Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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issue 318

The Capture of Turkey’s Universities Under the AKP
Students at Istanbul University protest in support of Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, whose diploma was canceled and who was then detained on March 21, 2025. A banner and placards proclaim, “the university does not bow down” and “there is no liberation alone.” Berkman Ulutin/dia images via Getty Images
Academic Freedom

The Capture of Turkey’s Universities Under the AKP

How the AKP transformed an expanded university system into a terrain of political control.
Ayça Alemdaroğlu • 11 min read
Student Protest and the Politics of Palestine in Egypt
Egyptian students from Alexandria University take part in a demonstration, October 18, 2023, denouncing the killing of hundreds of Palestinians in an Israeli strike on a hospital in Gaza. Hazem Gouda/AFP via Getty Images
issue 318

Student Protest and the Politics of Palestine in Egypt

In October 2023, two weeks after Israel launched a brutal assault on Gaza, the Egyptian government permitted the first sizable protests in support of Palestine. At Benha University, about 30 miles north of Cairo in the Nile Delta, students and university administrators joined together in what the university described in
Sean Lee, Mostafa Hefny • 13 min read
The Palestine Test for German Universities
Police at the Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) on May 7, 2024, cordon off students as they demonstrate against Israel's war in Gaza and the university dismantles their protest tent camp in a campus courtyard. Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

The Palestine Test for German Universities

In February 2025, Freie Universität Berlin (FUB) cancelled a planned lecture by Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967. The university cited polarization and security risks after intense political pressure from Berlin’s governing mayor and several pro-Israel advocacy groups. To
Jannis Julien Grimm, Lilian Mauthofer • 14 min read
After the Encampments—A Roundtable with Student Organizers on Palestine, the University and What Comes Next
Students gather for a pro-Palestinian rally, and to protest against their university president Minouche Shafik, on Low Steps at Columbia University, NYC, January 19, 2024. Gabriella Raine Gregor-Splaver
Academic Freedom

After the Encampments—A Roundtable with Student Organizers on Palestine, the University and What Comes Next

For issue 318, Campus Politics—Palestine and the New University Order, MERIP editorial committee member Maya Wind organized a roundtable with six student activists representing five student collectives from Europe and the United States: Marilù with Collettivi Autorganizzati Universitari (Italy); Marie with Stop Academic Complicity Collective (France); Aesop with KCL
Maya Wind, Students from Collettivi Autorganizzati Universitari (Italy), Stop Academic Complicity Collective (France), KCL Stands for Justice (UK), UCI Rank and File (USA), Academic Opposition (Germany) • 17 min read
‘The University Is a Site of Struggle’—A Roundtable with Faculty Organizers on Repression and Resistance on US Campuses
UCLA faculty join student protesters in support of Palestine, April 29, 2024. David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images
Academic Freedom

‘The University Is a Site of Struggle’—A Roundtable with Faculty Organizers on Repression and Resistance on US Campuses

As part of MER issue 318, Campus Politics—Palestine and the New University Order, MERIP editor Lisa Hajjar organized a roundtable with faculty organizers and a legal advocate. Lara Deeb is professor of Anthropology and Middle East Studies at Scripps College and serves as co-chair of the Middle East Studies
Lisa Hajjar, Lara Deeb, Darryl Li, Andrew Ross, Meera Shah • 23 min read
Censorship and Surveillance at US Universities
Protesters march from City College to Columbia University April 25, 2025, in New York City, demanding an end to cuts in university funding and an end to ICE enforcement. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Academic Freedom

Censorship and Surveillance at US Universities

The night before the start of the Fall 2025 semester, facilities workers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill quietly boarded up a pro-Palestine mural. The mural, created by art students, was composed of prints bearing slogans of solidarity such as “We keep us safe.” Its black and
Torin Monahan • 10 min read