Arab-American artist Helen Zughaib reflects on Middle East unrest in new exhibition sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Read the story in the Harvard...

The future of America is as bright or as dark as the future of our immigrants. The battle over the travel ban echoes our history from the founding, slicing deep into the heart of American sympathies: Are refugees and migrants coming ashore to be seen as humble "guests of the nation" or as American as anyone, just for getting through the gate? In the February 9 edition of Open Source, host Christopher Lydon talks with Persian preceptor Sheida Dayani and others about the "who we are" question, between Immigration Nation and Fortress America, traversing all sorts of social, political, and historical terrains. Dayani also reads her poem "The Ordinary Man of this Neighborhood."

Lebanese-American artist Helen Zughaib's work is on display this month at CGIS, under the auspices of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Her paintings have been displayed widely in public collections, at the White House, the Library of Congress, and elsewhere; they often lend themselves to diplomatic optimism, even as they depict people in desperate situations: fleeing catastrophe in Syria, leaving home to emigrate to America, selling tiny items in the street to feed their families. Read a review of the exhibition and of Zughaib's accompanying artist talk in ...

Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies opened its first field office in Tunisia last Tuesday in an effort to expand Harvard’s global presence and provide resources for scholarship in the Middle East and North Africa region. Read more in the Harvard Crimson.

A crowd of Harvard affiliates filled Ticknor lounge Monday to hear performances celebrating Middle Eastern people and cultures following President Donald Trump’s executive order that suspended immigration from seven predominantly Muslim countries. Read the story in the Harvard Crimson.

The Trump administration’s executive order banning refugees and immigrants from seven majority Muslim nations from entering the United States for at least several months has stirred a hornet’s nest of concern internationally, including at Harvard. Among other actions, Harvard President Drew Faust unveiled a plan for Harvard to appoint a full-time Muslim chaplain, with a search committee to be chaired by Harvard Divinity School Professor and Committee on Middle East Studies faculty member Ousmane Kane. Read more in the Harvard Gazette.

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at Harvard University today opened its first overseas office, in Tunisia, home to a tradition of learning and research that extends from Antiquity to the present. The office and the year-round programs run from the location are made possible by the support of Harvard College alumnus Hazem Ben-Gacem ’92.... Read more about Center for Middle Eastern Studies Opens Field Office in Tunisia

Khaled Fahmy, Shawwaf Visiting Professor of Modern Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard, has been named one of 2016's top 100 Thought Leaders in the Arabic-speaking world by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute (GDI), an independent think-tank in economics, society, and consumption. Since 2012, GDI has analyzed social networks to identify influential voices in the digital world. This marks the first year that GDI has analyzed the Arabic-speaking internet as well as the English-, German-, Spanish- and Chinese-speaking internet.