MESA Global Academy

CMES Colloquium: Exiled Scholars in Western Academia: Refugees or Intellectuals? Thu, Nov 13 2025, 12 - 1:30pm | The book is an autoethnographic collection featuring 14 refugee scholars from diverse academic and national backgrounds, each sharing their experiences navigating the t...

This book is an autoethnographic collection featuring 14 refugee scholars from diverse academic and national backgrounds, each sharing their experiences navigating the tensions between humanitarianism and the Western academic establishment. For more info: (2/2) macmillan.yale.edu/middleeast/e...

Join us tomorrow (Thursday, November 13, 2025) to learn more about the book "Exiled Scholars in Western Academia: Refugees or Intellectuals?" co-edited by one of our alumni, Sayed Hassan Akhlaq. This is an in-person event that will take place at Luce Hall, New Haven, CT. (1/2)

We thank the Georgetown University Arabic and Islamic Studies Department and the Center for the Contemporary Arab Studies for partnering with us! (2/2)

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Genocide, Ecocide, Scholasticide and the Palestinian Native American in Mahmoud Darwish's Poetry. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email a... This online talk with Dr. Ahmad Qabaha of An-Najah National University will address Mahmoud Darwish’s representation of the Israeli settler-colonial genocide, ecocide, and scholasticide in his poetry,...

Join us this Friday (November 14, 12 pm ET) for Prof. Ahmad Qabaha's online talk "Genocide, Ecocide, Scholasticide and The Palestinian Native American in Mahmoud Darwish's Poetry". (1/2) Register here: georgetown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

We thank the Georgetown University Arabic and Islamic Studies Department and the Center for the Contemporary Arab Studies for partnering with us! (2/2)

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Genocide, Ecocide, Scholasticide and the Palestinian Native American in Mahmoud Darwish's Poetry. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email a... This online talk with Dr. Ahmad Qabaha of An-Najah National University will address Mahmoud Darwish’s representation of the Israeli settler-colonial genocide, ecocide, and scholasticide in his poetry,...

Join us this Friday (November 14, 12 pm ET) for Prof. Ahmad Qabaha's online talk "Genocide, Ecocide, Scholasticide and The Palestinian Native American in Mahmoud Darwish's Poetry". (1/2) Register here: georgetown.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

‘Silence never truly arrives’: in Gaza, the long night before the ceasefire After two years of war, Gazans woke to a fragile ceasefire and a chance to imagine life beyond the ruins, says Ahmed Kamal Junina – as well as the cautious hope that the peace might finally last

Read our fellow Dr. Ahmed Kamal Junina's latest piece "‘Silence never truly arrives’: what the eve of a ceasefire feels like in Gaza" here: www.independent.co.uk/voices/gaza-...

Weaponization of Religion by the Taliban and Its Consequences on Afghanistan and Beyond Launch of FARAGEER's study on Taliban's misuse of religion, spotlighting Afghan women's voices and global implications of religious extremism.

Dr. Saeed's talk, part of the session "Weaponization of Religion by the Taliban and Its Consequences on Afghanistan and Beyond," took place on September 26 in New York and is available here: webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1w.... (3/3)

Weaponization of Religion by the Taliban and Its Consequences on Afghanistan and Beyond Launch of FARAGEER's study on Taliban's misuse of religion, spotlighting Afghan women's voices and global implications of religious extremism.

Dr. Ali's talk was a part of the panel "Ending the Gaza Genocide" and took place on September 30 in Geneva. (2/3)

Weaponization of Religion by the Taliban and Its Consequences on Afghanistan and Beyond Launch of FARAGEER's study on Taliban's misuse of religion, spotlighting Afghan women's voices and global implications of religious extremism.

I am pleased to announce that two of our fellows, Dr. Nijmeh Ali and Dr. Lutforahman Saeed, gave talks at the UN. (1/3)

Recognising Palestine won’t save Gaza’s shattered generation University professor Ahmed Kamal Junina should have been shopping for school supplies for his three children. Instead, he describes how WhatsApp, internet cafes and voice notes are filling the gaps fo...

Please read our fellow Dr. Ahmed Junina's latest piece: "Recognising Palestine is important, but more is needed to save Gaza’s shattered generation" here: www.independent.co.uk/voices/educa...

"Freedom of Communal Prayer in the Primary sources of Islamic law and under the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan" by  Lutforahman Saeed - Canopy Forum Blue Mosque, Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan by Françoise Foliot (CC BY-SA 4.0). The right of women to participate in communal prayers is explicitly affirmed and encouraged within Islamic sources, particu...

Read our fellow Dr. Lutforahman Saeed's essay "Freedom of Communal Prayer in the Primary Sources of Islamic Law and under the Taliban-ruled Afghanistan" in the Canopy Forum on Interactions of Law & Religion here: canopyforum.org/2025/09/20/f...

