The Ritsumeikan Center for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (CMEIS), established in October 2019, is the first research center specializing Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at private universities in western Japan. The CMEIS is run by researchers with various academic background and specialties such as area studies, political science, IR, sociology, anthropology, history, and Islamic studies so that it can explore a new paradigm to analyze and understand the Middle East and Islam in the 21 century.