The MESA Global Academy is an interdisciplinary initiative that sustains essential research collaborations and knowledge production among MENA-focused scholars from the Middle East and North Africa and their counterparts outside the region. By awarding competitive scholarships to displaced scholars from MENA currently in North America to attend meetings, workshops, and conferences, the project harnesses the strengths of MESA’s institutional and individual members to support the careers of individual researchers who study the Middle East and North Africa, but whose academic trajectory has been adversely affected by developments in their home countries.

Dirty Work—The Hidden Machinery and Human Toll of Europe’s Broken Recycling Trade
An illegal dump in Adana, Turkey in 2020. Plastic packaging from popular British supermarkets like Sainsbury's and French frozen food retailer Picard is ending up being dumped illegally in the Turkish countryside. (Yasin Akgul/AFP via Getty Images)
Migrant Workers

Dirty Work—The Hidden Machinery and Human Toll of Europe’s Broken Recycling Trade

Adnan Khan • 15 min read
'We Want to Breathe'—Dispatch from Gabes, Tunisia
Protesters carry placards and chant slogans as they march in the southern city of Gabes, Tunisia, on October 31, 2025, demanding the dismantling of the state-run phosphate processing plant. (Fethi Belaid/AFP via Getty Images)
Activism

'We Want to Breathe'—Dispatch from Gabes, Tunisia

Dhouha Djerbi • 8 min read