Disasters in and of the Middle East: Event, Place, Intensity (Day 1)

The Disaster Studies Initiative at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies presents a conference

Disasters in and of the Middle East: Event, Place, Intensity

Foregrounding the Middle East and North Africa in scholarly discourse on disasters, the Disaster Studies Initiative at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University is pleased to announce an international conference, to take place March 28 to 30, 2025.

The MENA region has been the site of earthquakes, famine, floods, wars, conflicts, genocides, massacres, and other environmental, industrial, and technological catastrophes. One recent example, the devastating 2023 earthquake sequence in Turkey and Syria, was the catalyst for the formation of the Disaster Studies Initiative at CMES. Within disaster studies, however, the region is rarely the focus of discussions on changing environments or diverse responses to superlative events.

In the present time, under the shadow of an intensifying climate crisis, is it still possible to think of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, fires, and wars as significant events? Are they political events at all? For whom are they non-eventful, and for whom are they still experienced as shocks and ruptures? If they are no longer considered to be analytically or politically relevant events, what are we to make of the landscape, trauma, pain, and avenues of desirable change that disasters often generate? How, then, should we deal with disasters—both past and present?

CMES thanks the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs for their generous support.

This conference was organized by Cemal Kafadar, Elif Irem Az, Jesse Howell, and Evangeline McGlynn.

Link to Day 2 of the conference.

Link to Professor Kim Fortun's Opening Keynote of the conference on March 28.

Link to Professor Aidan Seale-Feldman's Closing Keynote of the conference on March 30.

Link to the conference program.

Speakers include
Onder Akgul, Northwestern University
Irem Az, Harvard University
Christina Banalopoulou, University of Milan
Tylor Brand, Trinity College Dublin
Jordan Cannon, Harvard University
Ali Çapar, Çankırı Karatekin University
Christopher Dole, Amherst College
Begum Ergun, Boston University
Kim Fortun, UC Irving
Matthew Ghazarian, Yale University
Peter Habib, Emory University
Zuhal Ibidan, Bogazici University
Leila Khodabaksh, Catholic University of Eichstäett-Ingolstadt
Cyntia Kreichati, McGill University
Evangeline McGlynn, Harvard University
Soha Mohsen, UC Davis
Nathaniel Moses, Harvard University
Moad Musbahi, Princeton University
Burcu Ozdemir, Graduate Center CUNY
Eda Ozel, Postdoctoral Researchers, Istanbul
Aidan Seale-Feldman, Notre Dame University

Co-sponsor: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Contact: Liz Flanagan