Anne H. Betteridge

University of Arizona

2023 Recipient

Anne H. Betteridge 

 

This year’s MESA Jere L. Bacharach award is given to Anne Betteridge, in recognition of her exceptional service to the field of Middle East studies.

Dr. Betteridge is professor of Middle Eastern Studies and director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arizona, as well as co-chair of the Council of Title VI National Resource Center Directors, vice-chair of the board of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, and president of the American Institute of Iranian Studies. Dr. Betteridge has also served as a board member of the American Council of Learned Societies, the International Association for the Study of Persian-Speaking Societies, and the Society for Iranian Studies. For almost a dozen years, Dr. Betteridge served as executive director of the Middle East Studies Association. 

In all of these roles, Dr. Betteridge has helped to build scholarly institutions in the field of Middle East studies, nurture students and junior colleagues, defend academic freedom, and campaign for support for the field — both on a national scale and in her long-time home of Arizona. 

As executive director of MESA between 1990 and 2002, Dr. Betteridge turned a part-time operation into a fully professional organization. Dr. Betteridge was key to building MESA into an organization capable of serving a rapidly growing field of area studies. She oversaw a period of seismic changes, as the Cold War ended (with consequences for the funding of Area Studies), bookended by crises like the invasion of Kuwait and September 11 that increased media attention and demands upon MESA for information and expertise. MESA also had to accommodate shifts in technology, from an era of postal mail and telephones to faxes, emails, and the very first MESA website. She not only enabled the expansion and professionalization of the MESA staff to accommodate the changing and growing membership, she also served then-new committees like the Committee on Academic Freedom and the Albert Hourani Book Award with the structure and support needed to develop and eventually flourish. 

As director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Arizona since 2003, Dr. Betteridge has built up the university’s offerings in Middle East studies significantly by writing six successful applications to the Department of Education’s Title VI program, which have contributed to an expansion of the university’s Middle East studies faculty, a full range of Middle East language programs, and an extensive record of programs for K-12 educators across the state of Arizona and beyond. 

As co-chair of the Council of Title VI National Resource Center Directors since 2010, Dr. Betteridge has organized untold numbers of agenda-setting workshops, advocacy sessions at Congress, information-sharing meetings, conference calls, and other activities on behalf of the more than 100 international and area studies centers funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Title VI program, not just in Middle East studies but representing the study of all regions of the world. She has also worked closely with the Coalition for International Education in Washington, D.C., to engage with Congressional representatives and staff members to defend federal programs in international and area studies against political attacks and to advocate for increased federal investment in language and area studies training. 

In addition, Dr. Betteridge has regularly convened a meeting of Middle East Title VI center directors during MESA’s annual conference. The agenda includes briefings on issues that Middle East centers face, and updates on collaborative initiatives across campuses. Dr. Betteridge runs these meetings with the wisdom of one who has lived through numerous academic crises and can sense issues just beyond the horizon. 

As president of the American Institute for Iranian Studies since 2019, Dr. Betteridge has worked to maintain scholarly exchanges between U.S.-based and Iran-based researchers during a time of very poor relations between the U.S. and Iranian governments, as well as supporting Persian language study and Iranian studies research among graduate students with ongoing grant funding from the Council on American Overseas Research Institutes. 

While this sort of unsung administrative service – on an individual level and on an institutional level – is not necessarily visible to the wider profession, it has been truly instrumental to supporting the advancement of the field of Middle East studies at large. 

This award is therefore enthusiastically given to Dr. Betteridge in recognition of her long and devoted service to the field of Middle East studies.

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