Courses

The Judaic and Near Eastern Studies department requires two introductory courses for the major. Middle Eastern studies majors must complete History 130 and 131, or the approved equivalents as noted below. Students are encouraged to take these introductory courses at UMass, but they can be fulfilled with equivalent, courses offered through the Five College Consortium, (for an updated list, see your email) upon the academic advisor’s permission. Similarly, upper-level requirements can be fulfilled by taking a wide range of courses in the department, the Five Colleges and, with advance permission, approved study abroad programs.

Courses at Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges listed here, as well as others with majority Middle Eastern content, can count towards upper-level course requirements. When one of the required introductory courses is not offered in a given year at UMass, an equivalent course offered elsewhere in the Five College consortium may be substituted with advisor approval.

Intro-Level MES History Courses (pre-modern)

UMass 

• HISTORY 130: Middle East History I (Anne Broadbridge)

Intro-Level MES History Courses (contemporary)

UMass

• HISTORY 131: Middle East History II
• MIDEAST/SPP 151: Water, Oil, and Blood: The Middle East in Global Policy (David Mednicoff)

Other 100-level MES Courses

UMass

• MIDEAST 105: Islam in the Middle East, 600-1800 CE: Religion? Civilization? Culture? or What? (Malissa Taylor)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 189: Culture and Immigration in Israel (Olga Gershenson)

Courses in MES Language

UMass

• ARAB 126: Elementary Arabic I (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• ARAB 146: Elementary Arabic II (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• ARAB 226: Intermediate Arabic I (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• ARAB 246: Intermediate Arabic II (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• ARAB 326: Advanced Arabic I (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• ARAB 346: Advanced Arabic II (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• HEBREW 230: Intermediate Modern Hebrew I (Ofir Zussman, Joanna Caravita)
• HEBREW 240: Intermediate Modern Hebrew II (Ofir Zussman, Joanna Caravita)
• MIDEAST 190STA: Elementary Persian (Farsi) I
• MIDEAST 290STB: Intermediate Persian (Farsi) I

Amherst College

• ARAB @ AMH 201: Second Year Arabic I
• ARAB @ AMH 202: Second Year Arabic II

Mount Holyoke College

• ASIAN @ MNT 232: Second Year Arabic I
• ASIAN @ MNT 233: Second Year Arabic II

Smith College

• ARA @ SMI 200: Intermediate Arabic I
• ARA @ SMI 201: Intermediate Arabic II
• JUD @ SMI 201: Readings in Modern Hebrew Language

Junior Year Writing

UMass

• MIDEAST 389: Topics in Middle Eastern Studies (Malissa Taylor)
• HISTORY 450: Junior Year Writing: Islamic Movements in History (Anne Broadbridge)

Integrative Experience

UMass

• HISTORY 394AI: Age of the Crusades (Anne Broadbridge)
• HISTORY 394TI: Mongol & Turkish Empires (Anne Broadbridge)
• POLISCI 383: Energy Policy (Regine Spector)

Satisfies 24 upper-level credit courses (approved 200-level or 300+ level) 

UMass

• ANTHRO 350: Israel & Palestine (Michael Sugerman)
• ANTHRO 353: ST: Archaeology of Egypt & Nubia (Michael Sugerman)
• ANTHRO 498F: Archaeology, Survey, and Conservation (Michael Sugerman)
• ARTH 347: Islamic Art & Architecture I
• ARTH 348: Islamic Art & Architecture II
• COMPLIT 261H: Modern Arabic Literature (Nahla Khalil)
• HISTORY 203: The Ancient Near East & Egypt (Timothy Hart)
• HISTORY 343H: Modern Middle East
• HISTORY 394AI: Age of the Crusades (I.E. course) (Anne Broadbridge)
• HISTORY 394TI: Mongol & Turkish Empires (I.E. course) (Anne Broadbridge)
• HISTORY 320: From Muhammad to the Caliphate: The Rise of Islam in the Late Antique Context (Hadi Jorati)
• HISTORY 415: *Islamic Movements in History (Anne Broadbridge)
  • Note:  Islamic Movements in History will only fulfill the Junior Year Writing requirement when it is offered as HISTORY 450. HISTORY 415 is NOT a Junior Year Writing course and will not fulfill the JYW requirement.
• HISTORY 491MMH: Mass Migrations in the Modern Middle East
• LEGAL 393LG: Law & Global Migration
• MIDEAST 220: The Middle East and the World: 1400-1800 (Malissa Taylor)
• MIDEAST 233: Sex, Bodies, & Gender in the Middle East (Malissa Taylor)
• MIDEAST 245: Environmental History of the Middle East (Malissa Taylor)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 303: The Land of Israel Through the Ages (Aviva Ben-Ur)
• MIDEAST 310: Classical Arabic Literature in Translation (Hadi Jorati)
• MIDEAST 313: Mythology of Ancient Persia (Hadi Jorati)
• MIDEAST/HISTORY 321: History of Shi'i Islam (Hadi Jorati)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 326: Sustainability in Comparative Religious Perspective (Aviva Ben-Ur)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 327: Jewish Food in Historical Perspective (Aviva Ben-Ur)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 328: Mediterranean Mosaic: Ancient Civilizations, Then and Now (Aviva Ben-Ur)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 344: Film & Society in Israel (Olga Gershenson)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 351: Crossing Borders in Israel & Palestine (Rachel Green)
• ‘MIDEAST/JUDAIC 357: Israeli Television, Global Reach (Olga Gershenson)
• MIDEAST 361: Sufism: Islamic Mystical Tradition (Malissa Taylor)
• MIDEAST 362: Religion & Politics of the Early Modern Middle East (Malissa Taylor)
• MIDEAST/JUDAIC 377: Israel & Palestine through Film and Pop-Culture (Olga Gershenson)
• MIDEAST 390B: Borderlands of Islam (Malissa Taylor)
• MIDEAST 391A: Islamic Society & Culture in the Middle Ages (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• MIDEAST 392P: Islamic Political Thought: From Revelation to Revolution (Andrew March)
• MIDEAST 392T: Medieval Arabic Travel Literature (Tayeb El-Hibri)
• MIDEAST 420: Philosophy in the Islamic Civilization (Hadi Jorati)
• MIDEAST 321: History of Shi'i Islam (Hadi Jorati)
• MIDEAST 491C: Classical Arabic Seminar: Arabic Historiography (Hadi Jorati)
• MIDEAST 497B: Israeli & Palestinian Cinema (Olga Gershenson)
• POLISCI 255: United States Foreign Policy
• POLISCI 275: Global Political Thought 
• POLISCI 383: Energy Policy (I.E. course) (Regine Spector)
• POLISCI 394AI: Modern Islamic Political Thought (I.E. course) (Andrew March)

