Middle East Studies Association

Anne H. Betteridge
Executive Director, MESA

The Middle East Studies Association of North America is inevitably and intentionally international in its scope and activities. The understanding of which activities constitute appropriate international involvements has changed over time, as have the possibilities for realizing them.

Background

The Middle East Studies Association was founded in 1966 to provide an academic association for scholars who study the Middle East and North Africa, particularly since the advent of Islam. MESA self-consciously set itself apart from the American Oriental Society, where the modern Middle East was not of great interest to most members. Too, MESA has its more venerable fellow area studies association, the Association for Asian Studies, to thank for rejecting MESA’s application for affiliated status. That and the encouragement of the Middle East Institute and the ACLS/SSRC Joint Committee on the Near and Middle East led to the Association’s organizational meeting.

Since its founding, the Association has represented both Canada and the United States; three of the 51 founding fellows were located in Canada. MESA occasionally holds its annual meeting in Canada, and members resident in Canada are active in the Association. MESA is encouraging the formation of a MESA-related group to which members resident in Canada can belong. Through the new group MESA members in Canada will be able to respond to uniquely Canadian issues in higher education and legislation, as they affect area studies in general, and the study of the Middle East in particular.

Membership

Criteria for MESA membership affirmed in 1969 Board meeting minutes stress the importance of contact with the Middle East. The criteria for fellowship in the Association were a Ph.D. in Middle East studies, teaching courses in Middle East studies, publishing in the field and, interestingly, travel in the Middle East. The definition of membership has since become more inclusive. Now fellows of the Association must qualify in at least one of the following three ways: have a Ph.D. related to Middle East studies, have taught in Middle East studies, or have made a scholarly contribution to Middle East studies.

Although the large majority of MESA’s members live in North America, 14 percent of that majority were born elsewhere. The group is overwhelmingly Middle Eastern in origin, with 72 percent from the Middle East, 15 percent from Europe, 4 percent from South Asia, and the rest from other areas, including the Far East, Africa, and Southeast Asia. Sixteen percent of MESA’s total membership resides in countries outside North America. Of these, 50 percent live in Europe and 41 percent in the Middle East, with the balance divided among other regions. Consideration of the birthplace of MESA members resident abroad yields a slightly different picture. Not counting those born in the United States and Canada, 46 percent of those resident outside North America were born in the Middle East, 41 percent in Europe, 5 percent in the Far East, and the remaining 8 percent elsewhere.

International Journal of Middle East Studies

The International Joumal of Middle East Studies has been international in character from its beginning in 1967. One-third of the members of the first IJMES editorial board were scholars at universities outside North America. Over the years the editors of IJMES have taken care to maintain an international editorial board, and to solicit manuscripts from abroad. Six members of the current 19-member editorial board reside abroad, four in Europe and two in the Middle East.

Members of the British Institute for Middle East Studies may subscribe to the journal at reduced rates.

The journal is distributed through the East and Central Europe Journal Donation project, with the assistance of Cambridge University Press, the publisher.

Visiting Scholars

Insofar as resources and contacts have allowed, MESA has invited visiting scholars regularly over the years, asking them to make presentations at the annual meeting, and organizing brief lecture tours for them. A grant from the Ford Foundation made such visits possible in 1973 through 1979, when funds were used to bring five or six leading scholars and intellectuals from the Middle East to the United States and Canada each year for periods of three to six weeks. An invitation to participate in the program in 1975 notes that MESA “is particularly interested in encouraging the international exchange of ideas and knowledge.” In 1986, MESA instituted the Visiting Scholar in the Humanities program; each vear MESA funds the visit of a scholar selected by the Board to make a presentation at the annual meeting, and to go on a two-week lecture tour. MESA members are invited to make suggestions regarding those who should be invited; these are reviewed by the Committee on Visiting Scholars, which in turn presents its recommendations to the Board.

The Ford Foundation funded a tour to China in 1991 by six prominent members of MESA to inform the development of Chinese institutions focusing on the Middle East, help facilitate institutional linkages, and to encourage intellectual exchange on topics related to the contemporary Middle East. In 1992, the Ford Foundation made possible the MESA annual meeting attendance of two scholars from Beijing.

Since 1991 many Fulbright scholars from the Middle East who are in the United States and who have research interests in Middle East studies have attended MESA’s annual meetings at Fulbright expense.

