MESA joins AAA statement "Targeting Cultural Sites is a War Crime" as a signatory with other concerned academic associations following recent presidential threats to Iran.
MESA has joined other organizations in an open letter to Emirati authorities on behalf of human rights activist Ahmed Mansoor.
MESA and 18 other academic associations, representing over 100,000 concerned members, issue letter in response to allegations made by the DoE against the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, calling attention to the overly narrow and partisan conception of international studies contained in the letter, and pointing to past successes of Title VI programs in educating students and training experts with the needed depth and breadth in languages and regional and international studies.
MESA and other scholarly societies issue letter that calls upon Israel authorities to issue a transparent policy that allows entry and the presence of foreign faculty and staff on Palestinian university campuses in accordance with international humanitarian and human rights law.
MESA deplores the most recent mass execution of 37 detainees in Saudi Arabia on 23 April 2019. It has noted with deep concern that among those executed were an academic and at least one student.
Letter from MESA Board to Stanford University expressing deep disappointment and dismay over the decision to drastically cut support of its university press.
MESA joined as a signer with other professional societies on a letter to Stanford University's administration about the recent decision to drastically cut support of their university press.
March 20, 2019 – The MESA Board deplores the ongoing detention of Dr. Hatoon al-Fassi who has been detained since June 21, 2018, by the government of Saudi Arabia. Dr. al-Fassi was among ten Saudi women brought to a closed-door court hearing on March 13, 2019 on unknown charges.
February 27, 2019 – The Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and its Committee on Academic Freedom strongly condemn the Sudanese government’s violent suppression of peaceful public protests since December 2018, and the arbitrary detention of protestors, including many academics.
MESA Board of Directors issues revised security alert for study and research in Egypt, February 2019.
November 15, 2018 MESA Board Statement on Deteriorating Security Conditions for Researchers in the UAE