Dr. Harry Bastermajian

Harry Bastermajian is a historian of the modern Middle East and Executive Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Islamic Studies Program at Harvard University. He earned his B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Lake Forest College, an A.M. in Middle Eastern Studies, an A.M. in Islamic History, and a Ph.D. in Islamic History and Modern Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago.

His work explores the intersections of empire, identity, and migration in the eastern Mediterranean, with particular attention to minority communities in the late Ottoman and post-Ottoman periods. At Harvard, he leads initiatives that support research, teaching, and international collaboration in the study of Islam and the Middle East, fostering dialogue among scholars, students, and public audiences.

He also teaches courses on Middle Eastern history, government, and international relations at Harvard Extension School and supervises master’s thesis research. His current scholarly project draws on oral histories and family archives to examine the experiences of Armenian families in the interwar eastern Mediterranean and their migration to the United States, situating personal memory within the wider transformations that reshaped the region in the twentieth century.