# Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate and Doctoral Thesis Prizes ## expand\_more **Thesis Prizes 2026** We are pleased to announce that we are accepting submissions for the Alwaleed Bin Talal Doctoral Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies. The prizes recognize students who make original contributions to current scholarly discourse on Islam and Muslim societies, past and present. Theses will be evaluated based on the quality of the research, originality of topic, clarity of expression, and strength of argument. All applications should be submitted through [CARAT](http://carat.fas.harvard.edu/). A letter of nomination from a faculty advisor, a resume/CV, and a personal statement in which the applicant explains their methodology and sources and **Doctoral** This prize is open to Harvard doctoral students in all disciplines who complete their Ph.D. between June 2025 and May 2026. This prize carries a $1,500 cash award. Doctoral submissions are due by **Friday, May 31, 2026** through CARAT. The award will be announced in **Fall 2026**. Please contact with any questions. ## 2026 ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Eva Frazier** (Social Studies and EMR) won the 2026 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for her thesis, “**Pacification and its Afterlives: Algeria in American Global War on Terror Doctrine**.” ![Eva Frazier](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/Eva%20Frazier%20square.jpg?h=915a8e4d&itok=kd7bQqBk) ### Undergraduate Honorable Mention **Dalal Hassane** (History & Literature and NELC) was named honorable mention for her thesis, “**From Baghdad to Slemani: The Poetics of Rememory in** ***The Corpse Washer*** **and** ***The Last Pomegranate Tree.***” ![Dalal Hassane](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/Dalal%20Hassane%20square.jpeg?h=05449fcf&itok=nToDlaWJ) ### Undergraduate Honorable Mention **Kawsar Yasin** (Anthropology and History) was named honorable mention for her thesis, “**Shelving East Turkistan: Gendered Archives of Resistance, Exile, and Possibility in Uyghur Istanbul**.” ![Kawsar Yasin](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/Kawsar%20Yasin%20square.JPEG?h=d40a5b61&itok=gvYSeKKU) ## 2025 ### Doctoral Prize Winner **Dr. Hacı Osman (Ozzy) Gündüz** (NELC) won the 2025 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for his dissertation, “**A Rūmī in the Lands of Shām: Life, Poetry, and Legacy of a Janissary-Turned-Poet Māmayya al-Rūmī (d. 985–7/1577–9)**.” ![Ozzy Gunduz](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-11/Ozzy%20Gunduz%20square.JPG?itok=bKpkwP9f) ### Doctoral Prize Winner **Dr. Conor Dube** (NELC) won the 2025 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for his dissertation, “**Interpreting the Qurʾān in the Islamic West (7th – 11th c.): Tradition and Transformation in** ***Tafsīr***.” ![Conor Dube](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-11/Conor%20Dube.jpg?itok=K97sm6jV) ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Jana Amin** (NELC and Anthropology) won the 2025 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for her thesis entitled, “**Tasting Freedom: Palestinian Women's Kitchens as Sites of Ethnography, Refuge, and Resistance in Cairo**.” ![Girl holding portfolio](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/rsz_jana_amin_square.jpg?h=7f61747e&itok=z8_O1F6o) ### Undergraduate Honorable Mention **Nicolas Pantelick** (NELC and Government) was named honorable mention for his thesis, “**Digital Diplomacy During Crisis: An Analysis of Online Israeli Public Diplomacy in the 2023-24 Gaza War**" ![Man with tie](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/nicolas_pantelick.jpg?h=01d5e2bf&itok=hUZc66Uo) ### Undergraduate Honorable Mention **Maryam Tourk** (Social Studies and Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights) was named honorable mention for her thesis on modern South Asia ![Woman in front of trees](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2025-09/rsz_2maryam_tourk.jpg?h=dccbb5e3&itok=1mZ7sm70) ## 2024 ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Afiya Rahman** (Social Studies and South Asian Studies) won the 2024 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for her thesis, "**We Are Children of Genocide: Charting Transnational Solidarity and Racial Politics in the Bangladeshi Diaspora**." ![Afiya Rahman](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/afiya_rahman_square.jpg?itok=K8Vu4fJY) ### Undergraduate Honorable Mention **Asmer Safi** (Social Studies and Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights) was named honorable mention for his thesis entitled, "**'Sing to the Rattling of Your Chains': The Revolutionary Political Thought of Abdul Rahim Popalzai**." ![Asmer Safi](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/asmer_safi_square.jpg?itok=XxSdOkw5) ### Doctoral Prize Winner **Dr. Armaan Siddiqi** (NELC) won the 2024 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for