Shahla Farghadani - Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS)

I have been awarded a Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship from the Center for South Asian Studies (CSAS) for Summer 2017 and for the 2017-2018 academic year. I am planning to participate in the summer SASLI program at the University of Wisconsin- Madison to learn Urdu. During the academic year, I plan to continue learning Urdu and conduct my academic research. My research is about the production, circulation, and canonization of Persian literature in early modern Iran and South Asia (from the 16th century to the 18th century). I am working on manuscripts from that period that were composed in the form of collections such as bayāz (fair copy), majmū’a (collection), and muraqqa’ (album). This research will eventually be part of my dissertation.

Yaakov Herskovitz - Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship and Association for Jewish Studies dissertation research fellowship

I have received the Rackham Predoctoral Fellowship for next year, which will allow me to write and finish my dissertation by the summer of 2018. Additionally, I have received a research award from the Association for Jewish Studies, awarded to six doctoral students throughout the world in the field of Jewish Studies. This award will allow me to finalize my dissertation research in several archives in Israel. My dissertation discusses prolonged bilingualism through the works of four writers in early 20th century Europe and Palestine, writers who worked extensively, and for decades, in both Hebrew and Yiddish.

Timothy Leonard - Friends of Near Eastern Studies Fellowship

I have been awarded two terms of funding from the Friends of Near Eastern Studies Fellowship, one in Fall 2016 and the other to be used in Winter 2018. This fellowship, administered by the department, includes tuition, stipend, and research support. In the Fall, I will begin the third year of my Ph.D. program in Hittitology and Assyriology. This award not only enables me to spend time focusing exclusively on research that will lead to my dissertation, but it is also allowing me to attend the Leiden Summer School in Languages and Linguistics, the Rencontre Assyriologique Internationale in Marburg, Germany, and the 10th International Congress of Hittitology in Chicago.