2021-22

William Granara Retires after Twenty-Nine Years at Harvard

William Granara Retires after Twenty-Nine Years at Harvard

July 14, 2022

William Granara, Professor of the Practice of Arabic on the Gordon Gray Endowment, Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Director of the Modern Languages Program in his own Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and a member of the Department of Comparative Literature, retired June 30, 2022, after twenty-nine years serving Harvard University in a variety of capacities. His colleagues in Islamic studies who are spread throughout many departments and faculties at Harvard, the staff with whom he has worked at CMES for nine years, and the many undergraduate and...

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Sultan Alamer

The Arab and Muslim Evolution of "Deviance" in Homosexuality

June 24, 2022

In the Middle East, today’s understanding of gay relationships as abnormal or unnatural relies on concepts invented less than a century ago. In an essay in New Lines magazine, CMES Visiting Fellow Sultan Alamer, a political science doctoral student at George Washington University explores this complicated history. Read the full story on the New Lines website.

At the El-Zitouna Mosque in the Medina of Tunis

In the Shadow of History: A Summer in Tunisia

August 15, 2022

In the summer of 2022, after a two-year hiatus due to Covid-19, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies’ five-week Arabic language program in Tunis made its long-awaited return. Led for a fifth time by the Gordon Gray Research Professor of Arabic and outgoing CMES Director William Granara, the program synthesized modern Tunisian history, literature, and culture through various texts dating from the early-twentieth-century pre-Independence period to the contemporary, post-Revolution setting. Nicolas Pantelick ’24, a joint NELC and government concentrator pursuing a concurrent AM degree...

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2022 Aug 18

SoArt Persian Short Film Festival

4:00pm to 7:00pm

Location: 

William James Hall, B1, 33 Kirkland St, Cambridge MA

In Afghanistan and Iran, members of ethnic, religious, linguistic, and sexual minorities face discrimination daily in all spheres of life. This includes economic marginalization, denial of cultural rights, language rights, religious freedom, freedom of expression, and violations of political rights. In order to address these issues, SoArt festival was created to engage the next generation of activists and artists who can use art as a means to promote dialogue on social issues and increase community cohesion for social change.

SoArt short film festival 2022 will screen ten...

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Kurdish History Lectures thumbnail

New Horizons in Kurdish History Lecture Series

July 18, 2022

In the last decade, Kurdish history has become an exciting arena of scholarly inquiry in Ottoman and Middle Eastern studies. Showcasing this emerging literature was the main goal of the New Horizons in Kurdish History lecture series that Cemal Kafadar, Vehbi Koç Professor of Turkish Studies, and I organized for spring 2022. Professor Kafadar and I initially formed the idea in his basement office at Robinson Hall during one of our regular meetings in fall 2021, when I worked as a Teaching Fellow for his Ottoman history survey course. Over the course of the semester, we brainstormed about...

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Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani, William Graham, William Granara 2012

Roy Mottahedeh Remembers Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani

July 7, 2022

Professor Ahmad Mahdavi Damghani, who taught part-time as an associate at Harvard University from 1987 to 2014, died on June 17, 2022 (13th of Shahrivar, 1305). He was born on September 5, 1926, in the shrine city of Mashhad, where his father, Ayatollah Shaykh Muhammad Kazim Damghani, was a distinguished cleric. He pursued both a secular and a Shi‘ite clerical education in the schools of Mashhad. Afterwards he studied at the University of Tehran, where he received a PhD in Islamic theology and in Persian literature. Subsequently, he was appointed Professor in that university, both in the...

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Cooperson Gibb 2022 group

The Gibb Lecture Series 2022: Two Talks by Michael Cooperson

May 27, 2022

by Hacı Osman Gündüz, PhD Candidate, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

After two years of dormancy due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the Hamilton A. R. Gibb Lecture Series was back in action in March 2022. The series is the tāj (crown) of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, as CMES Director William Granara, Gordon Gray Professor of the Practice of Arabic, described it. The series was established in 1964 with funds provided by Mr. John Goelet, who was a student of Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb (d. 1976), the former James Richard Jewett Professor of Arabic and University Professor at Harvard University. This year’s guest speaker was Michael Cooperson, Professor of Arabic at the University of California, Los Angeles, who is the first speaker of the series to have completed all his higher education—AB ('87), AM ('91), and PhD ('94) —at Harvard..... Read more about The Gibb Lecture Series 2022: Two Talks by Michael Cooperson

2022 Jun 30

60 Years After Independence: What Has Algeria Become?

12:00pm to 1:30pm

Location: 

Online (registration information below)

CMES and CMES Tunisia are pleased to present

60 Years After Independence: What Has Algeria Become?

Hugh Roberts, Edward Keller Professor of North African and Middle Eastern History, Tufts University

Slim Othmani, President of CARE Algeria; President of MEF Tunisia

Zahia Smail Salhi, Professor of Modern Arabic Studies, University of Manchester

Register in advance on Zoom: https://bit.ly/3zZ1Idx

As Algeria celebrates 60 years of independence on 5th July, this webinar panel explores the key political, social, economic, and demographic changes that have transformed the largest country in Africa and the Arab world... Read more about 60 Years After Independence: What Has Algeria Become?

2022 May 12

Exhibition: From Voices Unheard: Actors of Social Change in Iran and Afghanistan

Thu May 12 (All day) to Wed Sep 7 (All day)

Location: 

CGIS Knafel, 1737 Cambridge St, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138

Opening Reception: Friday, June 10, 5 – 8 pm, CGIS Knafel, Fisher Family Commons

Touch Gallery painting 2022Through the work of more than 30 artists from Iran and Afghanistan, From Voices Unheard questions what role the artist plays in social change. From the...

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Sihem Lamine with Yo-Yo Ma

Q&A with CMES Tunisia’s Sihem Lamine

May 9, 2022

Sihem Lamine is the Administrative and Program Manager of the Tunisia Office of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Prior to officially joining CMES, Sihem worked as a consultant for CMES and Harvard Global Research and Support Services and played a major role in the transformation of the office space in Tunis from an empty shell to a functional and beautiful multi-purpose facility. For over six years she has been welcoming students, faculty, and visitors to the office, the city of Tunis, and the country of Tunisia, facilitating research projects, organizing public events, and generally helping visitors navigate and enjoy the resources and opportunities that Tunisia has to offer.... Read more about Q&A with CMES Tunisia’s Sihem Lamine

2022 Apr 29

Annual HMECA Book Sale

12:00pm to 5:00pm

Location: 

CMES, Room 102, 38 Kirkland St, Cambridge, MA
The Harvard Middle East Cultural Association (HMECA) invites you to the

HMECA Annual Book Sale

Stop by CMES to support HMECA and add some books and journal issues to your collection ($1-$3 each)!... Read more about Annual HMECA Book Sale

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