Middle East Studies

Alumna Jessica Murphy ’19 awarded a 2019-2020 MENAR Fellowship

August 30, 2019

Jessica Murphy

Jessica Murphy is one of 8 fellows who will spend a year working with the Middle East and North Africa Regional (MENAR) partner organizations across the Middle East and North Africa in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Israel. The MENAR fellowship program was founded in 2011 with the objective of offering one-year post-graduation fellowships to top graduates of American colleges.

Jessica will be working as a secondary school fellow at École Canadienne de Tunis where she will facilitate community engagement and volunteer opportunities for high school students, assist with college preparations, and work on building an interdisciplinary curriculum. She looks forward to working with youth and collaborating with civil society organizations and hopes to continue learning Arabic.

Originally from New York City, Jessica double concentrated in Middle East studies and development studies, graduating with honors in the latter. Her MES capstone project explored solidarity in response to the “travel ban” [Executive Order 13769], while her honors thesis in development studies discussed the experiences of African asylum seekers in Israel and implications for global refugee protection. In her sophomore year, she coordinated a college readiness program for local high school students, and throughout her time at Brown, she volunteered as an SAT tutor in Providence, New York, and beyond. Jessica also studied Arabic, which brought her to Amman, Jordan in her junior year.