Middle East Studies Center
Director: Lindsay Benstead, PhD
Outreach Coordinator: David M. Duke, II
Karl Miller Center, 660R
503-725-5467
www.pdx.edu/middle-east-studies
The mission of the Middle East Studies Center (MESC) is to serve our students, city, and world through the creation of a diverse, inclusive community and the promotion and sharing of scholarship on the Middle East, North Africa, and Southwest Asia. The Center started in 1959 as the first federally supported undergraduate program for Arabic language and Middle East area studies in the nation. Over the years, MESC expanded to include the major languages and other disciplines of the region. Today, Portland State’s Middle East studies curriculum includes foreign language courses in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish, as well as area studies courses in a number of disciplines. The Middle East studies program boasts a distinguished faculty and vast library resources. The Center serves as a resource on issues pertaining to the Middle East through activities that reach students and scholars, as well as businesses, educators, and the media. In addition, the Center supports academic conferences, workshops, cultural events, lectures, and a resource library.
The Center's core responsibilities are academic and outreach: to help sponsor conferences, speakers, training programs, and other relevant events and activities related to Middle East studies broadly defined. The Center further seeks to guide and train students who plan to make a career in this field. To support these initiatives, MESC closely works with academic and administrative units across campus. As an outgrowth of these core responsibilities, it also conducts outreach activities with local, national, and international educational and community organizations.
Please take a look at the various activities of our center on our web page and consider becoming a friend of MESC.