The Harvard Alumni Association (HAA) has announced that David L. Evans; Leila T. Fawaz, AM '72, PhD '79; and Joseph J. O'Donnell '67, MBA '71, will receive the 2020 Harvard Medal. The award recognizes extraordinary service to the University in a variety of areas, such as teaching, fundraising, leadership, and innovation. Fawaz, Issam M. Fares Professor of Lebanese and Eastern Mediterranean Studies at Tufts University, was a member of the Harvard Board of Overseers from 1996 to 2012 and has been a member of visiting committees at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and...

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The Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), whose Executive Director, Mandy Terc, is a 2004 graduate the Center for Middle Eastern Studies' AM program, has launched a new Q&A series called "Voices from the Middle East," including interviews with people on the ground describing how COVID-19 is threatening the MENA region's most vulnerable populations. There are interviews with an Iranian pharmaceutical executive trying to produce medicine under sanctions, an ER doctor in Gaza describing how the blockade makes medical resources scarce, a...

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In an article for the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, CMES faculty affiliate Melani Cammett and Lama Mourad, Postdoctoral Fellow at Perry World House, University of Pennsylvania, address the question, “Will the financial crisis, exacerbated further by COVID-19, strengthen or loosen the power of Lebanon’s governing political parties?”... Read more about The Twin Crises and the Prospects for Political Sectarianism in Lebanon

Social solidarity is a critical tool in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, as political leaders call for major disruptive changes to everyday life and sacrifices for collective well-being. In a white paper for the COVID-19 Rapid Response Impact Initiative of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, CMES faculty affiliate...

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This January, Selina Xu (Harvard College '21) participated in CMES's fifth annual winter term excursion to Turkey. Read about and see photographs of her experience on her website, Selina Xu, Telling Life Like a Story. Read more about I, Istanbul

The Journal of Middle Eastern Politics and Policy (JMEPP) is an online student-run policy journal, published at the Harvard Kennedy School. Founded in 2011, JMEPP presents cutting-edge analysis on the contemporary Middle East and North Africa. JMEPP presents new perspectives on pressing problems, addressing complex issues with insightful analysis, and exploring emerging trends shaping the region. JMEPP's audience, composed of policymakers, academics, and more casual readers, is interested in policy writing that is forward-thinking, empirically grounded, and accessible. CMES...

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During the 9th century, Arab armies from North Africa conquered Sicily, leading to four centuries of Muslim history on the island, which is now part of Italy. Sicily during that period has often been portrayed as an interfaith utopia where Muslims, Christians, and Jews lived side by side, giving rise to a cultural synthesis, but as CMES Director William Granara explains, the reality was more complex. In "Muslim Sicily and Its Legacies... Read more about William Granara on the Ottoman History Podcast

In 1992, when he read about the burning of the National Library of Bosnia-Herzegovina, András Riedlmayer, bibliographer in Islamic Art and Architecture at the Harvard Fine Arts Library, knew it was an attack on more than physical objects. It was what he later testified to being “cultural heritage destruction”: intentional and unnecessary destruction of sites and records that act as a community’s collective memory. Read about his years of research into this cultural destruction and his expert testimony against Serbian nationalist Slobodan Milosevic during the International Criminal...

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