Dear Alumni and Friends,

From the global pandemic that sent us all working remotely, to the summer of protests and the historic election, this certainly has been an intense and interesting year. With a new president and the distribution of the vaccine in sight, perhaps everyone will rest a little better.

We moved all classes and institute operations online in March, and one upshot of this change is the increase in students participating in virtual online foreign language study at prestigious US institutions over the summer. In September, we welcomed Professor Marc Lynch back as Program Director of the Middle East Studies Program, and we also welcomed a few new student staff members: Carla Dell’ Angelica joined us as the new Program Assistant, and Karisa Gingerich joined us as our Social Media Assistant. Keep an eye out for exciting new content on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

In terms of the IMES virtual lecture series, we had a terrific summer and fall, and I encourage you to check out the great line up we have for the spring, including scholars who are based in far away places that we have a hard time bringing to GW in person. Another positive thing to come out of the move to online has been our ability to reach a wider audience for events, including our workshop series for advanced graduate students. We also received an overwhelming response from alumni to participate in the Alumni Mentoring Program. Thank you all for your continued support of and connectedness to the Institute.

I welcome you to check out the rest of the newsletter for profiles of the exciting work being done by faculty, fellow alumni and visiting scholars. Wishing everyone a happy holiday season. Stay safe and be well, and we look forward to connecting with you in the coming year.

Mona Atia

Director, IMES