Hear from Students & Alumni
CMES is home to approximately 50 graduate students in our AM and joint PhD programs. Our network of over 700 alumni have gone on to distinguished careers in academia, NGOs, business, government, journalism, and more. Meet a few of our students and alumni here and learn about their research and experiences at CMES.
Student Profiles
Q&A with Sultan Althari
Sultan Althari is a first-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program. How did you become interested in Middle Eastern studies? My Interest was driven initially by a passion to create a positive change in the Middle East. Although challenges...
Q&A with Oula Alrifai
Oula Alrifai is a second-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program. How did you become interested in Middle Eastern studies? Not only did I come from the Middle East, I also studied government and politics of the Middle East during my...
Q&A with Ellen Stockert
Ellen Stockert is a second-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program. How did you become interested in Middle Eastern studies? I have always enjoyed studying history, language, and government, and I pursued an undergraduate degree in...
Q&A with Nicholas Norberg
Nicholas Norberg is a first-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program. How did you become interested in Middle Eastern studies? I became interested in Middle Eastern studies through my love of language acquisition. I studied linguistics as...
Q&A with Hamad Al-Hajri
Hamad Al-Hajri is a first-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program. How did you become interested in Middle Eastern Studies? I first became interested in the Middle East after being exposed to its cultural richness. Qatar’s capital, Doha...
Alumni Profiles
Q&A With Becca Wadness
Becca Wadness is a 2018 graduate of the CMES AM Program in Middle Eastern Studies. She currently works as Senior Tunisia Desk Officer in the Bureau for the Middle East at USAID. What is the mission of the USAID Bureau for the Middle East, in general and...
Q&A With Medhini Kumar
Medhini Kumar is a 2016 graduate of the CMES AM Program in Middle Eastern Studies. She currently works as Communications Manager for UNRWA USA, an American nonprofit that is committed to bettering the lives of Palestine refugees through advocacy efforts...
Q&A with Asher Orkaby
Asher Orkaby is a 2014 graduate of Harvard’s joint PhD program in History and Middle Eastern Studies. He is currently a research associate at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies and a lecturer at Harvard Extension School. His book...
Q&A with Eugene Rogan
Eugene Rogan is Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History and Director of St. Antony’s Middle East Centre at the University of Oxford. He is the author of The Arabs: A History , which has been translated into ten languages and was named one of the best...
Q&A with Emrah Yildiz
Emrah Yildiz is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Middle East and North African Studies at Northwestern University. He completed his PhD in Anthropology and Middle East Studies at Harvard in 2016. How was your first term on the faculty at...
