Middle East Studies Concentration
Through the Middle East Studies Concentration students can develop an inter-connected understanding of diverse Middle Eastern cultures and societies, past and present, in regional and global contexts. We define the Middle East broadly to include the majority-Arabic-speaking states and territories from Morocco to the Persian Gulf, Israel, Turkey, Iran, and Central Asia. Our inter-disciplinary approach will also help students to explore linguistic, literary, religious, and other sociocultural ties with Middle Eastern diasporas in Europe and the Americas, and with those regions in Sub-Saharan Africa where Arabic serves as language of literature and culture.
Requirements for the Concentration
The Middle East Studies Concentration requires a total of 45 credits. No more than 24 credits may be from any one department. Students must also complete either Hebrew 204 or Arabic 205, or equivalent. Students interested in a possible concentration in Middle East Studies are strongly encouraged to enroll in at least one of their two core courses early in their Carleton career.
Core Courses:
12 credits from among the following, no credits from OCS programs may substitute:
- HIST 165 From Young Turks to Arab Revolutions: Cultural History of Modern Middle East (not offered 2016-17)
- RELG 122 Introduction to Islam
- MELA 121 Middle Eastern Perspectives in Israeli and Palestinian Literature
Supporting Courses:
A total of 30 credits from among the following two groups, with a minimum of 12 in each. Up to 12 credits from approved OCS programs may count toward this total, but these must be from OCS courses with a content focus (not just language instruction).
Group 1, History, Social Sciences, Religion, and Archaeology. Concentrators must take a minimum of 12 credits.
- CLAS 122 The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory: From the Beginning to the Classical Age (not offered 2016-17)
- HIST 133: Crisis, Creativity, and Transformation in Late Antiquity (not offered 2016-17)
- HIST 138 Crusades, Mission and the Expansion of Europe
- HIST 204: The Medieval Mediterranean (not offered 2016-17)
- HIST 260 The Making of the Modern Middle East (not offered 2016-17)
- HIST 265 Central Asia in the Modern Age (not offered 2016-17)
- HIST 280 African in the Arab World
- HIST 360 Muslims and Modernity (not offered 2016-17)
- MELA 230 Jewish Collective Memory (not offered 2016-17)
- POSC 245 Contemporary Politics of the Middle East (1918-1967)
- POSC 246 Politics of the Middle East (1967-2011)
- POSC 282 Terrorism and Violence in World Politics
- POSC 320 Authoritarianism and Democratization in the Middle East
- RELG 215 Muslim Misfits: Islam and the Question of Orthodoxy
- RELG 248 Religion, Law, Religious Law (not offered 2016-17)
- RELG 262 Islamic Africa (not offered 2016-17)
- RELG 263 Sufism (not offered 2016-17)
- RELG 264 Islamic Politics (not offered 2016-17)
- RELG 340 Contemporary Islamic Renewal (not offered 2016-17)
Group 2, Literature, Culture, and the Arts. Concentrators must take a minimum of 12 credits
- ARBC 185 Creation of Classical Arabic Literature (in translation) (not offered 2016-17)
- ARBC 222 Music in the Middle East (in translation)
- ARBC 387 The Thousand and One Nights (in Arabic and in translation) (not offered 2016-17)
- ARTH 155 Islamic Art and Architecture (not offered 2016-17)
- ARTH 255 Islam in the Eyes of the West
- CAMS 236 Israeli Society in Israeli Cinema (in translation) (not offered 2016-17)
- FREN 360 The Algerian War of Liberation and its Representations (not offered 2016-17)
Capstone, Senior Colloquium, 3 credits.