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Welcome to M3, the newsletter for globally-connected faculty and researchers at MIT.
You are receiving this email because you have research interests in the Middle East and North Africa or have been a friend to MISTI or the Center for International Studies International Studies.
Please share this newsletter with others in the MIT community who might be interested in joining. They can sign up for the newsletter here. Thank you for being a part of our community!
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Greetings friends and colleagues,
We continue to face turbulent times in the MENA region, with painful echoes here on MIT’s campus in Cambridge. My sincere empathy is with everyone suffering near and far.
For a fresh perspective on peace building, MENA/MIT hosted a webinar, “Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the October 7th war, and its effects on cross-border bridge-building.” The talk featured the CEOs of three tech and entrepreneurship organizations that bring Israelis and Palestinians together to cultivate hard conversations, understanding, and leadership. The resulting dialogue affected me deeply—the recording is available here. Below we’ve included quotes from our speakers.
On May 13th, we are hosting a book talk with Professor Roger Petersen, whose book Death, Dominance, and State-Building: The US in Iraq and the Future of American Military Intervention came out in February. The book has changed my thinking about the Iraq war, and features the insights of several brilliant MIT PhDs in co-authored chapters. Please join us in person or on Zoom to celebrate and discuss this important book. Registration and more details are available here.
The MIT ethos is about making the world a better place, with mind and hand. In that same spirit, MENA/MIT hosts many programs, initiatives, and activities. We’d like to highlight some of our recent work with you in this newsletter.
Professor Rich Nielsen
MENA/MIT
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Peace-building insights for a time of war | |
As noted above, we hosted a talk with the CEOs of three tech and entrepreneurship organizations that bring Israelis and Palestinians together to cultivate hard conversations, understanding, and leadership. Below are a few quotes from our speakers. The recording is available here. | |
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Hela Lehar, CEO, Tech2Peace
“We are the ones who care about everyone. We are the ones that are experiencing all of the pain. I think that that calls for a different kind of bravery and a different kind of courage.”
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Lobna Agbaria, CEO, OGS
“When you act, you always take more risk. And that’s what entrepreneurship is all about. There is no big change without risk. You need to do what you can do. The fact that you are in dialogue with someone does not mean you do not have an identity. I can still be a very strong and proud Palestinian woman with heritage and political opinions that support the [sovereignty] of the Palestinian people and their freedom and listen and be in dialogue with an Israeli and be educated about their history and understand the complexities of our region. That will make me be a better leader for my society…”
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Yaniv Sagie, CEO, MEET
“We will develop the next generation leaders that will create change. This is our role…Students challenge reality by creating something new together…and develop their ability to partner for change.”
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MIT Global Seed Funds in MENA | |
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The MIT Global Seed Funds (GSF) program helps MIT faculty and principal investigators create new connections by supporting early-stage collaborations with researchers at peer institutions around the world. Administered by the Center for International Studies (CIS), the GSF program has awarded nearly $22 million to more than 1,000 faculty research projects since its inception in 2008. The next call for proposals is September 2024.
Below are the recently awarded MENA seed funds in Jordan and Israel:
Jordan seed funds
The MIT-Jordan Abdul Hameed Shoman Foundation Seed Fund supports new collaborations between faculty and research scientists at MIT and Jordan. We are excited to share that, this year, three new grants were awarded to MIT and Jordanian faculty from Philadelphia University, Al-Ahliyyah Amman University, and the University of Jordan. The projects included: Games and socially assistive robots for Arabic-speaking learners and refugees, innovations in smart fare card data processing for improving public transit planning and operations, and Sensor4Water pollutants.
Israel seed funds
With strong demand for the MIT-Israel seed funds, we are happy to announce that nine new grants were awarded to faculty across MIT. They will be collaborating with academic peers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Hebrew University, Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
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In 2023 we awarded our first grantees through the MIT Middle East seed fund.
This year, in collaboration with MITdesignX, we launched a new MIT student-engaged accelerator in Dubai. The accelerator was focused on climate and sustainability and included ventures from Egypt, India, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, the UK, and even Norway. Read the MIT news article about it here.
Stay tuned for more news on regional programming!
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MISTI Israel
Over the past several months the program has focused on serving as a bridge, anchored in science, technology, and entrepreneurship, between MIT and Israel. The program has set up MIT students to volunteer with Israeli startups, organized a talk on “Healthcare innovation in wartime” with MIT alum Avner Halperin (CEO of Sheba Impact), co-hosted an event with Israeli founder and CEO of Uber Freight and Lior Ron (co-organized with the MIT Israel Alliance) and MIT-Israel alumni on campus with Global Teaching Labs Israel host, Wasim Abu Salem, from Loop.
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MISTI MEET: Empowering Israelis and Palestinians
The mission of Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET) is to educate and empower tomorrow’s most promising Palestinian and Israeli leaders to help create positive social and political impact in the Middle East. Building on the success of the three year program, MEET is launching a new leadership program for MEET alumni called MEET Constellation. The aim of this year-long program is to support participants as change-making leaders in the Middle East who promote partnership and peace, and is based on a vision of a shared future. The first cohort of five Israelis and five Palestinians will be traveling to MIT in late May to participate in a two-week retreat alongside five MIT MISTI Middle East program alumni. There will be an open event on Wednesday, June 5th, on MIT campus. If you are interested in joining us, please send us an email.
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MISTI Arab World
We're thrilled to share that more than 20 enthusiastic MIT students will spend summer 2024 in Jordan, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
These students will have an opportunity to intern with companies and NGOs focused on renewable energy and sustainability, humanitarian aid, real estate, economic free zone park, and mentoring startups.
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These internships enable our students to enhance their professional skills while immersing themselves in the rich cultural tapestry of their host countries. Our team has been preparing this biggest cohort ever to gain a deep understanding of the region.
MISTI Arab World is grateful to all the hosting companies, local partners and supporters, for making this program a reality.
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MISTI Excellence Awards for alumni
of programs in the Middle East
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Kinan Martin to receive 2024 Suzanne Berger Future Global Leaders Award
Over the course of his undergraduate education, Kinan Martin (EECS M.eng, ’24) applied his expertise in foreign languages and AI computer science skills to two MISTI internships and two Global Teaching Labs experiences. His MISTI global experiences spanned South America (Chile), East Asia (Taiwan), Eurasia (Kazakhstan), and the Middle East (Jordan). Kinan quickly adapted to local conditions and excelled in his technical work while effortlessly performing the role of an MIT global “diplomat” in each of these regions. While Kinan was in Jordan he taught Python and web development to 18–35 year old Jordanians through MIT-Arab World Global Teaching Labs at INJAZ.
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Tatiana Vassiliev to receive 2024 MISTI Ambassador Award
Tatiana Vassiliev (EECS and Finance ’24) is a three-time MISTI participant with extraordinary curiosity, passion for international learning, and commitment to community service.
In Israel, she performed data analysis to further understand short-range correlations within the nucleus at Tel Aviv University. In Armenia, she taught VEX robotics to children, many of whom were from rural areas and had to travel two hours each day just to attend her workshops. In Germany, she co-led a mini-degree school in STEM introduced by an international software engineering company.
This ability to engage with diverse audiences and communicate the value of international education to other MIT students, donors, and hosts makes her an exceptional ambassador not just for our individual programs but for MISTI as a whole.
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Mini-course video available | |
For those of you that missed our mini-course “Israel, Palestine, Gaza before and after October 7: Understanding historical context and contrasting narratives” you can access the video here. Feel free to share this resource with others who may find it of interest. | | | | |
