The Center for Middle Eastern Studies presents
Melani Cammett
Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government; Director, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs
Ezgi Canpolat
Visiting Scholar, CMES; AI for Social Good and Social Dimensions of Climate Lead, World Bank; Resident Fellow, Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio Center
Jeannie L Sowers
Visiting Scholar, CMES; Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science and International Affairs, University of New Hampshire
Melani Cammett is Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs in the Department of Government and Director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs at Harvard University. Her research explores ethnic politics, conflict, development, and authoritarianism in the Middle East and other contexts. She is currently working on a book about how people live together after violence, focusing on Bosnia-Herzegovina, Lebanon, and Northern Ireland. Cammett’s books include The Oxford Handbook on Politics in Muslim Societies (co-edited with Pauline Jones, Oxford University Press, 2022), Compassionate Communalism: Welfare and Sectarianism in Lebanon (Cornell University Press 2014), which won the American Political Science Association (APSA) Giovanni Sartori Book Award and the Honorable Mention for the APSA Gregory Luebbert Book Award; A Political Economy of the Middle East (co-authored with Ishac Diwan, Alan Richards, and John Waterbury, 2015); The Politics of Non-State Social Welfare in the Global South (co-edited with Lauren Morris MacLean, Cornell University Press 2014), which received the Honorable Mention for the ARNOVA book award; and Globalization and Business Politics in North Africa (Cambridge University Press 2007). A new edition of A Political Economy of the Middle East is forthcoming (expected 2025). Cammett has published numerous articles in peer-reviewed academic journals and policy outlets, consults for development policy organizations, and is the recipient of various fellowships and awards. Cammett holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Berkeley, an MA from the Fletcher School at Tufts University, and a BA from Brown University. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on comparative politics, the political economy of development, ethnic politics, research design, and Middle East politics.
Ezgi Canpolat is a globally recognized anthropologist and innovation leader architecting climate solutions and AI for social good at scale. She was recently selected for the prestigious Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Residency among 105 global thought leaders—a convening that includes Nobel laureates and heads of international institutions—and currently serves as a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, where she co-leads the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability-funded project The Political Economy of Energy Transitions in the Middle East. Her interdisciplinary work has been featured in major platforms including the Washington Post. At the World Bank, Canpolat leads regional programming on AI for Social Good and Climate Change across Eastern and Southern Africa, mobilizing millions in climate financing and shaping policy frameworks that impact millions of lives. She previously directed inclusive climate programming at the $10 billion Climate Investment Funds, where she co-founded the groundbreaking $11 million Women-Led Coal Transition initiative—the first gender-responsive coal transition financing mechanism globally. Across her global portfolio, she has forged strategic partnerships with some of the world’s most influential institutions, including major international development banks; leading philanthropic organizations; and numerous national governments, research institutes, and civil society networks. Canpolat has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, policy and research papers that influence both academic discourse and multilateral practice. She is the author of a forthcoming book, tentatively titled “Governing Diversity: Syrian Refugees, Humanitarianism, and the Politics of Belonging in the New Turkey.” She holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from the Graduate Center, City University of New York. She studied social entrepreneurship and innovation at scale at Harvard Business School and joined the MIT’s AI Venture Studio, helping build the next generation of AI ventures for mass impact.
Jeannie Sowers is Professor and Chair of the Political Science and International Affairs Department at the University of New Hampshire. Her research explores political and environmental change in the Middle East and North Africa, with a recent focus on protracted conflict and humanitarian practice. Her books include Environmental Politics in Egypt: Experts, Activists, and the State (Routledge, 2012), Modern Egypt: What Everyone Needs to Know with Bruce Rutherford (Oxford University Press, 2019), the co-edited volume Journey to Tahrir: Revolution, Protest, and Social Change in Egypt (Verso, 2012), the co-edited Oxford Handbook of Comparative Environmental Politics (2023), and a number of articles and book chapters. She is a non-resident Foreign Policy fellow at the Brookings Institution and serves on the editorial board of Global Environmental Politics.
Contact: Liz Flanagan
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