Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non-profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encourages public understanding of the region and its peoples through programs, publications and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom.".

History

MESA was founded in 1966 with 51 original members. Its current membership exceeds 2,700 and it "serves as an umbrella organization for more than fifty institutional members and thirty-six affiliated organizations". It is a constituent society of the

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and the

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, and a member of the

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. Regions of interest to MESA members include Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, Israel, Pakistan, and the countries of the Arab world from the seventh century to modern times. Spain, Southeastern Europe, the Soviet Union and other regions also are included for the periods in which their territories were part of the Middle Eastern empires or were under the influence of Middle Eastern civilization. Historians comprise the largest group of disciplinary specialists in MESA followed by political science/international relations, anthropology, and language and literature.

Activities

The current president is

Eve Troutt Powell Eve M. Troutt Powell is an American historian of the Middle East and North Africa and Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. She is a previous recipient of a MacArt ...

, University of Pennsylvania.

Publications

The International Journal of Middle East Studies The ''International Journal of Middle East Studies'' is a scholarly journal published by the Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA), a learned society. See also * Middle East Research and Information Project * Association for th ...

'' (IJMES) is a quarterly journal published by Cambridge University Press under the auspices of MESA. The editor is Joel Gordon of University of Arkansas. The ''Review of Middle East Studies'' (RoMES) is MESA’s journal of review. MESA policy has established the focus of RoMES as the state of the craft in all fields of Middle East studies. The Editor is Heather Ferguson and the journal is based at

Claremont McKenna College Claremont McKenna College (CMC) is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It has a curricular emphasis on government, economics, public affairs, finance, and internat ...

. MESA has a very active Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) that has two wings: CAFMENA (Middle East and North Africa, established in 1990) and CAFNA (North America, established in 2005). Through CAF, MESA monitors infringements on academic freedom on the Middle East and North Africa worldwide. Each year CAF nominates candidates for MESA’s Academic Freedom Award. The winners are confirmed by the Board of Directors.

Controversies

In 2007, Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami started Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) as a rival to MESA, as they saw MESA as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." In mid-March 2022, MESA voted by a margin of 787 to 167 to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to hold Israel to account for alleged human rights abuses against the Palestinians. MESA's decision was criticised by the Academic Engagement Network, the AMCHA Initiative, and ASMEA.

Awards

Albert Hourani Book Award Since 1991 MESA has awarded the Albert Hourani Book Award to recognize "the very best in Middle East studies scholarship". The prize is named after Albert Hourani, "to recognize his long and distinguished career as teacher and mentor". Malcolm Kerr Award The MESA Dissertation Awards were established in 1982 to recognize exceptional achievement in research and writing for/of dissertations in Middle East studies. In 1984 the award was named for

Malcolm H. Kerr Malcolm Hooper Kerr (October 8, 1931 – January 18, 1984) was a university professor specializing in the Middle East and the Arab world. An American citizen, he was born and raised in Beirut, Lebanon, where he died. He served as president o ...

to honor his significant contributions to Middle East studies. Awards are given in two categories: Social Sciences and Humanities. MESA Mentoring Award Since 1996 the MESA Mentoring Award has recognized exceptional contributions retired faculty have made to the education and training of others. Jere L. Bacharach Service Award Since 1997

Jere L. Bacharach Jere L. Bacharach (born 1938 in New York) is Professor Emeritus, Department of History, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington. Academia Bacharach attended Trinity College, receiving his B.A. in 1960, Harvard University receiving his M.A. ...

Service Award has recognized the contributions of individuals through their outstanding service to MESA or the profession. Service is defined broadly to include work in diverse areas, including but not limited to outreach, librarianship, and film.

Former presidents

The following persons have been presidents of the association:Previous Boards
/ref> * 2020-21 Dina Rizk Khoury * 2018-19

Judith E. Tucker Judith E. Tucker is a professor of history at Georgetown University. She was the editor-in-chief of the '' International Journal of Middle East Studies'' from 2004 until 2009. She is a past president of the Middle East Studies Association of North ...

* 2016–17 Beth Baron * 2014–15 Nathan Brown * 2013 Peter Sluglett * 2012

Fred Donner Fred McGraw Donner (born 1945) is a scholar of Islam and Peter B. Ritzma Professor of Near Eastern History at the University of Chicago.

* 2011

Suad Joseph Suad Joseph ( ar, سعاد جوزيف; born 6 September 1943) received her doctorate in Anthropology from Columbia University in 1975. Dr. Joseph is Professor of Anthropology and Women and Gender Studies at the University of California, Davis and ...

* 2010 Roger M.A. Allen * 2009 Virginia Aksan * 2008 Mervat Hatem * 2007 Zachary Lockman * 2006 Juan Cole * 2005 Ali Banuazizi * 2004 Laurie Brand * 2003 Lisa Anderson * 2002 Joel Beinin * 2001

R. Stephen Humphreys R. Stephen Humphreys is an American historian specializing in the history of Southwest Asia and North Africa. He was the 'Abd al-Aziz al-Sa'ud Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and is now an emeritus professor at that inst ...

