It is impossible to sum up the life of Professor Roger Owen in a few paragraphs; even Roger found it difficult to edit his life in his wonderful memoir. I will focus on being his student and then his friend, and how he taught me how to pass forward his special brand of mentoring.

As a graduate student working on the history of Egypt and Sudan, I made my pilgrimage to Oxford to see Roger and Albert Hourani and receive their wisdom on my project. Albert enjoyed its potential but Roger told me in no uncertain terms that it was too big and would be very difficult (I would like to...

Each summer, a number of CMES PhD, AM, and undergraduate students whose interests lie in the Middle East have the opportunity to travel to the MENA region for summer research and language study. A group of these students shared stories from their summer travels at the “CMES Summer in Review” event on Friday, September 21, 2018. In a fast-paced format, over a dozen students shared images and stories, and fielded questions from the audience. With the support of funding including CMES grants and fellowships, students strengthened their language skills, participated in internships...

CMES awarded a first prize and three honorable mentions in the 2016–17 Harvard College International Photo Contest for photos taken in the Middle East region. All photos were from students’ internships, language study, and travel in the summer of 2016. This year’s first prize went to Kami Choi (’17), a senior at the college pursuing a joint concentration in Government and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Choi interned at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency headquarters in Amman, Jordan while...

CMES awarded a first prize and three honorable mentions in the 2015–16 Harvard College International Photo Contest for photos taken in the Middle East region. Aubrey Stoddard (’17), studying history and government, received first prize for an image she captured during her internship at the Institute for Counter Terrorism during summer 2015 in Israel. Honorable mentions were awarded to archaeology concentrator Jingxiu Jin (’18),...