The Georgetown Fellowship

Georgetown University and the American Druze Foundation (ADF) are pleased to announce the establishment of “The American Druze Foundation Endowment of Druze and Arab Studies” at the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) at Georgetown University.

This is the first endowed research fund in the world dedicated primarily and essentially to producing new — or enhancing existing– academic knowledge about the Druze at a premier US institution of higher learning, with a top-ranked graduate program in contemporary Arab studies and a renowned doctoral program in Middle Eastern/North African history.

Objectives

The practical objectives of the endowed fund are to encourage academic and cultural initiatives that investigate, interpret, document and promote knowledge about the Druze in the arts and social sciences. It will achieve these objectives by institutionalizing a specific Druze-centered research agenda with the mandate to:

• Promote specialized knowledge-production about the Druze through continuing post-doctoral research on the Druze, culminating with the finalization of the doctoral manuscript;
• Foster greater understanding of the Druze through the organization of conferences, public lectures, and the publication of primary research in relevant journals;
• Develop graduate or undergraduate-level courses, and related instructional programs on the Druze, their history, and their current affairs.

Preserving our heritage and history by endowing a fellowship in the best halls of American academia for future generations to cherish.

The ADF’s agreement with Georgetown excludes any research on Theology for the following reasons:

• The nature of the Druze faith, and in some ways the beauty of it, is that it is not an “organized” religion in the sense of other Muslim sects or Christian churches. Its adherents are all equal in their right to seek Truth and understand the Creator. But if it is to survive the onslaught of mobility, modernity and demographic changes, it needs to find a structure that can allow it to evolve with the times.
• Recognizing this reality and struggling with it in the diaspora does not mean that diasporic Druze alone can offer solutions. The solution has to come through a global effort that includes the heartland. The ADF Fellowship can address non-religious aspects of the community in ways that only modern Western academic institutions can, with all due respect to all who have done a credible job to date on telling the story of the Druze.
• This is why the American Druze Foundation has chosen this course – it is a worthy Druze endeavor on its own merit.

Fundraising

We are proud to announce that we have reached our fundraising goal and fulfilled the $2 million dollar endowment for the first in the world Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Druze and Arab Studies. This could not have been possible without the generous donors and support of our friends and community worldwide. Thank you for helping us make history! You can still make a donation towards the ADF General Fund in support of our mission and future initiatives.

• View a list of our generous donors
• Read about the ADF Inaugural Ceremony
• View pictures from the Inaugural Ceremony

Apply Now!

The Georgetown University Center for Contemporary Arab Studies (CCAS) is now seeking eligible and interested applicants for the new Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Druze and Arab Studies.

To learn more about the eligibility and requirement criteria, please visit CCAS.