Renew your MESA Membership today!
Middle East Studies Association of North America, Inc.
3542 N. Geronimo Avenue
Tucson, AZ 85705
520 333-2577 phone
520 207-3166 fax
Our letter expressing concern about the decision to suspend Professor Savneet Talwar, a member of the faculty of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), from teaching and subject her to multiple investigations on dubious grounds
Please see our letter that both documents and condemns ongoing as well as new efforts of the government of Israel to take full control of archaeological sites in the occupied Palestinian Territories and institute measures that serve to erase the historic link of the Palestinian people to those sites and thereby deny the Palestinians' centuries-old connection to the land
Our letter expressing concern about the launching of an investigation by New York University’s Title VI Office of a number of NYU students and faculty for alleged violation of the university’s Non-Discrimination and Anti-Harassment Policy (NDAH)
Our letter expressing concern about Dean Alberto Cuitiño’s decision to cancel the graduation address that Arcellx chair and CEO Rami Elghandour had been invited to deliver on 15 May 2026 at Rutgers University’s School of Engineering
Our letter expressing cconcern about the decision of the University of Washington to remove Associate Professor Aria Fani, who holds the Elahé Omidyar Mir-Djalali Professorship in Persian and Iranian Studies, from his position as director of the Middle East Center at the University’s Jackson School of International Studies
Our letter to U.N., E.U. and U.S. officials expressing urgent concern about Iran’s educational and academic institutions becoming a frontline in the U.S.-Israel war against the country.
Our letter expressing concern regarding the University of Arkansas’s decision to dismiss tenured Professor Shirin Saeidi despite the unanimous recommendation of the Faculty Hearing Committee that Professor Saeidi not be fired.
Our letter expressing concern about the forced resignation of Dr. Edita Gzoyan, Director of the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute-Foundation (AGMI), following her hosting of U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance at the museum in February 2026, calling for her immediate reinstatement and urging the Armenian government to restore the AGMI's institutional independence and uphold its commitment to academic freedom.
Our letter expressing concern about the sudden and arbitrary removal of Professor Azza Basarudin from her role as faculty advisor to the CSULB student organization Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP)
Our letter protesting the recent targeted killings by Israel's armed forces of two Lebanese professors and calling upon international organizations and actors to to condemn this egregious violation of international law by the government of Israel and demand the immediate cessation of such deliberate attack.
Our letter expressing concern about the recently announced policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that permits the university to record classes without providing notice to, or obtaining consent from, the instructor
Our letter expressing dismay concerning the Los Angeles Public Library’s decision to cancel an event featuring the writers Jenan Matari and Nora Lester Murad that was slated for the library’s 2025 Read Palestine Week, scheduled for 29 November-5 December 2025.
Our letter expressing concern about the university administration's improper demand that Professor Mohja Kahf remove two posters from her office door because they are allegedly discriminatory
Our letter expressing concern about the unprecedented lethal state violence against the nationwide protests in Iran since 28 December 2025, including the killing of over 3,700 civilians and thousands of arrests, among them many students and faculty members, and calling for an immediate end to violence and arrests, and the restoration of internet access.
Our letter expressing concern at the University of Arkansas’s decision to remove Professor Shirin Saeidi from her position as Director of the King Fahd Center for Middle East Studies.
Our letter expressing concern for the decision to suspend without pay Peyrin Kao, a Lecturer in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley, for a six-month term, effective 1 January 2026, for allegedly engaging in Palestine advocacy that violates university policy
Our letter expressing concern about the decision of UMass Amherst to pause, and then cancel, a search under way for a tenure-track assistant professor of the history of the modern Middle East, and to launch, in fall 2025, an entirely new search for the same position
Our letter expressing concern about the University of Guelph’s last-minute decision to cancel the second annual People’s Conference for Palestinian Solidarity which was to convene on 29 November 2025
Our letter to vehemently protest the harassment of the eminent international legal scholar and emeritus professor at Princeton University, Richard Falk by the Canadian border security agency at the Toronto Pearson International Airport on 13 November 2025 as he was on his way to participate in the “Gaza Tribunal” and Canada's Responsibility” in Ottawa, Ontario (14-15 November).
The Committee on Academic Freedom received a response from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville Chancellor in response to our letter regarding Professor Tamar Shirinian
Our letter jointly issued by BRISMES, DAVO, SeSaMO and MESA regarding the cancellation of the symposium “Palestine and Europe” organized by the Chair of Contemporary History of the Arab World at the Collège de France and the CAREP (Arab Center for Research and Political Studies)
Our letter protesting the very recent arrests and summons of five independent scholars accused by the regime of threatening national security, and calling upon the government to desist from its punitive practices and the ongoing violations of citizens’ rights.
Our letter expressing concern about the capricious and hasty suspension of Assistant Professor Tamar Shirinian of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and your decision to terminate her for remarks she made on social media regarding Charlie Kirk
Our letter expressing concern about the decision to prevent students from enrolling in classes unless they complete the deeply flawed online anti-bias training that Northwestern University has mandated for all undergraduate and graduate students
The Committee on Academic Freedom received a response from the Executive Correspondence Officer for the Prime Minister of Canada in response to our letter regarding visas and study permits for Palestinian scholars