For Suad Joseph, academia is the primary institution of hope in America. Joseph, who was born in Lebanon and moved to the U.S. with her family when she was a child, was inspired by her teachers to pursue a career in education.
“Our teachers taught us what America was about and what it meant to engage in this historical experiment of democracy,” said Joseph, now a distinguished research professor emerita of anthropology and gender, sexuality and women’s studies at the College of Letters and Science at UC Davis. “They believed in it. We believed in them.”
Initially wanting to be an elementary school teacher, Joseph eventually became a leading scholar of women and gender in the Middle East. She founded the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis, raised over $10 million in external awards and in 2021 established the Suad Joseph Undergraduate Student Research Award in Middle East/South Asia Studies and the Suad Joseph Graduate Student Research Award in Middle East/South Asia Studies, to name just a few of her accomplishments and philanthropic efforts.
And now, Joseph is bestowing her generosity on the university again with the establishment of the Suad Joseph Graduate Student Research Award in Lebanon and Palestine Studies. The award will support graduate students conducting research on Lebanon, Palestine and/or their diasporas.
“I have, for some time, believed, that we are in the midst of a major historical transformative moment — which can manifest itself over years,” Joseph said. “Such moments stand out for the intensification of contradictions — politically, economically, socially, culturally.”
Joseph said that Lebanon and Palestine are central to this historical transformation, even ground zero.
“Palestine and Lebanon are in the eye of the storm,” she said. “Given the killings of scholars, journalists doctors and the like, and the destruction or obstruction of universities, libraries, research centers in those countries, it is imperative that we train young scholars at UC Davis to document, record, analyze and help us understand this historical moment now and in the future.”
Award timeline and eligibility for UC Davis graduate students
Currently, it’s expected that the first call for applicants for the new award will occur in fall 2027, with the award being given during the 2027-2028 academic year. The award will be administered by the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis.
“The Middle East/South Asia Studies Program and the College of Letters and Science have built a world-class program, attracted world-class faculty, including the new hires in 2025, and are training world-class students,” Joseph said.
“It is a critical time to support the faculty who mentor these students by offering research funds for the graduate students to carry out their work,” she added. “These amazing students give me hope for the future. They are our hope. We need to invest in them.”
Joseph’s broad legacy of educational giving
The endowment follows a thread of recent gifts from Joseph. This is the sixth year she has established endowments at various universities and organizations.
Last year, Joseph established an endowment at the American University of Beirut (AUB) for Palestinian women graduate students conducting social sciences and humanities research on Palestine. At AUB, she also created undergraduate scholarships for female children of Lebanese, Palestinian, or Syrian mothers.
At the Lebanese American University in Beirut, she created an endowment for graduate and undergraduate women students who do research on women/gender studies. She founded an endowment for undergraduate students to do research at the State University of New York at Cortland. And with her siblings, she co-funded an endowed scholarship to support students at Cortland Jr./Sr. High School who are going to college.
Academia as a force for truth and hope
Underlying Joseph’s continuous financial support of educational programs is her belief that academia is a force for good.
“We teach critical thinking, which is the backbone for citizenry; we encourage students to embrace doubt and uncertainty as basic requirements for expanding one’s horizons; we support questioning, and wondering, and imagining,” she said.
“In a time when academia is under threat from forces who do not value scientific knowledge production, it is more important than ever to stand for evidence-making, to stand for factuality, to stand for research, to stand for the truth,” she added. “The best work of the academy is to produce students, produce citizenries, produce souls and intellects who take us forward into worlds we could not have known.”
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