Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

Laurie A. Brand

Laurie A. Brand is Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at the University of Southern California and chair of the Committee on Academic Freedom of the Middle East Studies Association.

Current Analysis

Defending Academic Freedom

Constraints on academic freedom or violations of it are not new in the Middle East and North Africa. Indeed, while there is certainly variation among the countries of the region, regime attempts to control what is studied, how it is studied, and what faculty and students may do and say both on and o

Laurie A. Brand • 3 min read

MER Article

Resettling, Reconstructing and Restor(y)ing

The old village of Umm Qays, Jordan, is strategically lo cated to the south of the Golan Heights, overlooking  the northern part of the Jordan Valley and the southern shore of Lake Tiberias. Biblical Gadara and subsequently one of the cities of the Decapolis in antiquity, it attracts modest numbers

Laurie A. Brand • 12 min read