Most recently, a grant from the Ford Foundation has made possible the sponsorship of special panels at the 1993 and 1994 annual meetings. Panelists are invited from Arab countries not well represented at the annual meeting, and to address topics less often broached. The participation of junior scholars, women, and those who have seldom, if ever, had the opportunity to travel to the United States is particularly encouraged. The grant also provides funds for book purchase by the visitors, and for the purchase of books to be donated to a library in the visiting scholars’ home country. MESA assists with the purchase and shipping of books. Whenever possible, a librarian or curator is invited to be part of the visiting group. Contact with a prominent librarian from a Middle Eastern country assists MESA members interested in doing research there. The librarian’s contact with librarian members of MESA and the purchase of new books for a collection abroad extends the program’s effects. MESA offers a year’s membership in the Association to the scholars for the year following their visits.

In 1993, four Sudanese scholars were invited to speak about issues of women’s health; the national archivist of Sudan also visited the United States under the 1993 program. In 1994, five Syrian scholars participated in a panel entitled “From Towns to Cities: Issues of Preservation and Development.” Plans for 1994 included the donation of books to the Assad Library in Damascus. Experience with the program has been encouraging. The scholars and their presentations have been received warmly, and have generated a level of enthusiasm that does not attend more conventional visits.

An unfortunate experience with the illness of a visiting scholar in 1993 has prompted MESA to arrange health insurance for all visitors; we encourage other societies to make similar arrangements, and can share information about the plan used.

Committee on Academic Freedom

The Middle East Studies Association is non-political, and is careful to maintain that status in its work. Over the years individual MESA members have sponsored resolutions at annual meetings to address issues of academic freedom in the United States and overseas. MESA’s Ethics Committee deals with such issues in North America, but until 1990 there was no mechanism by which MESA could respond regularly to such matters abroad. In 1990 MESA’s Board of Directors established a Committee on Academic Freedom to monitor infringements of academic freedom in the Middle East. In a supplement to the August 1990 MESA Newsletter, Ann Lesch, the committee’s first chair, wrote that the committee

reflects the Board’s concern for the rights of academic colleagues in the Middle East and North Africa. It underlines the Board’s belief that, as scholars engaged in research in the region, MESA members bear a responsibility toward their counterparts and should speak out when the latter’s ability to speak, teach or conduct research is impaired or denied.

Letters written by committee members are based on carefully documented information, verified with the assistance of various human rights organizations, and sent by the Secretariat. Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Science and Human Rights Program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science have been particularly helpful. From October 1993 to September 1994, the committee sent 11 letters, addressing issues of academic freedom in Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. Text of the letters is included regularly in the MESA Newsletter. The letters occasionally prompt responses from governments, and we sometimes learn that situations referred to in the letters have changed for the better.

As a result of the committee’s efforts, MESA is understood as an organization that is a member of an international community, and as one concerned for the welfare of colleagues abroad. The work of the committee is time-consuming, but very rewarding. It is the only work done by MESA to date that has generated a great deal of positive response from both members and non-members, and no negative reactions. MESA has prepared a packet of materials that introduces the work of the committee, and provides a model for other associations.

Involvement with Other Associations

In 1989 the National Council of Area Studies Associations (NCASA) was formed to allow major area studies associations in the United States to gather regularly to share information, and to work together on matters of common interest. Member associations are the African Studies Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the Association for Asian Studies, the Latin American Studies Association, and MESA-all members of ACLS. ACLS meetings provide two opportunities a year for NCASA to convene. Extraordinary meetings are held to work on special projects as need be.

NCASA member organizations’ shared interest in domestic aspects of area studies scholarship resulted in a joint research project and report, Prospects for Faculty in Area Studies, in 1991. NCASA is also concerned with furthering international cooperation among area studies scholars. Through NCASA, member associations have begun to increase contacts and explore possibilities for cooperation with counterpart organizations abroad. In 1993, a meeting with Canadian area studies organizations was held in Quebec. As a North American organization, MESA includes Canada within its purview. A Canadian MESA member attended the Quebec City meeting to represent the concerns and views of MESA’s members there. The experience provided the impetus for the formation of a group of MESA members in Canada. At the Quebec City meeting we learned of the recent formation of the Canadian Council of Area Studies Learned Societies (CCASLS), an NCASA-like group in Canada. Middle East studies representatives had not been included, in part because there was no Middle East studies organization based in Canada. The formation of a constituent group of MESA members resident in Canada should redress that situation. In 1994, NCASA representatives met with Marcia Rivera, Executive Secretary and CEO of the Consejo Latinamericano de Ciencias Sociales (CLACSO) — a federation and network of 119 social science research institutes in Latin America. The meeting afforded an opportunity to learn about the very different organization of area studies and academic organizations in Latin America, and to ponder ways in which U.S.-based area studies associations might work with them. In 1997 NCASA and American Studies Association representatives will travel to Japan to meet with area studies organization directors and scholars. The visit will be organized around a conference to consider the role of area studies in addressing global issues, and will include meetings with counterpart area studies associations to investigate possibilities for future collaboration.

