The Middle East Research Group

The Middle East Research Group (MERG) is a collaborative research group studying the Middle East and North Africa. MERG is a non-polemical, student think-tank and outreach initiative devoted to producing dialogue, scholarship, and nuanced explorations of the region. The group is designed to cultivate future leaders and to inspire students to realize the powerful results of its multi-perspectival model of thinking and acting.

Founded as the New Initiative for Middle East Peace (NIMEP) in 2003, MERG works to foster understanding of the MENA region in the Tufts community through sharing the outcomes of its research projects and bringing various experts in fields such as political science, history, religion, art, journalism and humanitarian aid to campus. Topics for events held in the 2018-2019 year included conflict and intervention in Yemen, refugee settlement in Jordan, religion in North Africa and war photography in Iraq. MERG’s annual fact-finding trip provides its members an opportunity to conduct independent research in the MENA region. Past trips have been to Egypt, Iraqi Kurdistan, Israel/Palestine, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates.

MERG’s latest trip was to Morocco in Spring 2019. Students participating in the trip conducted interviews with a number of experts in the cities of Rabat, Fez, Tangier, Marrakesh and Casablanca on topics including migration trends in Morocco, youth disenchantment post-Arab Spring, Orientalism and Moroccan art, and the promotion of Sufism as a counter-extremism strategy.

Research from the yearly trip and the initiative culminate with the publication of MERG’s Insights journal, a research publication featuring the original work of Tufts students. Each volume of Insights is the culmination of months of research and preparation, carefully planned and executed fact-finding missions abroad, and immense dedication to discourse and learning on behalf of MERG’s members and supporters, who include Tufts faculty members, foreign government officials, and IGL alumni working in the field.

If you are interested in getting involved in one of NIMEP’s programs, please contact us at MERG@tufts.edu.

Alumni

Nicki Sobecki '08

Kenya - Nairobi

Nicki Sobecki is a freelance photographer and writer based in Nairobi, Kenya. Through her work, Nicki strives to document the consequences of war, poverty and social unrest.

Matan Chorev '05

United States - Washington, D.C.

Matan Chorev joined the US State Department in February 2013 as a speechwriter and special assistant in the Office of the Deputy Secretary of State. He previously served as a Foreign Service Officer at the U.S. Agency for International Development, Executive Director for the Future of National Security Project at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, and a Rosenthal Fellow at the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Policy Planning. Matan holds a BA from Tufts and a MALD from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Matt Edmundson '05

United States - New York, NY

Matt Edmundson participated in the EPIIC 2004 colloquium on Dilemmas of Empire and Nation Building and was active in NIMEP and [EXPOSURE]. He worked with RefugePoint (formerly Mapendo International) for four years before co-founding Violet Health, a social enterprise targeting anemia in mother and child during pregnancy.

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