Past Events Category: Sponsored by MESP

Memorial Library, Room 126
April 17, 2026 @ 8:30 am - 5:00 pm
Click here for up-to-date information!

The Middle East remains a vital site where political authority, social transformation, and cultural identity are continually negotiated and reimagined. This interdisciplinary conference gathers scholars from various fields to examine how communities in the Middle East and its diasporas reshape politics, culture, and identity—on the ground, online, and through art.

Pinney Library, 516 Cottage Grove Rd., Madison, WI 53716
February 2, 2026 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

We are excited to present the children’s book:  These Olive Trees by Aya Ghanameh (Author, Illustrator). We will be reading the book to children, introducing basic Arabic words, teaching basic facts about Palestine, creating an art project based …

Pinney Library, 516 Cottage Grove Rd., Madison, WI 53716
October 27, 2025 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

We will be reading the book to the children, introducing basic Arabic words, teaching basic facts about Palestine, creating an art project based on the book, and sampling Palestinian cuisine!

October 8, 2025 @ 4:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Join us online for a discussion with Mohammad Sabaaneh, the author and illustrator of the award winning graphic novel "Power Born of Dreams: My Story is Palestine".

Memorial Union, UW-Madison
April 10, 2025

Join us for our annual spring conference!  Hear from a variety of Middle East scholars from around the globe on this important and fascinating theme. 

Memorial Union, UW-Madison
April 12, 2024 @ 8:30 am - 5:15 pm

Hear academic experts across a variety of fields present new and cutting-edge work on this important issue.

Online via Zoom
March 18, 2024 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm

Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins (Bard College) draws on long term fieldwork for two book projects, one based in Palestine and the other based in Greece, to make the case for thinking about the strategies people use to mitigate besieging circumstances through questions about infrastructure.

Online via Zoom
February 26, 2024 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm

Jessica Barnes, associate professor at the University of South Carolina, explores the anxiety that pervades Egyptian society surrounding the possibility that the nation could run out of wheat or that people might not have enough good bread to eat.

Online via Zoom
November 29, 2023 @ 6:00 pm - 7:15 pm
Join us!

Wednesday, November 29, 2023 • 6 pm

Ingraham 206
April 21, 2023 @ 12:00 pm - 1:15 pm

In this talk based on her new book, "Protesting Jordan: Geographies of Power and Dissent" (Stanford University Press, 2022), Jillian Schwedler considers how space and geography influence protests and repression, and, in challenging conventional narratives of Hashemite state-making, offers the first in-depth study of rebellion in Jordan.