Duke University Middle East Studies Center
The Duke University Middle East Studies Center (DUMESC) is a hub for research, policy, education, and outreach on the Middle East. In collaboration with the Carolina Center for the Study of the Middle East and Muslim Civilizations, DUMESC is part of the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies. Distinguished by its cross-regional approach to Middle-Eastern studies, the Duke University Middle East Studies Center supports in-depth Middle Eastern language training and a variety of interdisciplinary courses on the region’s geopolitics, culture, and society. On Duke's campus, DUMESC creates an intellectual community by supporting curricular programs such as study abroad, DukeEngage, Middle East related majors and minors, and the graduate certificate in Middle East Studies. The center is a resource for both undergraduate and graduate students, and also hosts a wide variety of programming, including guest speakers, conferences and film festivals. With its renowned faculty expertise in the humanities and the interpretive social sciences, DUMESC emphasizes the importance of the Middle East to global education, engaging in a variety of topics from literature to policy.[1].
DUMESC has received Title VI grant funding from the Department of Education three times since 2010. This funding supports on-campus programming and events, course development grants for faculty, and K-12 outreach, among other areas and activities[2].
I. Faculty Leadership[edit]
DUMESC was established by Braxton Craven Professor of Arab Cultures at Duke University, miriam cooke. DUMESC is currently led by Erdag Göknar, Associate Professor of Turkish and Middle Eastern at Duke University and Director of the Duke University Middle East Studies Center. Griffin Orlando currently serves as the center's Program Coordinator.
Other prominent faculty leadership and core faculty include: Engseng Ho, Rebecca Stein, Amal Boumaaza, Azeddine Chergui, Shai Ginsburg, Erdag Göknar, Didem Havlioglu, Maha Houssami, Mbaye Lo, Ellen McLarney, Shelli Plesser, Omid Safi, Nancy Kalow, Anna Kipervaser, Timur Kuran, Frances Hasso, Adam Mestyan, Mustafa Tuna, Abdul-Sattar Jawad, Negar Mottahedeh, Abdeslam Maghraoui, David Schanzer, Abdullah Antepli, Marc Zvi Brettler, Mona Hassan, Mohsen Kadivar, Laura Lieber, Meredith Riedel, Mary Hovsepian
II. Academic Initiatives[edit]
DUMESC approaches the study of the Middle East from an interdisciplinary perspective, encouraging collaboration among scholars across the university. DUMESC faculty and staff oversee and instruct several undergraduate majors and concentrations, as well as a graduate certificate offered to students at Duke University, allowing students to learn broadly about the Middle East and to specialize in particular cultures, religions and languages. Duke's International Comparative Studies program also gives students the opportunity to focus their studies on the Middle East and to pair their regional studies with foreign language and study abroad offerings. Other departments affiliated with DUMESC include the Center for Jewish Studies, Slavic & Eurasian Studies, the history department, and the political science department.
Graduate Studies: While Duke University’s Graduate School does not offer advanced degrees in Middle East studies or Islamic Studies, faculty and graduate students can instead pursue their studies within departments where they specialize in the study of Islam and the Middle East. Graduate students whose research involves the Middle East may pursue a certificate in Middle East Studies concurrently with their degree coursework[3]
Language Study: As part of its academic programming, DUMESC provides instruction in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish for graduate and undergraduate students at Duke University.
- Duke in the Arab World: On this program, undergraduate students spend three weeks in each of Morocco’s two major cities, Fez and Rabat. Students not only explore the sociopolitical development and intricacies of the Arab world, but also gain real life experiences through observation, field visits, and interaction with local scholars, students, and homestay families.
- Middle East in Europe: In this program undergraduate students learn to critically analyze the political debates about Muslims and Islam in Europe and about refugees and immigrants from the Middle East. Students explore the impact of Turkish inhabitants and culture in Germany in order to examine the shifting political landscape of Turkish-German identities and between Europe and the Middle East.
III. Projects and Initiatives[edit]
As the recipient of a Title VI Middle East Studies grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the Consortium is a National Resource Center and hosts a wide array of programming and events. DUMESC recently hosted notable speakers including: Nobel Prize winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, UCLA Professor Aamir Mufti, University of Washington Professor Reşat Kasaba, Dr. Amna Guellali, the Tunisia and Algeria Researcher and Tunisia Office Director for the Middle East and North Africa Division of Human Rights Watch. Other renowned speakers include, Rashid Khalidi, Zach Lockman, Asef Bayat, Edhem Eldem, and Palmira Brummett.
Each year, DUMESC also organizes many conferences on different themes and topics, including Iraqi Literature, global development, political cartoons and satire, as well as Middle Eastern influence in Latin America.
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