Mejgan Massoumi

Mejgan Massoumi is Program Coordinator and Center Manager at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of California at Berkeley. Prior to joining Berkeley, Massoumi was Program Assistant for the Comparative Urban Studies Project at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She has conducted research and prepared publications for the U.S. Agency for International Development and the Woodrow Wilson Press. Her research interests include cities in comparative and historical perspective, urban poverty, and the interface between ethnicity and citizen representation in post 9/11 Afghanistan. Since 2006 Massoumi has been involved in a series of international meetings in Barcelona, Spain and Johannesburg, South Africa, with a working group of international specialists to advance knowledge about inclusive pluralism as an essential aspect of sustainable urban development. She is currently undertaking a research project to examine the urban processes by which religious movements transform into fundamentalist ones and ultimately shape urban life and urban form in cities across the world, and specifically in the Middle East. Massoumi has also worked for the Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, a non-profit organization specializing in conflict resolution, and for the Institute of Urban and Regional Development at the University of California at Berkeley. She completed her M.A. in City and Regional Planning with a focus in International Development at the University of California at Berkeley, 2005. She obtained a B.A. in Architecture from the University of California at Berkeley, 2003.

For general inquiries regarding the Interdisciplinary Lecture Series, newsletter, upcoming conferences and other special events sponsored by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, please contact Mejgan at (510) 642-8208 or by email at cmes@berkeley.edu