For Palestinian graduate students, Mada al-Carmel's PhD Program is a rare thing: a room where their questions are taken seriously, their histories are a starting point rather than a debate, and their research belongs to them. This year, more qualified students applied than we had seats to offer - turned away for budget, not merit. $2,500 opens one more seat. $5,000 opens two. Help us say yes to two more Palestinian scholars.
Every year, Mada al-Carmel's PhD & Higher Education Program opens its doors to a small cohort of Palestinian researchers. This year, 17 qualified applicants applied for spots. But we only have the funding to offer 15 spots - meaning saying no to two qualified researchers. They met our academic bar - the same rigorous bar that has shaped a decade of critical, Palestinian-led scholarship - and who we've had to turn away for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of their work.
Palestinian graduate students in Israeli universities often pursue rigorous research while their questions and frameworks go unwelcomed in the classroom. Mada's PhD Program offers another option: a year-long research seminar, mentorship from our Academic Committee, and support to publish. It works - in this year's evaluation, 7 of 10 participants said it shaped their research significantly. $5,000 opens two more seats for qualified applicants we'd otherwise turn away for budget, not merit.
Two researchers join this year's cohort directly. Over a decade, this program has supported more than a hundred Palestinian researchers, many now teaching, publishing, and leading research across the region - shaping the scholars who follow them. Their work reaches wider readerships through Mada's research series and Arabica, our Arabic-language reference project. Every seat funded strengthens a growing community capable of producing Palestinian-led knowledge and mentoring the next generation.
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