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Founded in 1841, the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations offered the first formal program of study in Near Eastern languages in the United States. Early department faculty, such as Edward Salisbury, produced the first American scholarly studies on Arabic and Islam, cuneiform studies, and Semitic epigraphy, and founded and edited the first professional journal in America devoted to Oriental Studies.

Other department faculty of the later nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, such as William Dwight Whitney, Charles Foster Kent, and William Rainey Harper, were leaders in the creation of American philology, linguistics, and Sanskrit studies, and pioneered modern undergraduate and graduate instruction in the language and literature of biblical Hebrew and the history of Judaism. Charles C. Torrey, professor of Arabic and Semitic languages, founded the first American school for research in the Near East, at Jerusalem, and directed the Jerusalem school's first archaeological excavation in 1900, as well as editing the first major text in Classical Arabic published in the United States. More recent faculty, including the Egyptologists Ludlow Bull and William Kelly Simpson; the Assyriologists Albert T. Clay, Raymond Dougherty, Albrecht Goetze, William W. Hallo, and Ferris Stephens; the Semitists Julian Obermann and Marvin Pope; and the Semitist and Arabist Franz Rosenthal, have made Yale one of the world's leading centers for the study of the Near East.

Throughout its long history, the Department's mission has expanded to include Assyriology, Egyptology, the archaeology of Western Asia, Northwest Semitic and Ugaritic studies, Hittitology, and the contemporary Near East. The Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations today maintains its strong sense of traditional humanist values, as well as its outstanding leadership in developing and evaluating new techniques, perspectives, and resources for study of the Near East.

The graduate program of the Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations has emphasized reflective scholarship based on sound knowledge of the languages, civilizations, and material cultures of the Near East. The Department's main faculty strength today is in the areas of Arabic and Islamic Studies and Graeco-Arabic Studies; Assyriology, including Sumerian and Akkadian; and Egyptology, though other programs can be developed on an individual basis, sometimes in collaboration with other departments and programs, such as Anthropology, History, Medieval Studies, and Religious Studies. The Department maintains archaeological field projects in Syria and Egypt in which graduate students may be invited to participate.

The Department regularly sponsors lectures, colloquia, and presentations by scholars from around the world, as well as special events. In recent years, the Department has also organized and hosted two major international conferences, with associated exhibitions in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library and Sterling Memorial Library.

Under the auspices of the Department, the Yale Egyptological Institute in Egypt was founded in 2005.

The NELC Roundtable offers students an opportunity to rehearse public speaking about work in progress and receive feedback from faculty and peers in an informal atmosphere.

The Yale Arabic Colloquium (YAC) brings together each month all students and faculty at Yale whose academic work involves Arabic – including Religious Studies, Medieval Studies, Comparative Literature, and Anthropology – to discuss their work in conversation. Presenters alternate between advanced graduate students and new or visiting faculty. The Yale Arabic Poetry Group was inaugurated in 2004.

The Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations encourages applications from highly motivated and qualified students who prefer small classes and a course of instruction built around their individual needs and interests, and who are prepared to undertake a program of study entailing more coursework than is the norm for other graduate programs in the humanities: three full years, or twenty-four term courses, before qualifying for candidacy for the doctorate. The Department aspires to train contributing scholars and teachers in its several fields. Over 80% of our alumni today are employed or professionally active in their chosen disciplines, far higher than average in American graduate education. Graduates of the Department hold important positions in colleges, universities, and museums throughout the United States and the world; many others who have followed different career paths remain productive scholars with our continuing encouragement and support. In addition to scholarly training, all students have the opportunity to
receive extensive mentoring in teaching skills, the job-hunting process, and in such techniques as preparing applications for fellowships, awards, and grants. Prospective students are strongly encouraged to visit the Yale campus in order to discuss their interests with the faculty, to attend classes, and to meet the graduate student population.