2023 Middle East Studies Graduation and Awards Ceremony

The George G. Cameron Award in Near Eastern Studies honors George G. Cameron, the "founding father" of the Department of Near Eastern Studies, predecessor of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies. This award recognizes a graduating senior in the Middle East Studies department who has an academic record of excellence within the program. Professor Katherine Davis presented the award to Nayiri Sagherian. Excelling in critical analysis and driving class discussions with a wealth of knowledge about the Middle East from a whole range of MES courses, Nayiri is decribed as a fundamentally curious person by her professors. In the spirit of George Cameron himself, Nayiri is a truly interdisciplinary thinker, and the department could not have picked a more deserving individual for this award.

The department honors these two people and the mentorship bond they formed with the Shukran Kamal and Julia Segall-Derfler Memorial Award for a student who has shown great diligence in Arabic or Hebrew language with an interest in using their language skills in a career focused on translation. The 2023 recipient was Elizabeth Tower, who graduated this Winter term with Honors in International Studies with an emphasis in Comparitive Culture and Identity, and a minor in Religion. Elizabeth's interest in language translation comes from her research interests, which include resistance art and modern cultural productions in the Middle East in artforms like literature, poetry, music, film and visual art. Elizabeth will continue studying these topics next year, when she pursues an MSc in Modern Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oxford, on the Arabic Language Track.

The department has had a longstanding and important relationship with the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies. MCECS promotes the teaching of Christian origins within its early Jewish context at the University of Michigan. Thanks to the members of the board of directors, MCECS has created an award to recognize especially talented undergraduate students at the University in the field of early Christianity.

Dr. Gary Beckman presented the Michigan Center for Early Christian Studies Harrold J. Ellens Undergraduate Study Award to Ella Mannino, a second-year student double majoring in Middle East Studies and International Studies. Ella is a second-time recipient of this award, and has been excelling for the past two years in the MES courses she has taken focusing on Christianity. Her commitment to and excellence in the study of Christianity is reflected in her essay "An Examination of Christianity in Ramallah" which she recieved the rare A+ grade in Dr. Yaron Eliav's MIDEAST 207 course. In this essay, Ella was able to explore the ties of Ramallah's Christian communities both within the ancient narrative of Christianity and with the more modern discourse of resistance amongst Palestinians. Dr. Eliav described her essay as an exemplary work of research and thought that warrants the MCECS Harrold J. Ellens Undergraduate Study Award.