The MPK project is indebted to many people and organizations.  First and foremost is the University of California Arab Region Consortium which supported the project and embraced it as a UCDAR project.  Founded in 2001 by Suad Joseph, UCDAR was initially housed in the UCD Chancellor’s office, and it’s analysts funded by UCD Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. Since 2017, UCDAR has been housed in Global Affairs at UC Davis, under the leadership of Vice Provost and Dean Joanna Regulska, who continued to support UCDAR with the analyst position for several years.  The Anthropology Department at UC Davis supported the Joseph Lab where critical staff support for the MPK project was managed. The UCD Office of Graduate Studies offered work study support for one UCD GSR in the first year of the project.

The Ford Foundation provided a planning grant in 2018 that funded two of the workshops in Beirut, Lebanon, allowing for some of the critical planning for the proposal that was submitted to the Foundation to Promote Open Society.  The MPK project is grateful to the Open Society Foundation for funding the majority of the work carried out between 2020-2023. Without this grant, this project could not have moved forward.

The MPK project is particularly indebted to the Arab Council for the Social Sciences for partnering with UCDAR on the MPK project, and managing the OSF grant starting in 2020.  Director Seteney Shami and Associate Director Moushira Elgeziri would consistently supportive and thoughtful in their guidance.  ACSS made available their web designer, WonderEight Offshore SAL, to work on the MPK webpage. We are particularly grateful to Youssef Kassab and Lynn Bitar from WonderEight, and Wassim Alam from ACSS for their work designing the MPK webpage.

MPK is indebted to the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World, now called the Arab Institute for Women at the Lebanese American University for hosting several of the early workshops for the project, to the American University of Beirut for hosting one workshop, and to the Arab Council for the Social Sciences for hosting another workshop.  We are further indebted to the Arab Council for the Social Sciences for partnering with UCDAR on the project to make funding possible and for participating in the development of the project.

In addition to these organizations, MPK is grateful for the work and help of many people who assisted in various capacities at various times:  Adam Siegel (UC Davis librarian) assisted with developing the database list. Bruce Abbott (UC Davis School of Medicine librarian) assisted with training senior scholars and graduate student researchers on Boolean Operators and searches. Dr. Patrick Marius Koga (UC Davis School of Medicine) offered training on Scoping Reviews, Systematic Reviews, Covidence, and Boolean Operators.  UC Davis IT staff assisted with obtaining UCD email addresses for all MPK team members.

Jolynn Shoemaker, Francesca Wright, and Maria Alvarez, analysts for the Joseph Lab, assisted with organizing minutes and agendas, as did Kelly Gove and Nikki Mahmoud, research assistants.  Joseph Lab IT staff worked with the webpage:  Randal Murphy, Anish Kondepudi Mihika Krishna, Eeheet Hayer, Yong Yan Chong, Nicholas Reynolds, David Lin, and James Zheng.  Suad Joseph is indebted, especially, to Yoke Dellenback, UC Davis grants officer, for managing the UCD subcontract under the OSF grant.

Last Updated: August 29, 2022