MIDDLE EASTERN LANGUAGES & CULTURES FACT SHEET

The Near East, named as "the cradle of civilization," is the birth place of major languages, religions, and philosophical movements. It is a region of layered histories and diverse cultures. The Department of Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures is devoted to teaching and research of the Near and Middle East, including Central Asia, tracing contemporary manifestations, their medieval roots, and the significance of these within the history of world civilizations.

VISIT DEPARTMENT WEBSITE

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EDUCATION

Established in 1969 by Professor Farhat Ziadeh, the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures offers BA and MA degree programs that investigate major literary and cultural traditions of the Near and Middle East, Central Eurasia, North Africa, and the Horn of Africa. The Department provides excellent training in languages and cultivates an appreciation and understanding of various communities in the region. Undergraduates can select from degree options concentrating in Comparative Cultures; Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near Eastern Studies; and Languages and Literatures. A MELC minor is available and language minors are available in Arabic, Modern Hebrew, Persian, Turkic, and Turkish. A Masters of Arts in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures is offered for post-baccalaureate students.

Among the languages offered by the department, Arabic, Persian, Tajik, Turkish (Modern and Ottoman), and Central Asian Turkic (such as Chagatay, Kazak, Kyrgyz, Uygur, and Uzbek) are the languages of the most significant manifestations of Islamic cultures. Hebrew and Aramaic are languages of the Bible, and Ladino and Modern Hebrew are vital for Judaism and Jewish culture while Coptic, Ge’ez (Classical Ethiopic), and Syriac are critical for studying the history of Eastern Christianity. A rich and vast heritage from a range of ancient and medieval cultures is explored through the study of languages and literatures such as Egyptian (Hieroglyphic), Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Phoenician.

MELC serves a broad spectrum of undergraduates, including those with plans to acquire specific linguistic and cultural proficiencies and those simply interested in the histories and cultures of the regions covered by the department. Graduates of this degree program have pursued further study in the humanities or social sciences, professional degree programs in law or medicine, employment with governmental or non-governmental organizations, and other careers.

The department participates actively in exchange programs, sending UW students for language and cultural study and research to a variety of locations - from North Africa to the Middle East, and across Central Eurasia — and training many students from institutions overseas.

Students

Autumn 2023

12 Undergraduate majors
10 Undergraduate minors
3 Master of Arts students

Degrees Awarded

Sept 2022- Aug 2023

3 Bachelor of Arts degrees
14 Minor degrees
2 Master of Arts degrees

Major Student Awards

Since 2015

UW President’s Medalist
UW Medalist for High Scholarship
UW Arts & Sciences Dean's Medalist
Irene Dickson McFarlane Tuition Scholarship
Schwartz Fellows for Study Abroad
Roshan Institute Fellows for Excellence in Persian Studies
Naficy Scholars in Persian Studies
Turkish and Ottoman Literature Endowed Fellows
Hooshang Afrassiabi Essay Award
Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellows
Easa Bateh Fellows

OUTREACH

Annual events hosted by MELC include the Farhat J. Ziadeh Distinguished Lectureship in Arab and Islamic Studies and the Hooshang Afrassiabi Distinguished Lectureship in Persian Studies. These lecture series bring renowned speakers from around the world to speak to MELC students and the greater University of Washington community. Additional lectures and cultural presentations are supported by the Turkish Studies Endowment, the Hebrew Bible and Ancient Near East Fund, and the Friends of Persian Studies Fund.

FACULTY

Autumn 2023

3 Professors
1 Teaching Professor
3 Associate Professors
1 Associate Teaching Professor
2 Assistant Professors
3 Assistant Teaching Professors
12 Adjunct Faculty
3 Affiliate Faculty
3 Emeritus Faculty

Faculty awards and leadership roles, past and present, include:

Undergraduate Research Mentor Award
Katz Fellow in Advanced Judaic Studies
Royalty Research Fund Scholar Award
Honorary Ph.D. in Letters from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
National Jewish Book Award
Advisory Board Member, Peyvand NPO
Chair, SIFF-Iranian Film Initiative
Advisory Board Member, IACA-Iranian-American Community Alliance
Associate Editor, Review of Middle East Studies
Editorial Board Member, Modern Language Quarterly
Editorial Board Member, Prooftexts
Deputy Editor, Iranian Studies
Co-organizer, The Pacific Northwest Adab Society
Fulbright Scholars
National Endowment for the Humanities grants
Fellows, American Research Center in Egypt
Senior Fellow, American Center for Oriental Research
Presidents, Middle East Studies Association
President, Society for Iranian Studies
President, Middle East Medievalists
President, Pacific NW American Research Center in Egypt
President, Pacific NW American Academy of Religion/Society of Biblical Literature
Director, American Research Center in Egypt
Director, Center for Arabic Study Abroad
Samuel and Althea Stroum Chair
Mentor Award, Middle East Studies Association
Service Award, Middle East Studies Association
Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships
Visiting Fellowship at Oxford University, All Souls College
Fellow, UW Simpson Center Society of Fellows

SCHOLARSHIP

MELC faculty are engaged in a wide variety of individual research endeavors with emphases including post-colonial theory, intercultural exchange, literature as performance, archeology and culture of archaeology, gender theory, political literature and politics of literature, literary dynamics in exilic or diaspora communities, children’s literatures, linguistics, legal theory, and comparative religion. Departmental research on Jewish, Christian, and Islamic literatures and cultures is characterized by the study of these not as isolated entities, but rather as integral to wider Near and Middle Eastern cultural developments.

Faculty in MELC have been leaders in numerous national and international team research projects including:

The Ottoman Text Archive Project, an international effort to make a vast collection of documents crucial to understanding the history and cultural heritage of the Ottoman Empire accessible in a central web-based text archive; for which a pilot project, The Baki Divan Project: Digital Approaches to Ottoman, was awarded $40,000 from the Royalty Research Fund (RRF) to archive and analyze the Divan (Collected Works) of the Ottoman poet Mahmud Abdulbaki, or Baki (1520-1600).
The Newbook Project that establishes a digital archive and a publishing platform for manuscripts related to the Near and Middle East Studies.
Turkey in Seattle: Oral History Project, a project to archive the immigration stories of people who came to the Pacific Northwest from Turkey.
Federally-funded grants for innovative Arabic distance learning programs.
National grant initiatives to develop more effective and advanced pedagogies for proficiency in Arabic and Persian.
Organizing and hosting international conferences including Writing the Iranian Revolution: Memory, Testimony, Time (2017); The Many Poems of Baki (2017) ; Symposium on China’s Turkic Muslims (2019); and Workshop on Contemporary China’s Turkic Frontier Zone (2021).

Areas of Scholarship

Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Modern Hebrew, Arabic, Ladino, Persian, Ottoman, Turkish and Turkic Languages, Literatures and Cultures
Hebrew Bible
Judaism in Late Antiquity
Ancient Christianity and Religions of Antiquity
Islamic Institutions, Philosophy, Religion, History
Comparative Religion
Coptic Language
Cultures of Near Eastern Archaeology
Linguistics and Middle Eastern Studies
History of the Middle East

Scholarships & Fellowships

Hooshang Afrassiabi Student Prize in Persian Studies
Naficy Family Fellowship in Persian Studies
Friends of Persian Studies Student Fellowship
Roshan Cultural Heritage Institute Fellowship
Graduate Fellowship in Persian Studies
Maurice and Lois Schwartz Fellowship for Study Abroad
Michael A. Williams Scholarship for Excellence in Near Eastern Studies
Turkish and Ottoman Literary Fellowship Award