Middle East Centre

For specific enquiries please email:

• MEC Library (Librarian, Dr MariaLuisa Langella) | members of the University of Oxford can search for books to borrow through SOLO | Summer 2023 closure dates: 19 July to 27 August inclusive
• MEC Archive (Archivist, Debbie Usher)
• MEC Administration
• MEC Current events 
• MEC E-mailing list
• Tours of the Investcorp Building please visit the Investcorp Building page and register your interest in a tour | Tours take place normally on Tuesdays and are restricted to outside of the academic term because the building is an active research site for our students, Fellows and researchers
• MEC podcasts
• Please note that parking on site is limited

Since it’s establishment in 1957, the MEC has emerged as a premiere international institute for teaching, research and scholarly exchange on the modern Middle East in the University of Oxford, training over 1000 masters and doctoral students. Centre graduates have gone on to leadership positions in academia, diplomacy, public policy, journalism, finance and related fields. The MEC:

• promotes inter-disciplinary scholarship on Turkey, Iran, Israel and the Arab states of the Middle East and North Africa from the nineteenth century to the present day;

• serves as a bridge between Europe and the Middle East, encouraging the exchange of students and researchers from across the region;

• encourages informed debate and respect for divergent views on the contentious issues confronting the Middle East; Centre scholars contribute to debates in the press and public arenas and advise government to promote greater understanding of the Middle East;

• provides supervision, teaching and research support for masters and doctoral students in modern Middle Eastern studies; students come from around the work – from the UK and the rest of Europe, from all parts of the Middle East and Asia, and from the Americas.