Professor Bernard Haykel has agreed to serve as the Director of the Program in Near Eastern Studies beginning July 1, 2017. Haykel succeeds Associate Professor Cyrus Schayegh in this position. Haykel's research is concerned with the political and social tensions that arise from questions about religious identity and authority. He is the author of Revival and Reform in Islam: The Legacy of Muhammad al-Shawkani (Cambridge University Press, 2003. He also directs the Institute for the Transregional Study of the Contemporary Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia.