Activities and Events

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies holds lectures, conferences, symposia, and other public events throughout the year. CMES supports regular co-curricular Language Circles in a number of Middle Eastern languages, where target-language presenations are given by UChicago students and faculty or outside visitors. The Farouk Mustafa Memorial Friday Lectures Series brings three or four leading scholars of the Middle East to campus during each academic quarter.  The series aims to represent all the disciplines, time periods, and languages of our diverse field. CMES also sponsors and supports a wide variety of student-organized conferences. The Middle East History and Theory (MEHAT) workshop provides a forum for scholarly presentations throughout the academic year, and the annual MEHAT conference has grown to become an international event featuring faculty and graduate student research. One of our flagship events, the Talat and Isabelle Othman Lecture Series, occurs at least once annually and covers social, political, and economic trends in the contemporary Middle East. In addition to our regular activities, CMES sponsors and co-sponsors many lectures and discussions throughout the academic year that feature scholars, activists, journalists, and working professionals who focus on the region.

Other events are organized on or off campus as part of CMES' outreach mission.