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  • Confused about the Middle East?

    There's a major for that

    Interdisciplinary MMES degree combines History, Political Science, Religious Studies -- and more

  • K-12 Outreach

    The Middle East Center offers K-12 educators and the Philadelphia community access to a range of useful resources.

  • Where the Middle East Finds You

    Since 1965, the Middle East Center has been educating and informing the Philadelphia area about the richness and diversity of the Middle East and North Africa. Join us.

Events



The Scales of Suffering: Neo-Lachrymosity and the Writing of Jewish History

MEC Co-Sponsored Event
Mar 31, 2025 at - | Penn Museum (East Entrance)

Is the writing of Jewish history possible without tears and tales of woe? This was the challenge leveled nearly a hundred years ago by perhaps the most influential Jewish historian in the United States, Salo Baron.…



The Future is Feminist: Women and Social Change in Interwar Algeria (Cornell UP, 2024)

Embodied Histories Working Group: Book Lecture with Sara Rahnama
Mar 31, 2025 at - | College Hall 209

Embodied Histories Working Group Book Lecture with Sara RahnamaThe Future is Feminist: Women and Social Change in Interwar Algeria (Cornell UP, 2024)The Future is Feminist examines how Muslim feminists in colonial…



In Conversation: Hidden Liberalism in Modern Iran

Persian Students Association at Penn
Apr 2, 2025 at - | Perry World House Conference Room

Join Dr. Hussein Banai and Dr. Mahyar Entezari for an engaging discussion of Hidden Liberalism in Modern Iran, a groundbreaking work that sheds new light on Iran’s political evolution in the 19th and 20th centuries.…

Courses

Course offerings on the Middle East at Penn are rich and multidisciplinary. All are taught by world-renowned scholars in their field with exemplary records of teaching and publishing some of the most innovative research on the Middle East and Islam.

See Course Offerings