Research Grants Announcement from the Palestinian Museum
Visual Art History Research 2020-2021
‘Art History in Palestine from the 19th century until late 20th century (1990s) and its discourses’
Applications open on 7 February 2020
Applications close on 15 May 2020
The Palestinian Museum is pleased to announce this open call for research papers for the Museum’s strategic Knowledge Gap research programme for the years 2020–2021. As detailed below, the research programme Visual Art History Research 2020-2021 - Art History in Palestine from the 19th century until late-20th century (1990s) and its discourses seeks novel approaches and new perspectives on Palestinian art history.
The project seeks to deepen and strengthen qualitative research on art in Palestine historically and critically, with in-depth insight into its material, socio-economic and political contexts from the nineteenth century to the early 1990s.
About the Palestinian Museum
The Palestinian Museum is an independent institution dedicated to supporting an open and dynamic Palestinian culture nationally and internationally. The Museum presents and engages with new perspectives on Palestinian history, society and culture. It also offers spaces for creative ventures, educational programmes and innovative research.
Project Description: Art History in Palestine from the 19th century until late-20th century (1990s) and its discourses
This research project invites scholars and field researchers to submit outlines of their research proposals that reflect a wide-ranging engagement with the historiography of art in the context of Palestine and its diaspora. The submitted papers can be empirical, theoretical, or both, and the focus will be on papers that present new data from field, text, or archival engagements.
Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
- Pre-1948 art practice in Palestinian coastal cities
- History of Palestinian art in the Latin American diaspora from the nineteenth century onwards
- Palestinian artists in twentieth century East European and Arab art scenes
- Palestinian arts education and practices under the British Mandate
- Exhibiting and collecting from the early twentieth century in Palestinian contexts
- Palestine in non-Palestinian art production
- Gendered art trajectories and practices
- Mapping outsider art and marginal art in Palestinian contexts
- Mapping art criticism in Palestinian contexts
- Identifying and locating lost/looted/ art collections
- Special Topic: Pioneer Women Artists of Palestine: The artistic practice and legacies of Zulfa Saadi and Nahil Beshara. The applicant can choose to focus on either artists, or both
The outcome will be an edited publication documenting chronological and geographical mapping of Palestinian arts, and a physical mapping of the locations of art works, collective and individual practices, institutions and spaces, collections, and publications in Palestine, the diaspora, and around the globe. The project will seek to shed light on areas of practice — in artistic and geographic terms — left out of canonical historiographies of Palestinian art history and its received genealogies.
Grant Details and Conditions
The Palestinian Museum will commission an independent academic jury composed of regional and international scholars to review and consider the submitted abstracts and papers for funding.
For the completion of in-depth research resulting in an original paper in a range of possible/acceptable formats, such as: literature reviews, field research, archival research, visual/photo articles, historical and chronological mapping, and geographical mapping; the Palestinian Museum offers:
Eight six-month research grants for established researchers, doctoral and/or post-doctoral researchers will be awarded. The grants' financial details will be conveyed to successful applicants.
Application Guidelines
If you are interested in producing an original unpublished paper, please submit a research outline of min. 500 words along with a brief CV by April 1, 2020. Please add an estimated calculation of costs for research projects that include, for example, field-work. Selected participants will be notified by June 1 and are to submit a full-length paper of min. 5,000 words by December 1, 2020 for revision and commentary by the jury. The final revised papers are to be submitted by 1 March 2021.
Please send your application to
The awarded applicants are expected to adhere to the following:
- Sign a contract which specifies the timeline, outputs, and obligations of the researcher(s).
- Attend a symposium in August 2020 to present projects for feedback and orientation, and to sign grant contracts.
- The symposium will mark the beginning of the research period (August 2020 – January 2021) for the fellows who are awarded the research grant.
- Produce related content for the Palestinian Museum website (such as project description and researcher profile).
- Produce the outputs identified in the submitted proposal in accordance with the timeline (below).
- Attend and present research findings at the Palestinian Museum Conference which will be held in August 2021.
Timeline
7 February 2020: Call for applications.
15 May 2020: Deadline for the submission of abstracts and research outlines.
15 June 2020: Announcement of awards granted.
30 June 2020: Signing of contracts with successful applicants.
8 six-month research grants
31 December 2020: Submission of papers for revision.
January 2021 – February 2021: Revision of papers with the committee
1st of March 2021: Submission of final papers
August 2021: Bilingual publication of papers (Arabic, English)
August 2021: Final conference and presentation of research findings
For questions regarding the programme, please contact the research department at the Palestinian Museum at the following email address: