The UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies has awarded its 2025-26 Mosafer Centennial fellowships for Near Eastern Scholars. The fellowships will support four UCLA graduate students who will spend this summer and fall conducting research abroad.
Ava Hess (Art History) will travel to France to conduct archival research related to her dissertation entitled “Arts of Reversal: ‘Popular’ Islamic Prints, Under-Glass Paintings, and their Postcolonial Afterlives in the Maghrib.” Hess’ research examines popular visual traditions in 19th- and 20th-century North Africa, including chromolithographs, under-glass paintings, and postcards, to explore how colonialism shaped, and was shaped by, everyday art practices.
Lily Hindy (History) will travel to Iraqi Kurdistan where she will meet with colleagues, deliver a paper, visit archives, and engage in research using oral testimonies and written sources. Hindy’s research explores how human rights were discussed and contested in Iraqi Kurdistan during the 1960s and 1970s, and how those debates evolved over time.
Noaman Mousa (Political Science) will travel to Egypt to conduct field research, archival analysis, and interviews with key stakeholders relevant to his dissertation project who relocated from Sudan. Mousa’s research focuses on how the structure of a state's economy impacts its likelihood of conflict recurrence, focusing on Sudan as a case study.
Yubai Shi (Art History) will travel to France and Algeria to conduct archival research for her dissertation entitled “Reframing Modern Art in the Maghrib: Portraits of Decolonization.” Shi’s research examines how modern Maghribi artists, particularly women like Baya, used portraiture to navigate the politics of identity, gender, and decolonization in the mid-20th century.
Mosafer Centennial Fund for Near Eastern Studies was established in 2019 to support student fellowships in honor of the late Dr. Al R. Harris, aka Alireza Hariri. The Fund pays tribute to the Harris Family’s commitment to support interdisciplinary studies of the Middle East and North Africa. In both Persian and Arabic, "mosafer" means "traveler," and the fellowships are meant to support students to attend conferences or travel for research on the Middle East and North Africa.