Mideast Mailing List

The Mideast List is a listserv run by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies for the purpose of disseminating information regarding Middle East–related academic events and opportunities to the CMES community of Harvard students, faculty, and researchers. Subscribers to the list also include students, faculty, and others interested in the Middle East from the wider Boston area and beyond.

Subscribing to the Mideast List

Content Guidelines

All posts to the Mideast List are reviewed by a moderator and approved at the discretion of CMES. The Mideast List is intended primarily for announcements regarding university-sponsored academically-oriented events taking place in the greater Boston area, as well as announcements of relevant academic conferences, calls for papers, fellowships, and job opportunities worldwide. At our discretion we may also post announcements of events sponsored by local organizations and student groups—in most cases such events must be academic in format and feature scholarly speakers. In determining what to post, primary consideration is given to providing information of relevance to CMES’s core community of Harvard students and faculty. We do not post announcements that are substantially commercial, political, or activist in nature.

Moderation Disclaimer: While the content guidelines and posting instructions on this page describe the general criteria used by the Mideast List moderator in reviewing posts for the list, decisions are made on a case by case basis and may consider other factors. The Center for Middle Eastern Studies reserves the right to approve or reject any post for any reason without notice, and makes no guarantee regarding the approval or timing of posts.

Posting Instructions

To post an announcement to the Mideast list, send your post by email to mideast-list@lists.fas.harvard.edu, adhering to the Content Guidelines above and the instructions below. (You do not need to be subscribed in order to post to the list.)

Content and Formatting

All necessary information must be included as text in the body of the email. You may not include images and attachments.

Posts should include a detailed, descriptive subject line describing the post content, with the event date and time if space allows.

All posts must include contact information in the body of the email. The “From” address of a post’s original sender is stripped when the post is sent to the list, therefore a contact name and email address must be included in the email body.

Event announcements must include the following in the body of the email:

  • event date, start time, and end time
  • location
  • speaker(s)
  • brief description
  • name of sponsoring organization
  • contact info for further information

If an announcement could cause confusion to recipients because of missing information, it will be rejected by the list manager.

The moderator is only able to approve or reject posts, and cannot change their content, so do not use “Please post!" or "Announcement for Mideast List” in the subject line or body of the email. If you wish to send instructions concerning the announcement, please send them in a separate email with the subject line: "INSTRUCTIONS for posting event such and such."

Timing

In general, the list is checked daily as close as possible to 10:00am and 3:00pm during the academic year, excluding weekends and University holidays. These times may vary, and it is not unusual for your posting to take several hours or up to a full business day to be approved. Please account for this when considering the timing of your announcement. During the summer, the list is checked less frequently.

If your post specifies that an event takes place “TODAY” or “TOMORROW,” it must be sent to the list by 10:00am* on the day it needs to be posted (it may also be sent the previous day after 5:00pm).

*The digest version of the list is sent to digest subscribers daily at 12:00 noon, and contains all messages posted since the previous day's digest. Therefore any message sent to the list after the 10:00am moderation sweep will not be received by digest recipients until the following day.

Tips for Subscribers

Updating Your Email and Subscription Settings

To update your subscription settings (including changing your email address or password) visit https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/mideast-list and enter the email address you are subscribed with at the very bottom of the page (last field under “mideast-list Subscribers”).

To Unsubscribe

To unsubscribe from the Mideast List, visit https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/mideast-list and enter the email address you are subscribed with at the very bottom of the page (last field under “mideast-list Subscribers”). On the following page, click the “Unsubscribe” button (note that you will receive a confirmation email and will need to follow its directions to finish unsubscribing). Alternately, enter your password on the second page, then use the “Unsubscribe” button on the next page to unsubscribe immediately without a confirmation email.

Receiving the Mideast List as a Digest

You can choose to receive Mideast List posts as individual messages, or as a daily digest. If you choose to receive individual messages, they will be sent to you as soon as they are approved by the moderator. If you receive the digest, it will be sent once a day at noon.

Please note that because the digest is sent daily at noon, it may contain messages that were sent to the list the previous afternoon. Always check the date carefully on messages labeled TODAY or TOMORROW!

To change whether you receive a digest or individual posts, visit https://lists.fas.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/mideast-list and enter the email address you are subscribed with at the very bottom of the page (last field under “mideast-list Subscribers”), then enter your password on the following page. Once you are logged in, look for “Set Digest Mode” (second setting under “Your mideast-list Subscription Options”).

Questions?

For questions about the Mideast List, after reviewing this page carefully, please email mideast-list-owner@lists.fas.harvard.edu. Please note that due to the volume of posts and large number of subscribers, we may not be able to respond to all queries or troubleshoot all issues.