Read Dr. Bahman Khodadadi's new article "The Theocratic Agency of the Iranian Legal System at the Legislative and Judicial Levels" in Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities here: openyls.law.yale.edu/entities/pub...

Hunger in Gaza: A university lecturer on how he works while 'too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright.' Ahmed Kamal Junina, Assistant Professor of Applied Linguistics and Head of the English Department at Al-Aq-sa University in Gaza and a Fellow at Bristol University, speaks to Drivetime about the daily...

Listen to our fellow Ahmed Junina's interview on Ireland's RTE Radio 1 to learn about daily struggles in Gaza, education, and the resilience of the people: www.rte.ie/radio/radio1...

YouTube video by CBS News Gaza City professor on education in a warzone: "battle for survival"

Watch our fellow Ahmed Junina's interview on CBS News on surviving in a warzone: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrbp...

Archives as Resistance to Erasure The rescue of Gaza’s UNRWA archives defies Zionist erasure, preserving Palestinian history and memory as vital acts of resistance amid ongoing genocide.

Newest article from our fellow Dr. Nijmeh Ali: “Archives Under Fire: Resisting Erasure Amid Genocide” is available here: scene48.org/en/articles/...

Middle East Studies Association ACLS invite applications for ACLS/ Marwan M. and Ute Kraidy Centennial Fellowships in the Study of the Arab World and Latin America, offered as part of the ACLS Fellowship Program.

#Fellowship The American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) invite applications for ACLS/ Marwan M. and Ute Kraidy Centennial Fellowships in the Study of the Arab World and Latin America, offered as part of ACLS Fellowship Program. mesana.org/resources-an...

Prof. Messick died on August 15, 2025. Their generosity and guidance left a lasting mark on our community, and we will remember them with gratitude.
Please see anthropology.columbia.edu/content/brin... and maktoobmedia.com/more/educati... for more information.”

IN MEMORIAM
We are deeply saddened by the passing of our former Global Academy mentor and supporter, Brinkley Morris Messick(1949 - 2025). He was a renowned scholar and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology and of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies at Columbia University.

Check out the newest publication, "Open Constitution: The Dilemma of Constitutional Stability and Adaptability Iran’s 1906 and 1979 Constitutions: A Case Study" by our alum Seyed Masoud Noori!
www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Read our fellow Fateh Saeidi's new article "Religion Meets Gender: The Impact of Sunni Islamic Discourse on the Jina Uprising in Eastern Kurdistan" here: www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Read our fellow Nijmeh Ali's recent work published in the BMBF Network Postcolonial Hierarchies in Peace & Conflict (Germany) here:

rewritingpeaceandconflict.net/wp-content/u...

Check out our fellow Nadia Al-Sakkaf's latest article!

“Crafting a Post-Conflict Constitution for Yemen: Navigating Rule of Law and Emerging Forces.” Published in Review of Middle East Studies 58, no. 1–2 (2024): 3–8.
doi.org/10.1017/rms.....

www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Exile at Small-Time U - McFarland Exile at Small-Time U Essays from the Trenches of Embattled Academia Edited by Douglas Higbee 978-1-4766-9572-3 978-1-4766-5564-2

New publication by our alum Evren Altinkas! Exile at Small-Time U. Essays from the Trenches of Embattled Academia. Find it here: mcfarlandbooks.com/product/exil...

Home - CDP-G 3rd CDP-G National Dialogue Conference on Afghanistan Click here for more details

A new report by our fellow Lutforahman Saeed on Status of Constitutionalism and Rule of Law in Afghanistan. Read it here:
cdpg.ch/status-of-co...

New article from our fellow Bahman Khodadadi! resolve.cambridge.org/core/journal...

‘Too hungry to think, too weak to sit upright. Concentration slips away’: the struggle to stay focused as an academic in Gaza It is hard to keep the mind sharp when the body is thin and dehydrated, but solidarity is teaching starving students their thoughts still matter

A new article by our fellow Ahmed Kamal Junina: www.theguardian.com/global-devel...

A Journey from Yemen to the World Stage A Columbia Global Emerging Scholar on how displacement uprooted his life, and what it meant to share his story and culture at Columbia Global Center Amman.

Read our alumnus Dr. Mansour Al-Maswari's story here: global.columbia.edu/news/the-wou...

and Razan Shawamreh, Ibtisam Idris, Fateh Saeidi, Arash Reisineshad, Amira Y. Badri, Malaka Shwaikh, Kayvan Tahmasebian, Seda Altuğ, and Lutforahman Saeed! (2/2)

Check out the profiles of our 2025-2026 fellows at lnkd.in/d6FDkWQS ! Congratulations to Zahra Mobballegh, Najeeb Alomaisi, Abdul Wahid Gulhani, Gökhan Demir, Hayatullah Ahmadzai, Ahmad Qabaha, Bahman Khodadadi, Ahmed Kamal Junina (1/2)