DARINE ZAATARI, then a student at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, received funding in May 2005 to aid research on 'Clans and Cooperation in the Beq'aa Valley of Lebanon,' supervised by Dr. Lee Cronk. The objective of the study was to investigate cooperative and punitive behavior in Lebanon among kin and among different members of the community in Lebanon. Fieldwork was set out to test the extent to which degrees of relatedness, moral codes, and individual variation encourage or discourage cooperation.

BERNA YAZICI, while a student at New York University, New York, New York, received funding in January 2004 to aid research on state sponsored social work among the urban poor in Turkey, under the supervision of Dr. Lila Abu-Lughod. Yazici was interested in the models of family and gendered subjectivities promoted through social work intervention in order to illuminate how the social life of national subjects is constituted and contested.

Preliminary Abstract: This research draws upon micro-historical and ethnographic approaches to transnational mobility to examine the increasingly popular Hajj-e Fuqara ('pilgrimage of the poor/modest') route that transports not only pilgrims but also smuggled goods from Iran, through Turkey, to Syria. I will study how a seemingly disparate set of social actors (pilgrims, smugglers, and merchants) employ the bus as a critical vehicle of mobility, and negotiate not only this transforming border, but also the seemingly distinct borders between religion, economy, and politics.

Preliminary abstract: This research examines the encounter between state welfare programs and local culture in the Kurdish region of Turkey. During the last decade, the Turkish state has attempted to address a history of violence against Kurds by implementing social assistance programs on a large scale, thus hoping to create a respectful Kurdish citizenry. Kurds, on the other hand, feel that they are 'owed' such assistance, precisely because of that history, and are less sanguine about prospects for their inclusion into the Turkish polity.

DENIZ YONUCU, then a student at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, received funding in May 2010 to aid research on 'Transforming Space and Citizens: Neoliberal Urban Governance and the Re-Formation of the State in Turkey,' supervised by Dr. P. Steven Sangren. The research has concentrated on the processes that led to the emergence of state of exception policies in some working-class neighborhoods of Istanbul during the 1990s. The first phase research was based on an ethnographic study conducted in a working class neighborhood of Istanbul.

SARAH S. WILLEN, then a student at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, received a grant in October 2002 to aid research on 'Pregnant and Unwelcome: Undocumented Migrant Workers' Experiences of Reproduction in Israel,' supervised by Professor Peter J. Brown.

DR. LIVIA CELINE WICK, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon, was awarded a grant in November 2009, to aid research on 'War Based Mental Health and the Construction of Subjects: An Ethnographic Study of Psycho-Social Interventions in Lebanon and Palestin.' This project explores the role of psycho-social interventions in shaping people's conceptions of pain and memory among Palestinians in Lebanon and Palestine. It combines the collection of oral histories of mental health professionals and patients as well as participant observation in psycho-social projects.

ERICA WEISS, then a student at Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, received funding in April 2008 to aid research on 'The Social Life of Conscience: The Case of Israeli Refuseniks,' supervised by Dr. Abdellah Hammoudi. Fieldwork was done with conscientious objectors in Israel, following how they encountered, socially and legally, the Israeli military and society.

ANA VINEA, then a student at City University of New York Graduate Center, New York, New York, was awarded funding in October 2010 to aid research on 'Between the Psyche and the Soul: Mental Disorders, Quranic Healing and Psychiatry in Contemporary Egypt,' supervised by Dr. Talal Asad.

NETTA VAN VLIET, then a student at Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, received a grant in November 2006 to aid research on 'Israeli Security Corps: Citizenship, Population, and Militarism in Israeli National Identity Formation,' supervised by Dr. Diane Nelson.