The Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS) offers the U.S. Department of Education's Title VI Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships for Summer 2021 and Academic Year 2021-22. Open to graduate and undergraduate students, FLAS provides tuition and stipend to students pursuing area studies and Middle Eastern and North African languages, including Arabic, Armenian, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Uzbek.

The U.S. Department of Education (US/ED) funds these awards under the provisions of Title VI of the Higher Education Act. The amount of funding and number of awards is contingent upon annual US/ED program approval, federal regulations, as well as continued congressional funding, all of which may change from year to year.

Information sessions have been taking place virtually over Zoom. It is strongly recommended that interested students attend an information session before scheduling an advising appointment.

November 2020 FLAS Info Sessions

To see more upcoming info sessions as they are announced, and for more details on FLAS Fellowships, visit ii.umich.edu/ii/flas. For inquiries, please contact cmenas@umich.edu.

CMENAS awarded ten graduate students and six undergraduate students with FLAS Fellowships for 2020-2021. Congratulations to them all, and see the graduate student recipients listed below:

Graduate Students

  • Mekarem Eljamal (Hebrew), Dual Master’s Degree Student, Middle Eastern & North African Studies and Urban & Regional Planning
  • Nicholas Kolenda (Persian), Master’s Degree Student, International and Regional Studies
  • Armen Abkarian (Arabic), Doctoral Student, History
  • Evgenia Kitaevich (Armenian), Doctoral Student, Political Science
  • Ethan Taylor (Persian), Master’s Degree Student, International and Regional Studies
  • Cecilia Kuehnel (Arabic), Master’s Degree Student, Middle Eastern Studies
  • Daniel Lightfoot (Arabic), Master’s Degree Student, International and Regional Studies

Undergraduate Students

  • Garrett Ashlock (Persian), Bachelor’s Degree Student, Anthropology and Middle East Studies
  • Simone Jaroslaw (Hebrew), Bachelor’s Degree Student, Public Policy and Middle East Studies
  • Drew Tarnopol (Hebrew), Bachelor’s Degree Student, Chemistry and Middle East Studies
  • Kaitlyn Bell (Arabic), Bachelor’s Degree Student, Middle Eastern & North African Studies, Political Science, and International Studies
  • Ethan Concannon (Arabic), Bachelor’s Degree Student, Political Science

Summer FLAS Recipients

  • Armen Abkarian (Arabic), Doctoral Student, History
  • James Vizthum (Hebrew), Doctoral Student, Middle East Studies
  • Molly Green (Arabic), Doctoral Student, Public Health, Health Behavior and Health Education
  • Richard Smith (Hebrew), Doctoral Student, Musicology
  • Daniel Lightfoot (Arabic), Master’s Degree Student, International and Regional Studies
  • Ethan Concannon (Arabic), Bachelor’s Degree Student, Political Science
  • Shon Harris (Arabic), Bachelor’s Degree Student, Middle Eastern & North African Studies and International Studies