American University of Beirut

Budget: Up to $7,500

Application ​materials: Apply online. Please upload​ in a single PDF file: 1. Proposal including abstract (no more than 200 words), description of the proposed activity and expected outcomes (no more than 1000 words), detailed ​budget and budget narrative (indicating the an​ticipated use of the requested funds and all funds sought or secured from internal and external​ sources), timeline; and 2. Letter of commitment from collaborating institutions or individuals, when available.​
 
Application deadline: ​October 1​​​; March 15​

​Contact: [email protected]​​​​​

2025-26

• Anthropology Day Lebanon 2026
  Narod Seroujian; Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media S​tudies (SOAM)​
  
  The Anthropology program at the Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Media Studies (SOAM) organized Anthropology Day 2026 and a nationwide unessay competition for high school students in grades 10 and 11 in Spring 2026. The project was funded by the Mamdouha El Sayed Bobst Deanship "Community Outreach" fund of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at AUB. The aim was to introduce high school students to the field of anthropology, encourage them to "think like an anthropologist," and build a bridge between the SOAN program and high schools across Lebanon. The unessay competition, themed "Sensing the Neighborhood" and launched on February 19, 2026, World Anthropology Day, challenged students to explore a neighborhood in Lebanon through a sensory lens and to creatively express anthropological insights through a medium of their choice. Over the course of two months, the competition received 40 submissions in English and Arabic from high school students representing diverse regions and educational backgrounds across Lebanon, spanning a wide range of creative formats. Students experimented with sensory ethnography by attending to sounds, smells, touch, movement, visuals, memories, and everyday interactions in a neighborhood and documenting how the space is experienced, inhabited, and understood, while reflecting on questions of community, belonging, identity, heritage, everyday life, displacement, loss, joy, and everyday life. Following a multi-stage assessment by a jury consisting of anthropologists, 25 projects were shortlisted, and 26 students were invited to AUB for an immersive campus experience on May 22, 2026. The campus visit included an anthropology class, visits to the Jaffet Libraries and the Archaeological Museum, and a student exhibition. In conclusion to the project, the Anthropology Day ceremony held on May 22, 2026, included an anthropological roundtable on "Why Anthropology Matters" and the announcement of the six main winners of the competition. For further information and to view the students' projects, check out our website.
  
  
• Exhuming Lebanese Folklore from analog to digital
  Nadia Bou Ali, Critical Humanities for the Liberal Arts (CHLA) Program
  
  CHLA is proposing to collaborate with “IRAB - Arab Association for Music” to help them archive and research 220 songs from Lebanese 20th century heritage. The proposed collaboration aims to transfer an unpublished collection of 220 songs in reel format to digital tracks to facilitate engaging the public with the archive. The project is entitled “Exhuming Lebanese Folklore: From Analog to Digital.'' CHLA will organize a workshop and event on the material and invite musicologists and aesthetic theorists to identify nodes of significance of the archived material and think about how to construe the Lebanese musical tradition in the 20th century.
  
  
• Fostering Active Citizenship: Civic Engagement in Action Through University-NGO Collaboration
  Tania Haddad, Department of Political Studies and Publi​c Administration (PSPA)​​
  
  This proposal seeks funding to support a series of student-led panels in partnership with NGOs working in Lebanon. These panels are part of the PSPA 288: Introduction to Global Citizenship course, providing students with hands-on experience in community engagement and connecting academic knowledge with practical activism. Students will collaborate with selected NGOs to understand their challenges firsthand, and will then create panel discussions that explore these issues and suggest possible solutions. Additionally, we will produce a podcast series featuring insights from NGO leaders and students, capturing their experiences. Opinion pieces (op-eds) will also be written to communicate key discussions and findings. To improve sustainability and accessibility, we will develop a dedicated webpage to promote the initiative, showcasing panel recordings, student reflections, and relevant resources.This initiative seeks to enhance students’ understanding of citizenship, foster collaboration between academic institutions and civil society, and promote critical viewpoints that address pressing social issues in Lebanon.
  