MESA’s affiliated associations include a wide variety of groups specializing in Middle East studies scholarship; many of these have extensive links with colleagues and institutions abroad. The Association’s institutional members include a number of academic and philanthropic institutions based in or with strong ties to the Middle East.

There is no international organization of Middle East studies as such. The International Union for Oriental and Asian Studies will sponsor the 35th International Congress of Asian and North Studies (sic) in Budapest in 1997, and has written to suggest that MESA organize one or more panels.

Changes in the Field of Middle Last Studies

Middle East studies is international by definition, and so cannot be said to have become more international in character. However, the ways in which Middle East studies is international have altered. The presence of a larger proportion of scholars of Middle Eastern background in various fields and of growing Middle Eastern populations in North America have influenced the practice of Middle East Studies. The fact that publications may be read critically by knowledgeable people from the region contributes to an enhanced sense of accountability among Western scholars and enriches professional exchanges.

Research questions asked alter according to current intellectual trends, noteworthy political events, and, to some extent, the availability of funding for particular topics. Truly international issues are explored more frequently now than in the past. Researchers focus less often on situations or cultural expressions in single communities, and research that crosses disciplinary and national boundaries has become more common. Greater interest in Islam, fostered both by larger Muslim populations in the United States and by current events, has encouraged the investigation of Islam as practiced in the Middle East and other areas. Earlier studies of Islam emphasized textual traditions; these remain important subjects of study, but are now complemented by work on historical and social contexts. New interdisciplinary work on Islam is flourishing, as exemplified by a 1992 round table and 1993 publication on Islam, Democracy, the State and the West, sponsored by the World and Islam Studies Enterprise, and an October 1994 conference at SUNY Binghamton on “The American Muslim Community, The American Legal System, and Islamic Law.” Interest in comparative issues is also evident in political science, where studies of democratization in Islamic countries and of the nature of civil society in the Middle East are underway.

Interdisciplinary research on the Middle East is burgeoning, and is reflected in rich scholarship in areas such as women’s studies, studies of immigration, and media arts. Here, as elsewhere, questions of cross cultural influence and the world economy figure importantly. The flowering of Middle East women’s studies is affected by an increasing number of women students and Middle Eastern women in the field. An encouraging amount of interdisciplinary poaching is occurring with, for example, anthropological methods used in the study of Arabic poetry, and approaches drawn from social history applied to the study of novels.

The region encompassed by Middle East studies is being redefined. The new independence of Central Asian states has drawn attention to the importance of training in the regional languages and culture, bringing Middle East studies into an area where it had not previously been very active. The American Institute for Pakistan Studies recently became one of MESA’s affiliated organizations. The MESA annual meeting is seen as a venue where studies of Islam will find an interested audience.

Increasing numbers of Middle Eastern students who plan to return to their home countries now study for undergraduate and advanced degrees in the United States. This cannot help but shape scholarship as it develops in the United States and as it is practiced and taught abroad. In a particularly striking example, a study of the 1990 MESA membership revealed that just over half the MESA member graduate students of sociology were non-U.S. citizens. This reflects the “thrust to indigenization” described by Georges Sabagh and Iman Ghazalla in their article on Arab sociology in the 1986 Annual Review of Sociology.

The nature of populations of Middle Eastern scholars in the United States is to some extent dependent upon political events. For example, of the MESA membership resident in the United States but born in the Middle East, the largest national group (29 percent of the total) is from Iran. The large number of Iranian scholars now in the United States is a result of the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and subsequent events. While it may be difficult for a Western scholar to do research on drama in Iran now, Iranian film and television programs have been studied in Los Angeles. New learned societies and other academic and philanthropic institutions have been organized by Iranian scholars, and contribute importantly to the field of Iranian studies in the United States. Similar developments can he traced in the history of scholarship in other regions within Middle Eastern studies.

For scholars of Middle East studies, the challenge is not to become more international in outlook, but to do international scholarship ever better across national and conceptual boundaries. The challenge is twofold: to train Middle East studies scholars who possess the requisite cultural and linguistic background to do fine-grained research, and to bring those skills and disciplinary expertise to the study of issues compelling to a broadly based academic audience.