The MES congratulates Ali G. Scotten (Chicago), winner of the 2007 Middle East Section Student Paper Prize. His paper, "Magic and the Inter-Communal Relations in Sasanian Iraq, was recognized by the committee for its originality and creativity in using archaeological data to understand social relations and ethnic identities.

The MES welcomes Frances Trix, Anne Meneley, Lynn Swartz Dodd, and Emilio Spadola to the Board of Directors. The MES would also like to thank Dawn Chatty, Sayed El-Aswad, Mitchell Rothman, and Andrew Gardner, who will be rotating off the Board, for their three years of service.

The MES announces its annual call for the MES Student Paper Prize. To encourage and reward high quality anthropological research on the Middle East, the sixth annual MES Student Paper Prize, which includes a cash award of $500, will be awarded at the 2006 AAA meetings in San Jose, CA.  Papers from current undergraduate or graduate students on any aspect of Middle East anthropology will be evaluated according to originality, significance, use of data, and quality of writing. Papers must be no longer than 7500 words and may not have been published by the time of submission. Interested students can submit proof of student status and either 3 paper copies or MS Word attachments to:

Professor Niloofar Haeri
Dept. of Anthropology
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD 21218

or email MS Word format attachments to Prof. Haeri at haeri@jhu.edu

Call for submissions deadline: May 31, 2006.

The MES announces its annual call for the MES Student Paper Prize. The MES encourages undergraduate and graduate students to submit papers for the annual MES Student Paper Prize. To encourage and reward high quality anthropological research on the Middle East, the fifth annual MES Student Paper Prize, which includes a cash award of $500, will be awarded at the 2005 AAA meetings in Washington, D.C. Papers from current undergraduate orgraduate students on any aspect of Midhttp://bmbb.academicwebpages.com/graduate/dle East anthropology will be evaluated according to originality, significance, use of data, and quality of writing. Papers must be no longer than 7500 words and may not have been published by the time of submission. Interested students can submit either 3 paper copies and proof of student status to:

Dan Bradburd, Dept. of Liberal Arts,
Box 5750, Clarkson University,
Potsdam NY 13699

or email MS Word or WordPerfect format attachments to: sheep@clarkson.edu

Call for submissions deadline: May 31, 2005.