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Council on Middle East Studies

Yale Center for International and Area Studies (YCIAS)
Luce Hall, 34 Hillhouse, Ste 232, 432.5596
www.yale.edu/ycias/cmes

Graduate Certificate of Concentration in Modern Middle East Studies

Chair
Abbas Amanat (History)

Professors
Abbas Amanat (History), Harold Attridge (Religious Studies), Gerhard Böwering (Religious Studies), Adela Yarbro Collins (Divinity), John J. Collins (Divinity), Owen Fiss (Law), Benjamin Foster (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations), Steven Fraade (Religious Studies), Beatrice Gruendler (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations), Dimitri Gutas (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations), Frank Hole (Anthropology), Stanley Insler (Linguistics), Bentley Layton (Religious Studies), Ivan Marcus (History), Ashgar Rastegar (Medical School), W. Michael Reisman (Law), Lamin Sanneh (History), Harvey Weiss (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations), Robert Wilson (Religious Studies)

Associate Professor
John Darnell (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations)

Assistant Professors
Frank Griffel (Religious Studies), Kaveh Khoshnood (Epidemiology & Public Health), Ellen Lust-Okar (Political Science), Hala Nassar (Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations)

Lecturer
Adel Allouche (History, Religious Studies)

Senior Lectors
Ayala Dvoretzky, Bassam Frangieh, Fereshteh Amanat-Kowssar

Lectors
Kahar Barat, Neta Stahl

Postdoctoral Associate
Rola el-Husseini (Sociology)

Librarians
Simon Samoeil (Sterling Memorial Library), Ulla Kasten (Babylonian Collection), Susan Matheson (Yale University Art Gallery Ancient Arts), Persian Bibliographer, TBA

Students with an interest in the Middle East should apply to one of the University's degree-granting departments, like Anthropology, History, Linguistics, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Political Science, or Religious Studies. The Council on Middle East Studies is part of the Yale Center for International and Area Studies. It has been organized to provide guidance to graduate students who desire to use the resources of the departments of the University that offer Middle East-related courses.

The council brings together faculty and students sharing an interest in the Middle East by sponsoring conferences, discussions, films, and a lecture series by scholars from Yale as well as visiting scholars. It provides information concerning grants, fellowships, research programs, and foreign study opportunities. It also administers research projects in a variety of Middle East-related areas.

In addition to the resources of the individual departments, Yale's library system has much to offer the student interested in Middle East Studies. Of particular note are the collections of Arabic and Persian manuscripts, as well as large holdings on the medieval and modern Middle East.

The Council on Middle East Studies administers the Middle East Studies National Resource Center at Yale. The Center supports a number of projects and activities, including postdoctoral and visiting scholar appointments, summer and academic year language fellowships, and an extensive outreach program as well as conferences, travel funds, and research projects. The National Resource Center is funded by the United States Department of Education.

As of the academic year 2004–2005, the council will be offering a Graduate Certificate of Concentration in Modern Middle East Studies. For general certificate guidelines, see the YCIAS section (under Research Institutes) in this bulletin.

The Graduate Certificate of Concentration in Modern Middle East Studies
The certificate represents acknowledgment of substantial preparation in Middle East Studies, both in the student's major graduate or professional field and also in terms of the disciplinary and geographical diversity required by the council for recognized competency in the field of Middle East Studies. As language and culture are the core of the area studies concept, students are required to attain or demonstrate language proficiency.

Requirements:

  1. Language proficiency: the equivalent of two years of study at a passing grade in one of the four languages of the Middle East—Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish.
  2. Course work: six graduate courses in at least two different disciplines. No more than four courses may count in any one discipline. Included in these six courses must be an introductory Middle East history course, such as State and Society and Culture in the Middle East (taken with special supplemental graduate readings and assignments).
  3. Interdisciplinary coverage: both courses and any research project undertaken in lieu of a course must reflect experience of at least two disciplines.
  4. Research: a major graduate course research paper, dissertation prospectus, dissertation, or thesis that demonstrates ability to use field resources, ideally in one or more languages of the region.

For more information on the Graduate Certificate and inquiries about Middle East studies, contact the Council on Middle East Studies, Yale University, PO Box 208206, New Haven CT 06520-8206, or the administrative assistant of the Council, Barbara Papacoda, e-mail, barbara.papacoda@yale.edu.

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