* 2000

* 1999 Barbara Stowasser * 1998

Philip S. Khoury Philip S. Khoury (born October 15, 1949) is Ford International Professor of History and Associate Provost at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is also Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the American University of Beirut. L ...

* 1997

Leila Fawaz Leila Fawaz is a Lebanese historian and academician. She is the founding director of The Fares Center for Eastern Mediterranean Studies from 2001 to 2012. Fawaz was born in Sudan to Greek-Orthodox Lebanese parents and raised in Lebanon. She too ...

* 1996 Farhad Kazemi * 1995 Ann M. Lesch * 1994

Rashid I. Khalidi Rashid Ismail Khalidi (; born 1948) is an American historian of the Middle East and the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He served as editor of the ''Journal of Palestine Studies'' from 2002 until 2020, when ...

* 1993 John O. Voll * 1992 Barbara Aswad * 1991 Dale F. Eickelman * 1990 Yvonne Y. Haddad * 1989

John L. Esposito John Louis Esposito (born May 19, 1940) is an Italian-American academic, professor of Middle Eastern and religious studies, and scholar of Islamic studies, who serves as Professor of Religion, International Affairs, and Islamic Studies at Georg ...

* 1988

William B. Quandt William B. Quandt (born November 23, 1941) is an American scholar, author, professor emeritus in the Department of Politics at the University of Virginia. He previously served as senior fellow in the Foreign Policy Studies Program at the Brooking ...

* 1987

Michael C. Hudson Michael Craig Hudson (June 2, 1938 – May 25, 2021) was an American political scientist, the director of the Middle East Institute and professor of political science at the National University of Singapore. He was also professor emeritus at Ge ...

* 1986

Elizabeth W. Fernea Elizabeth Warnock Fernea (October 21, 1927 – December 2, 2008) was an influential writer and filmmaker who spent much of her life in the field producing numerous ethnographies and films that capture the struggles and turmoil of African and Mi ...

* 1985 Kemal Karpat * 1984

Ira M. Lapidus Ira M. Lapidus is an Emeritus Professor of Middle Eastern and Islamic History at The University of California at Berkeley. He is the author of ''A History of Islamic Societies'', and ''Contemporary Islamic Movements in Historical Perspective'', ...

* 1983

Richard T. Antoun Richard T. "Dick" Antoun (March 31, 1932, in Worcester, Massachusetts – December 4, 2009, in Vestal, New York) was a professor of anthropology at Binghamton University who specialized in Islamic and Middle Eastern studies. His work centered on ...

* 1982 I. William Zartman * 1981

Nikki R. Keddie Nikki R. Keddie (née Anita Ragozin, August 30, 1930) is an American scholar of Eastern, Iranian, and women's history. She is Professor Emerita of History at University of California, Los Angeles. Biography Keddie was born in Brooklyn, New York. ...

* 1980 Farhat Ziadeh * 1979

Afaf Lutfi al‐Sayyid Marsot Afaf Lutfi al-Sayyid-Marsot (born 1933) is an Egyptian-born historian, professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has written on the history of Egypt since the eighteenth century.Wilfred Cantwell Smith * 1977 George Makdisi * 1976

L. Carl Brown Leon Carl Brown (April 22, 1928 – April 8, 2020) was a emeritus professor, professor of history at Princeton University. Biography Brown was the Garrett Professor in Foreign Affairs, Emeritus, and professor of Near Eastern studies, emeritus, at ...

* 1975

Roderic H. Davison Roderic H. Davison (April 27, 1917March 23, 1996) was an American historian of the Middle East who taught at George Washington University from 1947 to 1993. He served as president of the Middle East Studies Association and the Turkish Studies Ass ...

* 1974

Leonard Binder Leonard Binder (1927-2015) was an American political scientist. He was a distinguished professor of political science and the former director of the Near East Center at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Binder was also Chair of the ...

* 1973

Charles Issawi Charles Issawi (1916 – 2000) was an economist and historian of the Middle East at Columbia University and Princeton University in the United States. Roger Owen, the A. J. Meyer Professor of Middle East History at Harvard, stated that Issawi, "wa ...

* 1972

* 1971 John S. Badeau * 1970 William M. Brinner * 1969 R. Bayly Winder * 1968

George Hourani George Fadlo Hourani (3 June 1913 – 19 September 1984) was a British philosopher, historian, and classicist. He is best known for his work in Islamic philosophy, which focused on classical Islamic rationalism and ethics. Biography George Ho ...

* 1967 Morroe Berger * 1966 G.E. von Grunebaum (Honorary)

References

External links

*
The MESA Debate: The Scholars, the Media, and the Middle East
video from the debate 22 November 1986, Boston MA. Participants: Bernard Lewis, Edward Said,

Leon Wieseltier Leon Wieseltier (; born June 14, 1952) is an American critic and magazine editor. From 1983 to 2014, he was the literary editor of ''The New Republic''. He was a contributing editor and critic at ''The Atlantic'' until October 27, 2017, when the ...

and Christopher Hitchens. The chairman: William H. McNeill {{authority control Middle East Learned societies of the United States Middle Eastern studies in the United States Member organizations of the American Council of Learned Societies Organizations established in 1966 1966 establishments in the United States