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.