Middle East Centre

Since its establishment in 1957, the Middle East Centre (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 has world class facilities for research in the MEC Library and the MEC Archive.

The Middle East Centre:

• 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.

Contact us: 

The Middle East Centre is located in the Kirdar Building at 68 Woodstock Road and the adjacent Investcorp Building (entrance via St Antony’s College main entrance at 62 Woodstock Road), Oxford OX2 6JF.

Tel: +44 (0)1865 284780
Email: mec@sant.ox.ac.uk

For enquiries about the MEC Library and MEC Preloved Books Sale, please email the Librarian, Zahra Javidi, at meclibrary@sant.ox.ac.uk.

For enquiries about the MEC Archive, please email the Archivist, Debbie Usher, at mecarchive@sant.ox.ac.uk.

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Sign up with your email address below to receive our e-newsletter. This weekly bulletin goes out every Friday during term time with news of upcoming events at the MEC, as well as notices from Oxford and beyond that may be of interest.

This e-newsletter is circulated through MailChimp. We will not share your contact details with third parties. You can unsubscribe from our mailing list at any time via the link at the bottom of every newsletter email, or by contacting the Administrator, Jennie Williams, at mec@sant.ox.ac.uk.