Crown Center for Middle East Studies

06/03/2026

NEW BRIEF: Sportswashing or Statecraft? The Politics of Football in the Arab World

When Cristiano Ronaldo joined Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr in 2023, many dismissed the move as a superstar's lucrative final act. But as more international stars left Europe’s elite leagues for Saudi Arabia, his transfer came to signal a larger shift: the Arab world's move toward the center of global football.

In our latest Middle East Brief, Ibrahim Elhoudaiby argues that this transformation cannot be understood simply as a form of sportswashing—an attempt by oil-rich monarchies to launder their international reputations by hosting mega sports events. Drawing on cases from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Morocco, and Egypt, he shows how football has become an instrument of statecraft—an arena through which Arab states consolidate power, advance security and development agendas, and shape new political imaginaries.

Click here to read the full brief: https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/middle-east-briefs/meb169.html

05/08/2026

FALL COURSE: HIST/JOUR 163A: The Road to September 11th and Beyond: History and Media
Tues, Thurs 2:20-3:40 PM

This fall, Neil Swidey and Naghmeh Sohrabi return to co-teach HIST/JOUR 163A: The Road to September 11th and Beyond: History and Media. Co-taught by a history professor specializing in the modern Middle East and a journalism professor who extensively covered 9/11, this course aims to give students a fresh way for examining the history of this seminal event and the wars that followed it. It does that from both a Middle Eastern and U.S. perspective, and through the lenses of history and journalism/media
studies.

Students can register through Workday.

05/06/2026

NEW COURSE: SOC/IGS 119B Migration and Displacement in the Middle East
Mon, Wed 2:30-3:50 PM

This fall, Nihal Kayali teaches SOC/IGS 119B: Migration and Displacement in the Middle East. A Junior Research Fellow at the Crown Center and incoming Assistant Professor of Sociology at Brandeis University, Kayali explores how migration and displacement shape politics, belonging, and everyday life across the region.

This course examines migration and displacement in the modern Middle East from the late Ottoman period to the present. It explores how war, nation-state formation, citizenship regimes, and economic forces have shaped refugee movements, labor migration, and diasporas. Through regional case studies, the course analyzes how states manage mobility and difference, as well as how migrants and refugees navigate systems of governance and belonging.

Visit Workday to register.

05/04/2026

NEW BRIEF: Medical Tourism and Public Health Care in Turkey
By Nihal Kayali

Few places are more closely associated with medical tourism than Turkey. In 2022 alone, roughly one million people traveled there for hair transplants, spending an estimated $2 billion.

In our latest Middle East Brief, Nihal Kayali examines the rise of medical tourism in Turkey and its implications for the country’s universal health care system. She argues that the state’s promotion of medical tourism has intensified inequalities in access to care, as incentives to capture foreign-currency revenues have shifted investment, labor, and provider capacity away from domestic need. The result is a public health care system under growing strain, leaving citizens to contend with worsening access even as Turkey’s health care is marketed abroad.

Click here to read the full brief:https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/publications/middle-east-briefs/meb168.html

04/29/2026

On April 25, Nader Habibi, the Henry J. Leir Professor of the Economics of the Middle East, spoke with Al Jazeera regarding the impact of war on Iran's economy.

Click here to watch the full interview:

04/27/2026

THURSDAY: Understanding Syria: Past, Present, and Future:
A Crown Seminar with Daniel Neep, in conversation with Omar Dahi, on the occasion of the publication of Syria: A Modern History

Syria’s modern history is often explained through political polarization and communal conflict. Such accounts, however, tend to overlook another important dimension: the economic and geographical dynamics of uneven development. In this Crown Seminar celebrating the publication of his new book Syria: A Modern History, Daniel Neep shows how these inequalities have repeatedly fueled rebellion and repression—from Ottoman reforms and French rule to Baʿathist state-building, the 2011 uprising, and the Assad regime’s collapse in 2024. In conversation with Omar Dahi, Neep examines how the modern Syrian state was forged not only through sectarian politics, but through struggles over land, resources, and regional power, offering a new lens on Syria’s past and its political future.

Daniel Neep is a senior editor at Arab Center Washington DC and a non-resident fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies.
Omar Dahi is a professor of economics at Hampshire College.

Click here for more information and to register for virtual attendance: https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/events/2026/04-30.html

04/21/2026

FALL 2026 COURSE: POL 164A — Seminar: Arabs and Israelis: Conflict and Peacemaking

From the advent of Zionism and Arab nationalism in the late 19th century to October 7, 2023, the ensuing Gaza War, and the U.S.-Israel war with Iran earlier this year, this class will survey more than 125 years of conflict and peacemaking in the Middle East.

Uniquely, the class will look at the tumultuous events of this period through multiple prisms as it will be team-taught by three scholars – an Egyptian, a Palestinian, and an Israeli.

The purpose of the class is to sensitize students to the multiple narratives about the conflict as well as to provide a toolbox for analyzing the causes of the most important milestones in its history. It will be taught seminar-style with a high premium on student participation in class discussions and qualifies as a Brandeis Writing Intensive (WI) course.

Click here to learn more about this course and others taught by Crown Center faculty: https://www.brandeis.edu/crown/courses.html

04/20/2026

Fall 2026 Middle East Courses

Explore the Middle East this fall with Crown faculty across politics, sociology, history, architecture, and more. From peacemaking to migration to the historic foundations of modern Middle Eastern history our courses offer an exciting range of ways to dive in.

Swipe to see the full lineup.

04/14/2026

Tomorrow: Nuclear Security in Dangerous Times

Gary Samore, the Crown Family Director, will be speaking on a panel tomorrow organized by the Center for German and European Studies, discussing the growing role that nuclear weapons play in foreign policy and global conflicts. He will be joined by Mariana Budjeryn, and Karl-Heinz Kamp.

Wed., April 15, 2026
12:00 - 1:30 pm ET (US)
Hybrid (Zoom and In-Person Event)
Rapaporte Treasure Hall, Goldfarb Library, Brandeis University Campus

Click here for more information and to register for virtual attendance:

Co-sponsored by the Brandeis Department of Politics, the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, and the Brandeis International and Global Studies Program.

04/10/2026

For the last several weeks, the Strait of Hormuz has played a critical role in the U.S.-Israeli and Iran war.

Nader Habibi, the Henry J. Leir Professor of the Economics of the Middle East at the Crown Center, spoke about the global economic impacts of the war during a panel focused on the geopolitics of the Strait of Hormuz, organized by MIT Center for International Studies

Click here to watch the full discussion:

In a rapidly evolving region, gain clarity beyond the headlines.Panelists:Nader Habibi, Henry J. Leir Professor of Practice in the Economics of the Middle Ea...