Center for Middle East Studies

In the 2021-2022 academic year and into fall 2022, the Center for Middle East Studies continued its work of bringing scholars to campus, hosting lectures and discussions, and increasing the viability of Middle East and North Africa studies at the University of Oklahoma. As part of this effort, CMES collaborated with other centers in the College of International Studies to build a new webpage devoted to MENA on OU's campus. This site brings together the work and research of four centers on campus: CMES, the Farzaneh Family Center for Iranian and Persian Gulf Studies, the Schusterman Center for Judaic Studies (housed in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences), and the Center for Middle Eastern Architecture and Culture, housed in the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture. The webpage also brings together news and events, publications, and faculty who work on MENA-related topics, creating an easily accessible hub for students and faculty interested in MENA. The website can be accessed at www.ou.edu/cis/research/mena-at-ou.

Throughout the past academic year, CMES also sponsored three lectures on Middle East topics, including a teach-in on Afghanistan that included five scholars and was moderated by Dean Fritzen. The center has also recently kicked off its fall Brown Bag Lecture Series with a talk on Syria from CMES Director Joshua Landis and a talk on the Biden administration, human rights and democracy in the Middle East with IAS Professor Samer Shehata.

During the 2021-2022 school year, the CMES also allocated $5,000 to bring Afghan scholars to campus. It brought Professor Glenn Robinson to campus to lecture on global jihad and hold seminars in two classes, and Fowzia Karimi, a prize-winning Afghan writer, spoke on her new book and lectured on Afghanistan. In October 2022, the center also co-sponsored with the Department of International and Area Studies a conversation with Ambassador Dina Kawar, ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States of America.