Contract renewal of Thomas Abowd at Tufts University
Letter calling on Tufts University to adhere to accepted standards of equity and transparency with regard to Dr. Thomas Abowd's contract renewal and to uphold the principles of academic freedom.
Letter calling on Tufts University to adhere to accepted standards of equity and transparency with regard to Dr. Thomas Abowd's contract renewal and to uphold the principles of academic freedom.
Scholars at Risk (SAR) and the Association for Freedom of Thought and Expression in Egypt (AFTE) have filed a joint submission with the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review (UPR), highlighting attacks and pressures on higher education in Egypt.
Scholars at Risk (SAR), in cooperation with the Human Rights Law Centre at the University of Nottingham, has filed a submission with the United Nations’ Universal Periodic Review, highlighting attacks and pressures on higher education in Iran.
Letter to Secretary of State Pompeo protesting the decision to deny Omar Barghouti entry to the U.S.
Congratulations to Zeynep Çelik as recipient for the 2019 Giorgio Levi Della Vida Award for Excellence in Islamic Studies.
Letter to Israeli authorities condemning the continued harassment and arbitrary arrests of Palestinian university students by Israeli occupying forces. These arrests and campus incursions violate the right to education and academic freedom, and we call upon Israel to cease these attacks on Palestinian universities.
Letter to the president of Kingsborough Community College and the interim chancellor of the City University of New York calling on them to defend faculty members subjected to baseless accusations of anti-Semitism and harassment, and to uphold the right to free speech and the principles of academic freedom.
Letter to Iranian authorities protesting the prolonged detention of Iranian, dual-national, and foreign national academics in Iran.
Letter criticizing the definition of anti-Semitism in HB 741, a bill under consideration by the Florida House of Representatives, because it conflates criticism of Israel and Zionism with anti-Semitism, thereby threatening the right to free speech and academic freedom at Florida's institutions of higher education.
MESA mourns the passing of Honorary Fellow Roger Owen.
MESA mourns the passing of Boston University Professor Emeritus Augustus Richard Norton.
Congratulations to to Keith David Watenpaugh for being awarded a Centennial Medal by The Institute of International Education.
Letter regarding recent developments in the prosecution of scholars who signed the declaration “We will not be a party to this crime”—commonly referred to as the “Academics for Peace Petition”—as well as the ongoing targeting of scholars whose research exposes threats emanating from the Turkish government’s policies in areas such as public health and environmental regulation.
MESA mourns the passing of Founding Member and Turkish historian Kemal Karpat.
Congratulations to Daniel Hershenzon and Lital Levy for receiving 2019 Burkhardt Residential Fellowships.
Congratulations to Karen Pinto on receiving the inaugural Inclusivity and Diversity Travel Grant to present her paper, “Mapping the Worlds of the Global Middle Ages,” during the MMA’s 94th annual meeting, March 7-9 in Philadelphia.
MESA joined in a letter to the Prime Minister of Hungary regarding academic inquiry and scholarly research in Hungary.
Letter denouncing the aggressive public smear campaign against Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian related to her research and expressing concern regarding the Hebrew University’s failure to protect her.
In response to Alaska Governor Dunleavy's proposed funding cuts for higher education, 32 professional societies signed-on to a letter expressing concern about the damage such cuts would impose.
Letter to President Trump, Secretary Pompeo, and Members of the Senate and House of Representatives expressing opposition to the passage of the Anti-Terrorism Clarification Act (ATCA) of 2018, as it results in the denial of the right to education to Palestinian students from the West Bank and Gaza Strip in a MEPI program. CAF calls on Congress and the President to cancel ATCA.
International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) pens an op-ed on the failure of the Muslim Ban's promised "waiver process."
Letter condemning the arbitrary arrests and detention of Palestinian students and professors as well as the assaults on Palestinian universities. These measures are a clear violation of Palestinian academic freedom.
More than 200 scholars and personalities from around the world have signed a letter written to the king and crown prince of Saudi Arabia on behalf of renowned Saudi scholar, writer and women’s rights advocate Hatoon al-Fassi. She has been detained and held in solitary confinement in the kingdom since June 21, 2018. The letter calls upon the Saudi government to release Dr. al-Fassi and to allow her to continue her important work. MESA's Committee on Academic Freedom wrote a letter to protest her arrest (dated 3 July 2018) and MESA awarded Dr. al-Fassi the 2018 Academic Freedom Award.
Letter to UAE authorities protesting the decision of the State Security Court of the Federal Supreme Court to uphold the 10 year prison sentence imposed on human rights advocate Ahmed Mansoor in 2018.
Letter to UAE authorities expressing concern for the health of Nasser bin Ghaith, a professor of economics sentenced to ten years' imprisonment in 2017 for "insulting" the UAE in public statements and tweets, who is on hunger-strike.