Arab Scholars Project

With generous support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Ali Vural Ak Center is partnering with the Arab Studies Institute to undertake a broad range of activities designed to enhance the profile and public role of scholars int he Middle East in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings. Achieving an enhanced relationship between social science scholarship. legal scholarship, transparency, and citizen empowerment in the Arab world, the Arab Scholars Project will reduce the barriers that perviously separated knowledge producers from citizenry and the broader public sphere.

As the political and civic landscape of the Arab world is reconfigured, this project aims to ensure that social scientists in the region are visible, valued, and well-positioned to take advantage of an unprecedented opportunity to have a positive impact on the future of their societies by providing ideas, knowledge, and critiques that inform decision-making, policy, and public debate at various levels of society. There are three main thematic strands to the project's work: legal scholarship and civil society; exploring and transcending religion and secularity in public life; and the political economy of development and inclusion in the new Middle East.