Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University

Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University

Centrum för Mellanösternstudier vid Lunds Universitet
Type	Public
Established	2007
Endowment	54+ million SEK (2009)
Director	Leif Stenberg
Administrative staff	ca. 20
Students	32
Location	Lund, Scania, Sweden
Affiliations	Gulf Research Center Zayed University Yale University Centre for Syrian Studies at University of St Andrews
Website	http://www.cmes.lu.se

The center for MIddle Eastern studies (CMES) was founded in 2007 on behalf of a new effort to conduct and coordinate research on the Middle East within Lund University. SInce Lund University's foundation in 1666 Islamology and semitic languages (linguarum orientalium) have been taught, but no coordinated effort to focus research existed. In 2007 the center was inaugurated by Jordanian Price Hassan bin Talal and has since hosted internationally renowned scholars like Robert Fisk, Darius Rejali, Aaron David Miller, and Naomi Sakr.

CMES functions both as an international hub for multidisciplinary research and an academic department, holding courses, open seminars and movie screenings that are attended by experts in their fields. The four core structures of CMES are:

Visiting Researchers:

The MA program ran its first cycle during the fall of 2010. It is a two year (four-semester), program that offers a wide range of specialization within Middle Eastern Studies. The first semester is composed of compulsory courses in basic theory and multidisciplinary studies in relation to the Middle East. The second semester covers a wide range of elective courses (such as political structures, media, sociology, hydro-politics, and Islam) offering the students the possibility to focus their studies according to their interests. The third semester is an internship semester where the students are given the possibility to study at a different university like the American University in Beirut or intern somewhere in the Middle East. The fourth semester is composed of courses and work related to the MA thesis.

During the four semesters, students are offered Arabic classes in preparation for the third semester. Turkish and Persian language classes are also given. In addition to the language classes, several of the research projects (as well as the center itself) offer various types of internships, during the academic year of 2010-2011 about 10 internships were filled by the students of the MA program.

Students are also offered a subsidized membership in The Association of Foreign Affairs - UPF to help them engage in the student life of Lund.

CMES has four general research directions, which are funded by the Swedish Research Council under the 'umbrella' project "The Middle East in the Contemporary World". A number of projects exist within the four major research domains.