About 11 million Syrians have fled their homes since the outbreak of a civil war in 2011 – including a family that settled in Silver Spring. To bring awareness to the eight-year anniversary of the conflict’s beginning, the brother-sister duo of Mouhanad Al-Rifay and CMES AM candidate Oula Alrifai are screening their documentary about child refugees from their home country this month in the town that took them in 13 years ago. “Tomorrow’s Children,” released in 2018, was directed by Al-...

The 2019 Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture, "Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad in Conversation with Jennifer Leaning," took place on April 3 at the Memorial Church at Harvard. Nadia Murad is the corecipient of the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize, and is a leading advocate for survivors of genocide and sexual violence. Murad’s peaceful life was savagely interrupted in 2014 when Daesh attacked her homeland in Sinjar, with the intention of ethnically cleansing Iraq of all Yazidis. Like many minority groups, the Yazidis have carried the weight of historical persecution. Women in particular...

Nadia Murad came to Harvard as a survivor of genocide under ISIS, an advocate for victims of sexual violence, and the first Iraqi citizen to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Her talk at the Memorial Church, as part of the Weatherhead Center’s Samuel L. and Elizabeth Jodidi Lecture Series, co-sponsored this year by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, focused on her personal journey and how her ordeal turned her into an activist. Read more about her talk in the...

Anna Boots is a second-year student in the AM in Middle Eastern Studies program.... Read more about Q&A Anna Boots

In a panel conversation with experts and practitioners, this Advanced Training Program on Humanitarian Action (ATHA) podcast explores how the Syrian refugee crisis is reshaping host communities in the Middle East, what challenges remain for the protection of vulnerable populations, and opportunities for advancing humanitarian protection and the integration of refugees into host communities. The panel includes:

• Her Excellency Reem Abu Hassan, Lawyer, human rights advocate, and civil...

Center for Middle Eastern Studies AM student Oula Alrifai and her brother, Mouhanad Al-Rifay, have compiled a documentary, Tomorrow’s Children, highlighting the struggles of child refugees of the war in Syria. Read more about their work, and watch a trailer of the documentary, scheduled for release in early 2018, in the...

On April 7-8, 2017, scholars of history, architecture, design, film, and anthropology gathered to explore nighttime landscapes and public spaces in the Arabian Peninsula at the symposium "After Dark: Nocturnal Activities and Public Spaces in the Arabian Peninsula," organized by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Aga Khan Program at the Graduate School of Design. Michelle Y. Raji covered the symposium for the Harvard...

Andreina Seijas, an incoming doctoral student at the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, attended the April 7-8 symposium After Dark: Nocturnal Landscapes and Public Spaces in the Arabian Peninsula, jointly sponsored by the Aka Khan Program at the GSD and by Harvard's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. In her Ciudades Sostenibles blog, Seijas writes about the challenges of urban design in the Arabian Peninsula, regarding especially the night-time urban landscape, that participants explored, and she speculates how some of the lessons learned and in progress in the Arabian Peninsula might apply to Latin American cities facing similar challenges.

Joseph Ataman, AM candidate at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University, was awarded an Overseas Press Club Foundation Scholar Award at the Foundation’s 2017 Annual Scholar Awards Luncheon, held February 24 at the Yale Club in New York City. Rebecca Blumenstein, deputy managing editor of the New York Times, was the keynote speaker. Ataman was among 15 aspiring foreign...