Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Name	Center for Middle Eastern Studies
Established	1960s
Type	Research center

Center for Middle Eastern Studies is an academic research center devoted to scholarship on the Middle East, North Africa, and adjacent regions. The center engages with topics ranging from modern Iranian politics to Ottoman history through interdisciplinary partnerships with departments and external institutions. It hosts conferences, supports fellows, and produces publications that connect to broader debates in regional and global studies.

History

The center emerged during the Cold War era amid debates linked to the Suez Crisis, Six-Day War, and US foreign policy initiatives such as the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, drawing scholars from programs influenced by figures associated with the Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, and the Kennan school of area studies. Early collaborations involved historians trained on the Ottoman Empire, archaeologists working on sites like Tell el-Amarna, and linguists specializing in Classical Arabic and Persian language. Funding often came through foundations and agencies connected to the Carnegie Corporation, Ford Foundation, and national research councils, while institutional partners included the Library of Congress Near East collections, the British Museum, and university departments that had ties to centers such as Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies, SOAS University of London, and the School of Oriental and African Studies. Over decades the center adapted to shifts prompted by events such as the Iranian Revolution, the Gulf War (1990–1991), the Arab Spring, and the Syrian Civil War, expanding archival programs related to the British Mandate for Palestine and the Treaty of Sèvres-era records.

Mission and Academic Programs

The center's mission emphasizes interdisciplinary inquiry across history, anthropology, political science, and literary studies, engaging with specialists on the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, Safavid dynasty, Umayyad Caliphate, and modern state formations like the Republic of Turkey and Islamic Republic of Iran. Degree and certificate programs coordinate with departments including History, Comparative Literature, Religious Studies, and Political Science, and with professional schools such as the School of International and Public Affairs and the Law School. Language training covers Arabic dialects, Persian, Turkish language, Hebrew language, and Kurdish language. Area curricula align with summer programs and exchanges with institutions like American University of Beirut, Cairo University, Al-Azhar University, and University of Tehran.

Research and Publications

Research centers and affiliated scholars produce monographs, edited volumes, and journals addressing topics from premodern manuscripts cataloged alongside collections of the Bodleian Library and Bibliothèque nationale de France to contemporary analyses of energy politics invoking the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and studies of diasporas linked to the Palestinian diaspora, Lebanese diaspora, and Syrian refugee crisis. The center publishes working paper series and journals that have featured special issues on subjects such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Taif Agreement, and the political economy surrounding the Sykes–Picot Agreement. Collaborative publications have involved presses like Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, and Brill Publishers, and editorial projects have drawn on archival collections from the National Archives (UK), US National Archives and Records Administration, and the League of Nations Archives.

Centers, Institutes, and Collaborative Initiatives

The center maintains partnerships with institutes including the Middle East Institute, the Wilson Center, the Brookings Institution Middle East program, and regional institutes such as the Alwaleed Center and the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies. Collaborative initiatives encompass digitization projects with the Getty Research Institute, oral history consortia linked to the Shoah Foundation, and area studies networks coordinated with the Association for Asian Studies and the Middle East Studies Association. Joint fellowships have connected scholars with museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art and research initiatives with laboratories at universities such as Princeton University, Yale University, and Columbia University.

Faculty and Visiting Scholars

Faculty appointments cross departmental lines, drawing historians of the Mamluk Sultanate, political scientists studying parties like Hamas, anthropologists researching communities such as the Druze, and literary critics focused on authors like Naguib Mahfouz, Tawfiq al-Hakim, Mahmoud Darwish, and Orhan Pamuk. Visiting scholars have included fellows formerly associated with the Fulbright Program, recipients of awards such as the MacArthur Fellows Program and the Guggenheim Fellowship, and researchers from institutions like the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity and the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Student Programs and Outreach

Student offerings include graduate fellowships tied to the Fulbright Program, summer language institutes modeled after exchanges with the Middlebury Language Schools, internships with nongovernmental organizations such as Doctors Without Borders and International Rescue Committee, and community outreach collaborating with cultural partners like the Smithsonian Institution and local museums. Public-facing events feature lecture series with diplomats who served in posts such as U.S. Department of State embassies, film screenings curated with the Sundance Film Festival programmers, and curriculum development for secondary schools in partnership with agencies like the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Facilities and Location

Facilities typically include specialized libraries housing manuscripts and rare maps alongside microfilm collections sourced from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, digital labs for GIS work relevant to projects on the Fertile Crescent and archaeological surveys of Mesopotamia, and language resource centers modeled on Language Resource Centers (United States Department of Education). The center is commonly sited within a university campus near archives such as the American Numismatic Society and cultural venues like the Carnegie Hall-adjacent scholarly complexes, providing proximity to municipal consulates and international organizations based in cities with active diplomatic communities.

Category:Middle Eastern studies