TUNIS - The Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES) at Harvard University has opened its first overseas office in the new residential area of Berges du Lac in the Tunisian capital.



The office and year-round programmes run from the new office have been made possible by the support of Harvard alumnus and Tunisian financier Hazem Ben-Gacem, a statement from the university read. "From the beginning the hope has been to establish an outpost where Harvard faculty and students would come to discover Tunisia - its history, language, culture, art, and people - and integrate this experience into their scholarship and education," Ben-Gacem said. "I'm very excited by this first step towards a substantial Harvard presence in Tunisia," he added.



"The Middle East is a part of the world that you'll never fully understand unless you get your feet on the ground and experience it first-hand," said William Granara, CMES Director and Professor of Arabic. "Thanks to Hazem's generosity, Harvard students and scholars have greater resources to pursue in-depth field research and can more substantively engage in language and cultural immersion experiences," he continued. Founded in 1954, CMES has produced hundreds of graduates with expertise in the Middle East and North Africa region.



Its Tunisia office will provide students and scholars with a bridge to renowned Tunisian archival facilities, serve as an incubator for analysis of the evolving social, cultural, legal, and political movements in the region, and offer an intellectual hub for scholars of, and from, Tunisia, the Maghreb, the Mediterranean, and the wider Middle East region, the statement read. (ANSAmed)