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.
2024 Conference
Best Middle East Paper
The West African Muslim Community from the Late Ottoman Period to Mandatory Jerusalem – The Role of Sufism
Dr. Irit Back, Tel Aviv University
Best Africa Paper
Missionary Women in the Linguistic Field. Research on the Gaboon and Corisco Presbyterian Missions in the nineteenth century.
Dr. Susana Castillo Rodriguez, SUNY College at Geneseo
Best Student Paper
A French Jew in Côte d'Ivoire: The life and Involvement of Robert Leon in Local Politics and in the Formation of the Ivorian Elite Between the 1940s and the 1960s
Mr. Ayode Daniel Dossou, The Geneva Graduate Institute
Best Poster
When is a Consulate not a Consulate?
Ms. Juliana Dent, Abilene Christian University
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