News & Multimedia

Freer Medal

Freer Medal Lecture and Award Ceremony: Honoring Gülru Necipoğlu

October 26, 2023

On Friday, October 27, 2023, the National Museum of Asian Art awards its Freer Medal, a lifetime achievement award that honors individuals who have made substantial contributions to the understanding of the arts of Asia throughout their career, to Gülru Necipoğlu, the Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at Harvard University’s History of Art and Architecture Department, who will be honored for her lifetime work in the arts of the Islamic world....

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Amid Violence in the Middle East, Palestinian American Poet Shares Work at Harvard Center for Middle Eastern Studies

October 25, 2023

Lisa Suhair Majaj — an author and scholar of Arab American Literature — shared a collection of her poems at a Tuesday event at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Majaj, who was born in America and grew up in Jordan, shared 17 of her poems chronicling her life as a Palestinian American. Speaking to an audience of more than 30 people, she acknowledged the difficulty of the subject matter amidst the violence unfolding in Israel and Palestine....

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MESA Board Statement on Palestine and Israel

October 17, 2023

The Executive Committee of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies endorses the October 16, 2023, statement by the Board of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) condemning the killing of all civilians in Palestine and Israel. The statement asserts that there is no military solution to the conflict and supports "a political solution that offers safety, dignity, and equal rights for Palestinians and Israelis." It also called on universities to "affirmatively assert and protect the right to academic freedom and freedom of speech on their campuses" amidst heightened incidents of violence...

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Painting of Ragusa from 1667

The Ragusa Road and the Ottoman Balkans

October 11, 2023

In a new episode of the Ottoman Podcast, CMES Associate Director for Research Jesse Howell (PhD '17) discusses the history of the early modern caravan route between Ragusa (modern-day Dubrovnik) and Istanbul. In attending to the long-distance connections between the early modern Ottoman state and the Mediterranean world, he reveals the multi-ethnic communities that came together on the caravan route, the ways that the Ottoman state...

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Harvard Offers Kurdish Language Course for First Time in University History

October 2, 2023

Harvard offered its first Kurdish language course in the University’s history this fall after students from Kurdish-speaking backgrounds pushed for its creation. The course focuses not only on the Kurdish language but also on topics in Kurdish culture, history, and politics. Read more about the course in the Harvard Crimson.

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Harvard Students Launch Fundraisers for Morocco Earthquake Relief

September 15, 2023

Harvard students and affiliates raised more than $19,000 in donations through fundraisers for disaster relief following a deadly earthquake that hit Morocco last Friday. The earthquake, which struck near Marrakesh, Morocco, is one of the deadliest to hit the country in decades, with a death toll approaching 3,000 victims, mostly in rural areas. Read more about these fundraising efforts in the...

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Earthquake impact in Douar Agadir Jamaa, Tizi N'Test commune, Taroudant Province. September 2023

Support for Earthquake Relief Efforts in Morocco

September 14, 2023

On September 8, a massive earthquake struck the Marrakesh–Safi region of Morocco, the largest recorded in the country's history and the deadliest since 1960. CMES mourns the thousands of lives lost in this disaster. Local and international rescue and relief efforts are underway. A group of prominent Moroccan scholars in the United States have set up a GoFundMe to raise funds for relief efforts and are working with local NGOs and community leaders to ensure all funds make the biggest, most direct impact to support families.

Little Amal ART

Amal Walks Across America

August 3, 2023

Little Amal, whose name means “hope” in Arabic, is an internationally celebrated 12-foot-tall puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee girl. She has been welcomed by more than 250 uniquely created artistic events across the globe since her initial 5,000-mile trek across Europe in 2021. Amal carries her message of hope for marginalized people everywhere, especially children who have been separated from their families. As a public art project, among the largest ever produced, she has been heralded as “one of the most ambitious live artworks ever staged” (The Observer, 2021) and “an...

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Everett Mendelsohn

Everett Mendelsohn, Who Linked Science and Society, Dies at 91

July 15, 2023

Everett Mendelsohn, who as a scholar of the history of science explored how science's evolution has been influenced by historical and cultural trends and vice versa, died on June 6, 2023, at his home in Cambridge. He was 91. A longtime professor at Harvard, Mendelsohn lectured on atom bombs, genetics, and more, examining how science, culture, and politics influence one another. Read more about Mendelsohn's remarkable life and career in the New York Times.