Title: CMES Administrator
Phone: 617-495-4056
Office Location: 38 Kirkland Street, 104
Biography: Since 1990, Alison has enjoyed working in a variety of international programs at Harvard: the English as a Second Language Program at the Division of Continuing Education, Harvard Institute for International Development, and most recently at the Kennedy School. While working in the Vietnam Program there, Alison travelled annually to Vietnam to interview candidates for the Fulbright Student Exchange. An avid traveller and foreign language learner, she hopes to find time to learn a bit of Turkish while at CMES. In her spare time, she sings with and serves on the board of Coro Allegro.
Title: Financial Associate
Phone: 617-495-8701
Office Location: 38 Kirkland Street, Room 105
Title: Islam in the West Program Assistant
Phone: 617-384-7606
Title: Outreach Curriculum Assistant
Office Location: 17 Sumner Road, 105
Biography: Jaclyn is a masters degree candidate in the Department of Religion, Islamic Studies Program at Boston University. She completed her undergraduate work at Harvard University's Extension School in the field of Middle Eastern Studies. Her research interests center on women's religious rituals and community building in Muslim India, specifically the Shi'i community of Hyderabad, India.
Title: Coordinator of Events and Alumni Relations
Phone: 617-495-1036
Office Location: 38 Kirkland Street, Room 108
Title: Director, Outreach Center
Office Location: 17 Sumner Road
Biography: Paul Beran received his MA in Political Science and PhD in International Public Policy from Northeastern University. He is a researcher, writer, and teacher on civil society in the Middle East region and the West, Middle East politics and democratization, and regional human rights and development. Paul has worked in public education on the Middle East region with Northeastern University, Bentley College, Teachers As Scholars, The Education Cooperative, the National Council on U.S. Arab Relations, the University of the Middle East Project, and others. In addition to teaching and researching, he has served as a consultant on global education and development programs in Jordan, Israel, the West Bank, Egypt, Sudan, and the United States. Paul has lived in the United States, Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Cairo, Egypt.
Title: CMES Director; Professor of Contemporary Arab Studies
Credentials: PhD University of Chicago, 1984
Phone: (617) 495-1886
Office Location: 38 Kirkland Street (101); William James Hall (348)
Academic Interests: Linguistics, cultural studies, Yemeni poetics and politics, gender, US men’s movement.
Title: Coordinator of Publications and Information Systems
Phone: 617-495-7809
Office Location: 38 Kirkland Street (103)
Biography: Summer oversees the website, publications, and various communications projects at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. She also coordinates reporting related to the Center’s designation as a Title VI National Resource Center.
Summer comes to CMES after nearly six years in educational publishing, working on textbook programs that ranged from middle school social studies to high-end technology. She graduated from Tulane University in New Orleans with a bachelor of arts in English literature and anthropology.
Title: Associate Director, and Director of the AM Program, CMES; Lecturer on Near Eastern Studies
Credentials: PhD Harvard University, 1997
Phone: (617) 495-7596
Office Location: 38 Kirkland, 110
Biography: Susan Kahn received her M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Harvard University. Her book, Reproducing Jews: A Cultural Account of Assisted Conception in Israel, was published in Fall 2000 by Duke University Press and won a National Jewish Book Award for the year 2000, as well as the 2001 Eileen Basker Memorial Prize, awarded by the Society of Medical Anthropology for outstanding research in gender and health. Her research interests include medical anthropology, kinship studies, Israel studies and anthropology of the Middle East. In addition to her administrative responsibilities, she is currently working on a research project about the relationship between people and dogs in the Land of Israel from ancient times to the present. Susan was born and raised in Cambridge, Mass.
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