“Speaking about food or looking at old menus to explain the way culinary culture changes is one thing,” says Cemal Kafadar, Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies. “Hands-on exposure is another.” And so one evening in April, Kafadar led students in his course History 1878B: Ottoman State and Society, along with guests including CMES Visiting Researchers Bedriye Poyraz and Nil Tekgül, out of the classroom and into an industrial kitchen beneath freshman dining facility Annenberg Hall. There, under the guidance of acclaimed chef Ana Sortun—whose Cambridge-area restaurants Oleana, Sofra...

Postdoctoral Fellowship

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University invites scholars to submit applications for a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University in the area of Turkish/Ottoman–Ukrainian relations, including issues connected with Crimea and the Crimean Tatars. The call for applications is open to scholars in the Humanities or Social Sciences who have received their PhD within the last five years. The fellowship extends for 12 months, from approximately September 1, 2018, to August 31, 2019. The successful candidate will reside in the greater...

Nicholas Norberg is a first-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program.... Read more about Q&A with Nicholas Norberg

On the evening of April 26, nearly 100 members of our community gathered for a concert that brought to light the underappreciated contributions of women composers to Ottoman music. The event was held as part of the continuing Sohbet-i Osmani series organized by Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies Cemal Kafadar.... Read more about Music of Turkish-Ottoman Women Composers

Nasser Rabbat, Aga Khan Professor and Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT, was the distinguished speaker this year for the H.A.R. Gibb Arabic and Islamic Studies Lecture Series, established in 1964 in honor of Sir Hamilton A.R. Gibb, who was a director of CMES as well as University Professor and James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic at Harvard. Meredyth Lynn Winter, PhD Candidate in History of Art and Architecture and Middle Eastern Studies, covered the lectures for CMES.... Read more about Variations on a Theme: 2018 H.A.R. Gibb Lectures Delivered by Nasser Rabbat