribution ceremony, Arab Prize for Social Sciences and Humanities 2013-2014 |
ACRPS established the "Arab Social Sciences and Humanities Prize” in 2011 as a special award meant to encourage Arab researchers to pursue creative and innovative scientific work on issues and challenges central to the development of Arab societies. In 2013 the prize committee amended the prize statute so that it could be awarded to two types of research: 1) research carried out in the Arabic language addressing the annually proposed topics and 2) research and studies published in Arab and international journals in different languages (mainly English, French, German, and Spanish). The topics for the next prize were also announced at the ceremony and will be addressing “The role of scholars and intellectuals in Historical Transformation.” and “Academic Research in the Arab World”, with details of how to participate in the prize selection for 2014/2015 to be announced by ACRPS shortly.
