News
MEC Photography Contest Now Open
The Middle East Center is now accepting entries for the MEC 2025 Photography Contest. The goal of this contest is to connect students to the culture and history of the Middle East in a modern context. Students may submit a portfolio of up to five photos, with a short paragraph explaining what they are and why they were submitted.MEC Undergraduate Essay Contest Now Open
The Middle Center (MEC) at the University of Pennsylvania is now accepting submissions for our 2025 Essay Contest. The competition is open to all current Penn undergraduates. Essays may deal with any topic within the context of the modern Middle East/North Africa.Roger M. A. Allen 2025 Award Recipient: Rawad Wehbe
Congratulations to Rawad Wehbe! Dr. Wehbe is the recipient of the 2025 Roger M. A. Allen Dissertation Prize for his dissertation, “STRUCTURES OF FEELING AT THE THRESHOLD OF ISLAM: THE MUKHAḌRAM IN ARABIC POETRY” in the Department of Middle East Languages and Cultures (MELC) under the direction of Prof.Janet Lee Stevens Fellowship Accepting Applicants
The Janet Lee Stevens Award will be given annually to two graduate students in Arabic and Islamic Studies who, in addition to showing exceptional merit in their academic performance, fulfill the spirit of the Award by working to improve relations with and understanding of the Arab world.
Events
Book Talk: Our American Israel: The Story of an Entangled Alliance
Written by Amy Kaplan, the late Edward W. Kane Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Her former colleagues and students will discuss the posthumously published work.
The Color Black: Enslavement and Erasure in Iran
Booktalk with Beeta Baghoolizadeh
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.