Cultural and Linguistic Studies in Tunisia

The Tunis office enables Harvard University faculty and students to pursue in-depth research and academic programming in the Middle East and North Africa.

Creating Opportunities for Immersive Learning

For more than six decades, the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at Harvard University (CMES) has educated hundreds of students through an interdisciplinary approach to research and teaching on Middle Eastern languages, politics, cultures, and histories. The office in Tunis enables CMES to advance its mission, meet a growing demand for experiential learning opportunities, and educate the next generation of scholars through direct engagement.

The office was made possible by a gift from an alumnus and provides CMES with an important physical presence in the region. Its local coordinator and staff work closely with the CMES faculty director, Cemal Kafadar, and executive director, Lauren Montague, to guide its activities.

The office serves as a regional hub for:

Educational programming, including summer and January-term study abroad
Research programming, including faculty sabbaticals and local archival work
Promoting scholarly exchange and diverse global perspectives
Dissemination of research and knowledge

Harvard Global Services in Tunisia

This project operates under Harvard Global Research and Support Services, Inc. – Tunisia, which is a local branch of our U.S. organization. As a registered foreign association, we're able to support a variety of activities and services across Tunisia.

For CMES, we provide our standard suite of services for office administration and employment, as well as undertake work unique to this project, including registering our first branch of Harvard Global U.S.