  
• The 27th Annual Science and Mathematics Educators Conference (SMEC 27)
  Rabih El Mouhayar, Department of Education
  
  The Science and Mathematics Education Center (SMEC) at the American University of Beirut will organize the 27th Annual Science and Mathematics Educators Conference (SMEC 27) on March 28, 2026, in a face-to-face format on the AUB campus. This one-day professional-development conference brings together about 250–300 school science and mathematics teachers, as well as coordinators, university faculty, and education researchers. The 2026 theme, “Teaching and Learning Through the Body, Language, and Technology in School Science and Mathematics,” focuses on how learning occurs through physical interaction, gesture, language, and digital tools.
  
  The event will include two plenary sessions by invited international researchers, parallel workshops, and research presentations led by teachers and academics. SMEC 27 promotes collaboration between AUB and schools, provides accessible professional learning for teachers, and contributes to improving science and mathematics education in Lebanon and the region.

2024-25

• Enhancing the Visibility of Earth Sciences through an Interactive Geological Museum
  Joanna Doummar, Department of Earth Sciences
  
  The proposed activity centers on making significant improvements to the Geology Museum at the Department of Earth Sciences as part of our educational outreach efforts. Museums play a pivotal role in providing tangible connections to history, evolution, and natural phenomena, allowing specimens and concepts to come alive for the public. However, certain technical topics within museums can be overwhelming, and the static nature of exhibits can limit engagement, particularly in the realm of uncommon technical subjects. This project helped transforming the static museum experience into an interactive one by leveraging audiovisual and virtual tools to illustrate key geological processes in both time and space. The final aim being to transform our museum into a premier destination for geology enthusiasts, students, and the public at large. The grant helped also support an event “Earth in a Museum” held on the day of the museums on May 17, 2025. 

  
  

• Proposal for Funding Department of Education Spring 2025 Online Workshop Series
  Rima Karami Akkary, Department of Education
  
  Before the economic crisis, our Department of Education received a substantial grant from the DODGE Foundation to develop a cadre of highly trained teachers who commit to improving the quality of education in Lebanon and fund a series of workshops hosted by the department open to all schools, addressing trends and concerns in the field. Now, the funding has been discontinued. However, the department remains committed to supporting our community, now more urgently than ever. Our department has established strong partnerships with both public and private schools through TAMAM, SAIL for change, and many cooperating private schools which host our students and offer them rich learning experiences. Under the current economic crisis most of these schools had to cut their professional development budget and became unable to afford essential professional development for their teachers, administrators, and special educators, and even principals. Our online workshops offer an effective solution that allows us to reach a wide audience (more than 1000 attendees last year), offering support specially to underserved schools. These workshops provide teachers with the professional development necessary to meet the evolving demands of education, without the financial burden. By securing new grant funding, we can continue our vital work, ensuring that educators across the community receive the tools they need to succeed. The long-standing relationships we have built with our schools underscore the trust and urgency behind this initiative.

  
  
• Summer and Be​yond
  Joanna Doummar, Department of Earth Sciences
  
  ​We proposed a summer internship/shadowing experience that targeted a group of 12 passionate high school students (15-16 years old) and aimed to provide them with an interactive, hands-on research experience over a period of 6–9 months. The goal was to immerse school students in the field of Earth Sciences and engage them across 5-6 different research themes.

  The program began with a one-week session at the end of July​, during which students were introduced to their research/internship projects. This initial week included a site visit to the relevant study area when applicable. Over the following months, the students were divided into pairs, with each pair focusing on one specific theme. These themes included:

  •Investigation of past events from rock samples

  •Hydrogeological modelling techniques

  •Museum curation

  •Construction of a 3D model of a groundwater aquifer

  •Application of machine learning in Earth Sciences

  •Implementation of conceptual and numerical modeling of flow

  Each theme addressed a core area of Earth Sciences, and students learned the basic principles of each field. They participated in fieldwork, lab work, computational analysis, and museum activities. At the end of their experience, the students prepared short presentations and reports to showcase their work, the knowledge they gained, and the results they obtained. This experience helped students develop a deeper understanding of Earth Sciences and equipped them with skills and insights to support future academic pursuits in the field.

  See more​