Student Profiles

Deren Ertas is a PhD candidate in history and middle eastern studies at Harvard. She was in Istanbul doing research when, beginning on February 6, 2023, a series of powerful earthquakes struck areas of southern and central Turkey and northern and western...

CMES AM candidate Mouhanad Al Rifay is a Syrian-American award-winning documentary filmmaker, humanitarian, and human rights activist. At CMES he is focused on journalism and nonfiction narrative writing and developing further expertise in Middle East...

Nana-Korantema Koranteng is a second-year student in the CMES AM Program in Middle Eastern Studies. Why did you choose CMES? I selected CMES because I felt like it was the program that provided me with the most flexibility. Having gone to a liberal arts...

Badriyyah Alsabah is a second-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program. How did you become interested in Middle Eastern Studies? Having an upbringing grounded in the Middle East, specifically Kuwait, afforded me a consciousness around just...

Thomas Roland Harris is a second-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program. How did you become interested in Middle Eastern Studies? My interest in Middle Eastern Studies started early, before high school, and I think came from a desire to...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...