Harvard Dismisses Leaders of Center for Middle Eastern Studies

Updated March 28, 2025, at 6:02 p.m.

Interim Harvard Dean of Social Science David M. Cutler ’87 dismissed the faculty leaders of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies on Wednesday, according to a faculty member familiar with the situation — a dramatic shakeup at a center that has come under fire for its programming on Israel and Palestine.

The CMES’ director, professor of Turkish Studies Cemal Kafadar, and its associate director, History professor Rosie Bsheer, were both forced to leave their posts, according to the faculty member.

Global Health professor Salmaan A. Keshavjee — the center’s interim director while Kafadar was on leave — will continue to hold his post.

The departures come after the CMES has repeatedly faced public criticism from Harvard affiliates who have alleged that some of the center’s programming has been antisemitic and has failed to represent Israeli perspectives.

Amid a mounting pressure campaign by the Trump administration, Harvard’s peers have begun shuttering or overhauling programs that the White House says require supervision. At Columbia University, where the Trump administration announced $400 million in federal funding cuts, administrators acceded to White House demands to place the school’s Middle Eastern studies programs under closer administrative supervision.

Cutler announced in an email to some center affiliates, which was obtained by The Crimson, that Kafadar would depart from his CMES directorship 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 value your thoughts on who, in addition to intellectual leadership and a compelling vision for the Center, would also bring the necessary administrative skills to be successful in this crucial role,” Cutler wrote.

Cutler’s email did not give a reason for Kafadar’s departure. Bsheer was not named in the email.

A spokesperson for the Faculty of Arts and Sciences declined to comment. Bsheer, Keshavjee, and Kafadar also did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday afternoon.

The apparent firings are an especially notable move from Cutler, an economist who is only expected to hold the Social Science divisional deanship for one semester while Dean Lawrence D. Bobo is on leave.

Kafadar is on leave for the 2024-2025 academic year. Keshavjee, who is also affiliated with the Anthropology department and is Adams House faculty dean, has served as the center’s interim director in his absence.

In recent days, Harvard has moved to publicly distance itself from programs that have come under fire for alleged antisemitism or for affiliates’ criticism of Israel. The Harvard School of Public Health recently suspended its research partnership with Birzeit University in the West Bank, yielding to repeated demands to break ties with the institution.

Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers wrote in a March post on X that a February panel at CMES about “Israel’s war in Lebanon” was “very likely” antisemitic under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which Harvard adopted as part of a settlement agreement in January.

A report from the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, an alumni advocacy group, in May accused the CMES of demonizing Israel as the “last remaining colonial settler power embodying the world’s worst evils: racism, apartheid, and genocide.”

The report accused the CMES of disproportionately focusing on the Israel-Palestine conflict relative to other regions or issues. It included a laundry list of events that the report’s authors deemed suspicious, unbalanced, or objectionable. One student, quoted anonymously in the report, singled out Kafadar for expressing pro-Palestine views to his students.

Kafadar and Bsheer will remain in their faculty positions.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Correction: March 28, 2025

A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that Global Health professor Salmaan A. Keshavjee had left the Center for Middle Eastern Studies’ interim directorship. In fact, Keshavjee will remain in his interim position through the end of the semester.

—Staff writer William C. Mao can be reached at william.mao@thecrimson.com. Follow him on X @williamcmao.

—Staff writer Veronica H. Paulus can be reached at veronica.paulus@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @VeronicaHPaulus.