Lauren Groulx

Beyond the Headlines: MES 1.01, Introduction to Middle Eastern Studies

While reflecting on my spring term on campus and sharing stories with my family and friends at home, I keep finding myself coming back to one class: MES 1.01, Introduction to Middle Eastern Studies.

I was excited for the class before it began, purposely saving my "Non-Western" distributive requirement for a term where it was offered. I had heard great things from some of my Middle Eastern studies major friends, and by the time the first lecture rolled around, I was genuinely looking forward to it.

After my friend Jacob got back from his Middle Eastern Studies program abroad in Morocco, we got together to swap stories and souvenirs!

Even though MES 1.01 was one of my largest classes at Dartmouth so far, with around fifty students, the classroom felt welcoming every Tuesday and Thursday. We examined primary materials ranging from poems to bank notes to Instagram posts, each offering a new angle on whatever topic we were discussing—and helping me draw connections from early Islamic empires to the modern day. The variety also kept me curious and engaged, because I was never quite sure what would pop up on the next slide!

I especially appreciated the care Professor Jonathan Smolin took to present multiple sides of every story, regardless of what preconceptions were brought into the room. He challenged us to think beyond the headlines and resist easy conclusions in a way that still made raising your hand or sharing an idea feel approachable. Through open-ended questions and discussions, I found myself articulating—and often rethinking—positions I hadn't realized I held.

My first academic encounter with the Middle East came from studying ancient Egypt in my Classics courses

Another element I really enjoyed was the opportunity to attend lectures beyond class time. Throughout the term, I heard from Greg Lukianoff, president and CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression; Kim Ghattas, a Lebanese journalist and visiting lecturer; Bart Cornelissen, a strategy leader at the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company; and Paul Heck, a professor of Islamic studies at Georgetown. Hearing from such a range of voices added depth to the course material and made clear that the questions we were asking in that classroom were very much alive outside it.

All spring, I looked forward to my MES class, and I said more than once that if I had more time at Dartmouth, I'd definitely take more courses in this department. If you're looking to get the most out of a distributive requirement, I can't think of a better course to recommend.