Week of February 17, 2026

How Jewish Was James Sanua?

Wednesday, February 18, 2026 / 12-1:30pm / Via Zoom: Register here

Raphael Cormack, Assistant Professor, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, Durham University, UK, in conversation with Jessica Marglin, Professor of Religion Law and History, USC, and Visiting Professor, NELC, Harvard, and Adam Mestyan, Ford Foundation Professor of Middle Eastern Studies, NELC, Harvard

Co-sponsored with: Center for Jewish Studies; Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations

Contact: Maura Gold

MIDDLE EAST SEMINAR

China and the Asymmetric Great Power Competition in the Middle East

Thursday, February 26, 2026 / 4:30-6pm / CGIS Knafel 262, 1737 Cambridge St, Cambridge

Gangzhen She, Visiting Scholar, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs; Director, Center for Overseas Security and Associate Professor Department of International Relations, Tsinghua University, China. Discussant: Robert Ross, Professor of Political Science, Boston University; Associate, Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University

Co-sponsored with: Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Contact: Liz Flanagan

MEDIEVAL MIDDLE EAST

Agents of Peace, Ministers of the Holy: Soldiers as Ritual Experts in the Early Medieval Middle East

Tuesday, March 3, 2026 / 5:30-7pm / Barker Center, Thompson Room,12 Quincy St, Cambridge

Reyhan Durmaz, Associate Professor of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania; Fellow in Byzantine Studies 2025-26, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection

Co-sponsored with: Standing Committee on Medieval Studies

Contact: Liz Flanagan

• February 19: Delivering Relief: Water Trucks and the Negotiations of a "Cut-Off" Life in Contemporary Lebanon (Department of Anthropology)
• February 19: Harvard's Safavid Multi-Text Compendium: The Codex as a Communal Gathering of Riddles (Harvard AKPIA)