Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center

The mission of MEMEAC is to promote the production and exchange of knowledge on and with the Middle East and Middle Eastern Americans.

Since 2001, the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center (MEMEAC) at the CUNY Graduate Center has been promoting the study of the Middle East and migrants from the region. Bringing together a critical mass of more than eighty affiliated faculty members from throughout the CUNY system, MEMEAC serves as a magnet for doctoral students at the GC who focus on the Middle East and North Africa from different disciplinary perspectives and a hub for our own Master’s students. With growing interest in the Middle East, the Center launched a Master’s Program in Middle Eastern Studies in 2008 that draws students from across the country and around the world. MEMEAC regularly sponsors book conversations, manuscript reviews, works-in-progress seminars, dissertation writing groups, and workshops. The Center functions as a resource for both the CUNY community and the public at large.

Beth Baron is Distinguished Professor of History at the City College and Graduate Center of the City University of New York and Director of the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at the CUNY Graduate Center. From 2009 to 2014, she edited the International Journal of Middle East Studies, and from 2015 to 2017, served as president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America. Her most recent book, The Orphan Scandal: Christian Missionaries and the Rise of the Muslim Brotherhood, appeared with Stanford University Press in 2014. Earlier works include Egypt as a Woman: Nationalism, Gender, and Politics (University of California Press, 2005) and The Women’s Awakening in Egypt: Culture, Society, and the Press (Yale University Press, 1994). She co-edited Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender (Yale University Press, 1991) with Nikki Keddie and Iran and Beyond: Essays in Middle Eastern History in Honor of Nikki R. Keddie (Mazda, 2000) with Rudi Matthee. She is currently working on a book on the history of medicine, disease, and reproduction in colonial Egypt.

Jeremy Randall is a PhD Candidate in History at the CUNY Graduate Center and Assistant Director of the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at the CUNY Graduate Center.

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