her dissertation entitled, “**Portrait of a Moroccanʿālim: Shaykh Muḥammad b. Jaʿfar al-Kattānī’s Life, Works, and World (1858–1927**).” ![Armaan Siddiqi](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/armaan_aisp_square.jpg?itok=nFVNKe9K) ## 2023 ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Waseem Sari Nabulsi** (Anthropology and History) won the 2023 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for his thesis entitled, "**Magic Mountain: Samaritan Astrological Intervention in Palestinian Misfortune**." ![Waseem Nabulsi](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/waseem_headshot_smaller.jpeg?itok=OZrXP9Cq) ### Doctoral Prize Winner **Dr. Nariman Aavani** (Study of Religion) won the 2023 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for his dissertation entitled, “**Knowledge, Action, and the Ultimate Goal of Human Life: A Hindu-Muslim Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion in the Early Modern Era: Gadādhara (d. 1660) and Mullā Ṣadrā (d. 1635)**.” ![Nariman Aavani](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/nariman_aavani_square.jpg?itok=ViGLYbZK) ### Doctoral Honorable Mention **Dr. Marijana Mišević** (History and Middle Eastern Studies) was named honorable mention for her dissertation, “**Writing Slavic in the Arabic Script: Literacy and Multilingualism in the Early Modern Ottoman Empire**.” ![Marijana Misevic](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_16_9__480x270/public/2026-05/s200_marijana.mi_evi__0.jpg?h=4785b3bb&itok=dwB3kOg9) ## 2022 ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Farah Afify** (Social Studies) won the 2022 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize for her thesis, **“Radical and Muslim: Islamic Liberationist Thought in the Black Panther Party.”** ![Farah Afify](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/farah_thesis.jpeg?itok=LQkz2Q7B) ### Doctoral Prize Winner **Dr. Janan Delgado** (Study of Religion) won the 2022 Alwaleed Bin Talal Doctoral Dissertation Prize for her dissertation, **“The Ties That Bind: Child Custody in Andalusian Malikism, 3rd/9th - 6th/12th c.”** ![Janan Delgado](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/janan_delgado_2.jpg?itok=VGi3Qxf-) ## 2021 ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Isabel Kendall** won the 2021 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for her dissertation entitled, **“I Know How the Caged Bird Tweets: Online Dissent and Physical Repression in Saudi Arabia, 2015-2020.”** ![Isabel Kendall](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/rsz_zizi_kendall.jpg?itok=SP_FYz0R) ### Doctoral Prize Winner **Dr. Rushain Abbasi** won the 2021 Alwaleed Bin Talal Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for his dissertation, **“Beyond the Realm of Religion: The Idea of the Secular in Premodern Islam.”** ![Rushain Abbasi](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/rushain_abbasi_square.jpg?itok=USAuQ4MZ) ### Doctoral Honorable Mention **Dr. Caitlyn Olson** was named honorable mention for her dissertation, **“Creed, Belief, and the Common Folk: Disputes in the Early Modern Maghrib (9th/15th - 11th/17th c.).”** ![Caitlyn Olson](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/caitlyn_photo1_002.jpg?itok=e0Swu0HU) ## 2020 ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Murat Eczacıbaşı** won the 2020 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for his thesis, **“Reflections on the Imperial Past: The Evolution of Early High School History Textbooks in the Republic of Turkey.”** ![Murat](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/murat.jpg?itok=g5DVT2L9) ### Doctoral Prize Winner **Dr. Mary Elston** won the 2020 Alwaleed Bin Talal Prize Dissertation Prize in Islamic Studies for her dissertation, **“Reviving Turāth: Islamic Education in Modern Egypt.”** ![Mary Elston](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/mary_elston_headshot.png?itok=8PZGePtt) ### Doctoral Honorable Mention **Dr. Mira Xenia Schwerda** was named honorable mention for her dissertation, **“How Photography Changed Politics: The Case of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911).”** ![Mira Xenia Schwerda](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/mira_xenia_schwerda_2020.jpg?itok=fq02y-oq) ## 2019 ### Undergraduate Prize Winner **Anwar Omeish** won the 2019 Alwaleed Bin Talal Undergraduate Thesis Prize in Islamic Studies for her thesis entitled, **“Toward the Modern Revolution: Frantz Fanon, Secularity, and the Horizons of Political Possibility in Revolutionary Algeria.”** ![Anwar Omeish](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/anwar.jpg?itok=mGvBaoCa) ### Undergraduate Honorable Mention **Hannah Hess** was named honorable mention for her thesis entitled, **“Debating Misyār: Temporary Marriage in Contemporary Saudi Arabia.”** ![Hannah Hess](/sites/g/files/omnuum9396/files/styles/hwp_1_1__360x360_scale/public/aisp/files/h_hess.jpg?itok=OajFXpoV)