The MESA Annual Meeting showcases new and exciting collaborations, especially among student members. MESA is actively seeking to provide its student members spaces for further engagement and learning throughout the year.
This year MESA is launching a webinar series for its student members. This series will bring together faculty and students to address and discuss critical issues most relevant to students.
Our first webinar will consider Academic Freedom in Middle East Studies.
Through our Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF), MESA has been very active in responding to incidents that threaten academic freedom. For this webinar, we will be joined by three members representing both CAF wings, North America and the Middle East and North Africa.
- Laurie A. Brand is the Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California, a past president of MESA, and chair of its Committee on Academic Freedom. She specializes in Middle East international relations and inter-Arab politics.
- Miriam Lowi is Professor at The College of New Jersey and chair of the Middle East and North Africa wing of CAF. Her research and teaching interests are in Middle East politics and the comparative political economy of development.
- Joel Beinin is Donald J. McLachlan Professor of History and Professor of Middle East History, Emeritus at Stanford University and former MESA President. His research and writing focuses on workers, peasants, and minorities in the modern Middle East and on Israel, Palestine, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. He serves on the North America wing of CAF.
Each panelist will give a brief presentation discussing the state of academic freedom in Middle East studies today, CAF’s role in defending and advocating for academic freedom in our field, and how and why academic freedom issues matter to graduate students studying and carrying out fieldwork in the region. Presentations will be followed by a question and answer period with attendees.
You may direct your questions about the webinar to secretariat@mesana.org.
