Deni Hoxha is a senior in Adams House concentrating in economics and pursuing a concurrent AM degree in Middle Eastern studies. As a speaker in the “Destination: World – Student Tales from Beyond the Comfort Zone” event in October 2020, part of Worldwide Week at Harvard, Deni gave a PechaKucha-style PowerPoint presentation about his experiences on CMES Wintersession trips to Turkey (2018) and Tunisia (2019). Here is his talk, edited for the web.... Read more about Crossroads of the Mediterranean: Turkey and Tunisia

In spring 2020, Keye Tersmette, PhD candidate in Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies, was less than 100 days into what was to be a year of dissertation fieldwork in Oman when Covid-19 hit. Here is his account of research disrupted.

Mere minutes after I purchased my ticket from him, the man behind the desk received a phone call. Soon he was smiling, and began snapping his fingers to draw the attention of his colleagues. The explanation followed the moment the line was disconnected: starting tomorrow, all bus routes would be suspended. While the bus drivers and...

During spring 2020, Gavin Moulton '20 worked in Harvard's Fine Arts Library with the newly acquired Binney Collection of Orientalist Prints, a group of prints, drawings, lithographs, and other ephemera related to perceptions of the Ottomans in Western and Central Europe. Moulton, who has studied Turkish with Precepter Meryem Demir and Senior Preceptor...

While conducting dissertation research in Italy during the 2019-20 academic year, Maryam Patton, PhD candidate in History and Middle East Studies, has had the unusual fortune to experience both severe flooding in Venice and quarantine in Florence. Here is her account.... Read more about Timelessness in Florence: Lockdowns, Flooding, and Disruption