Below is a list of essential readings and documentaries about the region, as well as a listing of institutes and organizations dedicated to studying or serving the populations of the Middle East and North Africa and its diasporas. The lists are subject to periodic updates.

Reading Materials and Documentaries

Israel/Palestine

Joel Beinin and Lisa Hajjar, Primer on Palestine-Israel

Nur Masalha, Palestine: A Four Thousand Year History

Rashid Khalidi, The Hundred Years' War on Palestine

Rashid Khalidi, The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood

Virginia Tilley, Beyond Occupation: Apartheid, Colonialism and International Law in the Occupied Palestinian Territories

Ilan Pappe, The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

Edward Said, The Question of Palestine

Tareq Baconi, Hamas Contained: The Rise and Pacification of Palestinian Resistance

International Court of Justice Case Summary, July 2024

Documentary, 1948: Creation and Catastrophe

Documentary, Tantura

Documentary, The Gatekeepers

Documentary, The Settlers

Iran

Abbas Amanat, Iran: A Modern History

John Ghazvinian, America and Iran: A History, 1720s to the Present

Nazanin Shahrokni, Women in Place: The Politics of Gender Segregation in Iran

Janet Afary, Sexual Politics in Modern Iran

Ervand Abrahamian, A History of Modern Iran

Eskandar Sadeghi-Boroujerdi, Revolution and Its Discontents: Political Thought and Reform in Iran

Reza Zia-Ebrahimi, The Emergence of Iranian Nationalism: Race and the Politics of Dislocation

Lois Beck and Guity Nashat, Women in Iran from 1800 to the Islamic Revolution

Afsaneh Najmabadi, Women With Mustaches and Men Without Beards: Gender and Sexual Anxieties of Iranian Modernity

Documentary, Inside the Iranian Uprising (PBS Frontline)

Documentary, Decadence and Downfall in Iran: The Greatest Party in History

Cultural, Social, and Civic Organizations

House of Iran Center for Art & Culture
Iran Heritage Foundation
Iranian American Society
Pars Equality Center
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute

Afghan American Cultural Center Facebook Group
Afghan Community in Sacramento California Facebook Page
Afghan Health Initiative
Afghans in California Facebook Page

American Kurdish Assocation Facebook Page
Kurdish Policy Research Center

Iraqi American Society Facebook Page

Arab America
Arab American Civic Council
Arab American Cultural Center of Silicon Valley
Arab Community Center for Integration Services
Arab Cultural & Community Center
Arab Resource & Organizing Center
Zawaya

Academic Organizations and Institutes

American Institute of Iranian Studies (Simorgh)
Association for Iranian Studies
Foundation for Iranian Studies
Iran Nameh
MIHAN: Modern Iranian History Academic Network
San Francisco State University: Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies
Stanford University: Hamid and Christina Moghaddam Program in Iranian Studies
University of Arizona: Roshan Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Persian & Iranian Studies
University of St. Andrews: Institute of Iranian Studies

CSU San Bernardino: Center for the Study of Muslim and Arab Worlds
Georgetown University: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
University of Michigan, Dearborn: Center for Arab American Studies

Brown University: Palestinian Studies
Columbia University: Center for Palestine Studies
Institute for Palestine Studies

Brown University: Center for Middle East Studies
Middle East Studies Association
Middle East Institute
UC Berkeley: Center for Middle Eastern Studies
UC Davis: Middle East/South Asia Studies
University of Arizona: School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies
University of Michigan: Middle East Studies

Centre for Lebanese Studies

Language Programs

University of Texas at Austin: Online Persian Program

Princeton University: Persian Language Studies

University of Michigan: Language Programs

Professional Organizations

Afghan American Women's Collective

Iranian American Women Foundation

Society of Iranian-American Women for Education