Middle East Studies Association

Learned society

Middle East Studies Association (often referred to as MESA) is a learned society, and according to its website, "a non profit association that fosters the study of the Middle East, promotes high standards of scholarship and teaching, and encourages public understanding of the region and its peoples through programs, publications and services that enhance education, further intellectual exchange, recognize professional distinction, and defend academic freedom". Critics have accused MESA of politicization and being dominated by academics critical of Israel and of America. In 2007, the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa was founded as an ideological counterweight to MESA.

MESA was founded in 1966 with 51 original members. Its current membership exceeds 2,700 and it "serves as an umbrella organization for more than fifty institutional members and thirty six affiliated organizations". It is a constituent society of the American Council of Learned Societies and the National Council of Area Studies Associations, and a member of the National Humanities Alliance.

The current president is Eve Troutt Powell, University of Pennsylvania.

The International Journal of Middle East Studies (IJMES) is a quarterly journal published by Cambridge University Press under the auspices of MESA. The editor is Joel Gordon of University of Arkansas. The Review of Middle East Studies (RoMES) is MESA's journal of review. MESA policy has established the focus of RoMES as the state of the craft in all fields of Middle East studies. The Editor is Heather Ferguson and the journal is based at Claremont McKenna College. MESA has a very active Committee on Academic Freedom (CAF) that has two wings: CAFMENA (Middle East and North Africa, established in 1990) and CAFNA (North America, established in 2005). Through CAF, MESA monitors infringements on academic freedom on the Middle East and North Africa worldwide.

In 2007, Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami started Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA) as a rival to MESA, as they saw MESA as "dominated by academics who have been critical of Israel and of America's role in the Middle East." In mid March 2022, MESA voted by a margin of 787 to 167 to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement to hold Israel to account for alleged human rights abuses against the Palestinians. MESA's decision was criticised by the Academic Engagement Network, the AMCHA Initiative, and ASMEA.