The Middle East Studies Graduate Student Association (MESGSA) is an interdisciplinary group united by a shared scholarly interest in the Middle East and North Africa. Combining diverse humanities and social sciences backgrounds with regional expertise, the association aims to foster conversations among graduate students that are theoretically diverse and regionally focused.

The association offers opportunities for funding of paper workshops and reading groups, panels on fieldwork in the Middle East led by graduate students with experience conducting dissertation work across the Middle East and North Africa, and research travel. These gatherings serve to support and foster critical and engaged Brown student scholarship in the Middle East at the graduate level.

Affiliation Registration Form

Middle East Studies Graduate Student Association (MESGSA) Leader

Adel Ben Bella, a filmmaker and curator, is pursuing a Ph.D. in modern culture and media at Brown University. He holds a bachelor of arts in Lettres Modernes Spécialisées from Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV), and a master of fine arts in film directing from Columbia University. His work revolves around twentieth-century colonial and postcolonial Algeria, with a focus on activist and militant visual culture within the context of the Algerian Revolution and Algerian national identity formation.