Each summer, a number of CMES PhD, AM, and undergraduate students whose interests lie in the Middle East have the opportunity to travel to the MENA region for summer research and language study. A group of these students shared stories from their summer travels at the “CMES Summer in Review” event on Friday, September 21, 2018. In a fast-paced format, over a dozen students shared images and stories, and fielded questions from the audience. With the support of funding including CMES grants and fellowships, students strengthened their language skills, participated in internships, or furthered their research and studies with travel to Armenia, Egypt, Israel and the West Bank, Italy, Jordan, Tunisia, and Turkey. Additional presenters were Nick Norberg (AM Candidate) and his archive and language study in Turkey, Mariam Ghanem (AM Candidate) and her research with Egyptian NGO's, and Hana Seita ('19), a joint concentrator with Government and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, and her research in Israel.
Other student research and travel funded by CMES that was not presented at this event included the countries Bahrain, France, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia The event brought together students at different stages of their academic work to learn more about each other’s research, and sparked thoughtful questions and discussions.
Maryam Patton (PhD Candidate in History and Middle East Studies) researched archives in Turkey and Italy.
Oula Alrifai (AM Candidate) studied Persian in Armenia, and visited this 17th century Blue Mosque.
Farhad Dokhani (PhD Candidate in History and Middle East Studies) was part of the Tunisia Office summer language program.
Wyatt Hurt ('21) is joint concentrating in Environmental Science & Public Policy and NELC, and studied Arabic at the Qasid Institute In Amman, Jordan and did an ecological trip to Wadi Rum during his time in Jordan.
Eda Özel (PhD Candidate in History and Middle East Studies) did dissertation research in Turkey and Italy, looking at maritime piracy during the Ottoman Empire.
Josh Dean (AM Candidate) internned at the Knesset in Israel and volunteered with a youth soccer team, bringing youth from different religious and language backgrounds together.