Updated on March 28, 2025 at 6:02 p.m.
On Wednesday, the dean of social science of social science in social sciences David M. Cutler ’87 rejected the leaders of the Center for Studies of the Middle East, according to a member of the familiar faculty with the situation – a spectacular reshuffle in a center which was criticized for its programming on Israel and Palestine.
The director of the CMES, professor of Turkish studies CEMAL KAFADAR, and its associate director, the professor of history Rosie BSHEER, were both forced to leave their posts, according to the member of the faculty.
The World Professor of Health Salmaan A. Keshavjee – The interim director of the center, while Kafadar was on leave – will continue to keep his post.
Departures come after the ICTS has faced public criticism of the Harvard affiliates on several occasions which alleged that certain programs in the center were anti -Semites and did not represent the Israeli perspectives.
In the midst of a growing Trump administration campaign, Harvard peers began to close or revise the programs which, according to the White House, require supervision. At the University of Columbia, where the Trump administration announced $ 400 million in federal funding discounts, the administrators admitted requests from the White Chamber to place the school’s study programs under a closer administrative supervision.
Cutler announced in an email to certain affiliates of the center, which was obtained by Crimson, that Kafadar would deviate from his CMES management at the end of the year. Cutler thanked Kafadar for his work at CMES before asking colleagues to suggest potential candidates for future leadership by April 16.
“I would appreciate your reflections on which, in addition to intellectual leadership and a convincing vision of the center, would also bring the administrative skills necessary to succeed in this crucial role,” wrote Cutler.
Cutler’s email did not give a reason for the departure of Kafadar. Bsheer was not appointed in the email.
A spokesperson for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences refused to comment. Bsheer, Keshavjee and Kafadar did not immediately respond to requests for comments on Friday afternoon.
Apparent layoffs are a particularly notable decision of Cutler, an economist who should not hold the dean of the social science division for a semester while Dean Lawrence D. Bobo is on leave.
Kafadar is on leave for the academic year 2024-2025. Keshavjee, which is also affiliated with the department of anthropology and is the dean of the Faculty of Adams House, was acting director of the center in its absence.
In recent days, Harvard has publicly moved programs that have been criticized for alleged anti -Semitism or for the criticism of affiliates with regard to Israel. The Harvard School of Public Health recently suspended its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank, which gives repeated requests to break links with the institution.
The former president of Harvard, Lawrence H. Summers, wrote in a Mars article on X that a February panel at the ICT on the “War of Israel in Lebanon” was “most likely” anti -Semitic by virtue of the international definition of the Alliance of the Alliance of the Souvenir of the Holocaust in January.
A report by the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, a defense group of the elders, in May, accused the CME of demonizing Israel as the “last colonial power remaining playing the worst ills of the world: racism, apartheid and genocide”.
The report accused the CME of concentrating disproportionately on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict compared to other regions or problems. It included a list of laundry events that the authors of the report deemed suspect, unbalanced or reprehensible. A student, anonymously quoted in the report, distinguished Kafadar for having expressed his pro-Palestine opinions to his students.
Kafadar and Bsheer will remain in their faculty posts.
This is a story in development and will be updated.
Correction: March 28, 2025
A previous version of this story wrongly indicated that the World Professor of Health Salmaan A. Keshavjee had left the interim management of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. In fact, Keshavjee will remain in its interim position until the end of the semester.
—The writer William C. Mao is contacted at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on x @williamcmao.
—The writer of the Veronica H. Paulus can be contacted in Veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow it on X @@Veronicahpaulus.