 

Amherst College

• ANTH @ AMH 31: Anthropology of Middle East
• ARAB @ AMH 301: Third Year Arabic I
• ARAB @ AMH 302: Third Year Arabic II
• ARAB @ AMH 401: Fourth Year Arabic: Media Arabic (Mohamed Hassan)
• ARAB @ AMH 402: Fourth  Year Arabic: Topics in Arabic Language & Culture (Mohamed Hassan)
• ASIA @ AMH 320: The Arts of Exchange: Cross-Cultural Interaction in the Islamic World, 1400-1800 (Yael Rice)
• ASLC @ AMH 320: Religion/Empires/Secular State (Trent Maxey, Monica Ringer)
• ASLC @ AMH 355: Early Islam: Construction of an Historical Tradition (Monica Ringer)
• ASLC @ AMH 356: The Islamic Mystical Tradition (Tariq Jaffer)
• ASLC @ AMH 363: Women in the Middle East (Monica Ringer)
• HIST @ AMH 294: The History of Israel (Adi Gordon)
• HIST @ AMH 319: Religion/Empires/Secular State (Trent Maxey, Monica Ringer)
• HIST @ AMH 393: Early Islam: Construction of an Historical Tradition (Monica Ringer)
• HIST @ AMH 397: Women in the Middle East (Monica Ringer)
• HIST @ AMH 492: Inside Iran
• REL @ AMH 263: Ancient Israel (Susan Niditch)
• REL @ AMH 284: Knowledge Triumphant in Classical Islam (Tariq Jaffer)
• REL @ AMH 385: Islamic Mystic Tradition (Tariq Jaffer)
• SWA @ AMH 362: Women in the Middle East (Monica Ringer)

Hampshire College

• CSI @ HAMP 271: Global War on Terror (Falguni Sheth)
• CSI @ HAMP 230: Middle Eastern Economics (Omar Dahi)

Mount Holyoke College

• ASIAN @ MNT 332: Third Year Arabic I
• HIST @ MNT 273: The Inheritance of Iran: The Iranian World from Antiquity to the Middle Ages (M. Renda)
• POLIT @ MNT 216: Middle East Politics (Sohail Hashmi)
• POLIT @ MNT 224: The United States and Iran (Sohail Hashmi)
• POLIT @ MNT 226: U.S., Israel and the Arabs (Sohail Hashmi)
• POLIT @ MNT 333: Just War and Jihad: Comparative Ethos of War & Peace (Sohail Hashmi)
• POLIT @ MNT 342: Islamic Political Thought (Sohail Hashmi)
• RELIG @ MNT 201: Introduction to the Qur'an (A. Steinfels)
• RELIG @ MNT 202: Introduction to Islam
• RELIG @ MNT 205: Issues in Islamic History: Classical Islamic Civilization (A. Steinfels)
• RELIG @ MNT 207: Women & Gender in Islam (Amina Steinfels)
• RELIG @ MNT 311: Sufism: The Mystic Path in Islam (A. Steinfels)
• GNDST @ MNT 210SL: Women & Gender in Islam (Amina Steinfels)

Smith College

• ARA @ SMI 300: Advanced Arabic I
• ARA @ SMI 301: Advanced Arabic II
• ARA @ SMI 401: Media Arabic
• ARH @ SMI 228: Islamic Art and Architecture
• FRN @ SMI 230: French Islam (Mehammed Mack)
• FRN @ SMI 262: After Algeria: Revolution, Republic, and Race in Modern France (Jonathan Gosnell)
• GOV @ SMI 224: Colloquium: Islam and Development (Bozena Welborne)
• GOV @ SMI 248: The Arab-Israeli Dispute (Bozena Welborne)
• GOV @ SMI 341: The Middle East in World Affairs (Bozena Welborne)
• GOV @ SMI 347: North Africa in the International System (Greg White)
• HST @ SMI 208: The Making of the Modern Middle East (Greg White)
• HST @ SMI 209C: COLQ: Aspects Middle East History
• HST @ SMI 227: Topics: Crusade and Jihad: Religious Violence in the Islamo-Christian Tradition (Joshua Birk)
• JUD/MES @ SMI 235: Israeli-Palestian Conflict (Justin Cammy)
• REL @ SMI 213: Prophecy in Ancient Israel (Joel Kaminsky)
• REL @ SMI 221: Jewish Spirituality: Philosophers and Mystics
• REL @ SMI 245: Islamic Tradition (Suleiman Mourad)
• REL @ SMI 246: Islamic Thought & Modernity (Suleiman Mourad)
• REL @ SMI 248: COLQ: Topics in Modern Islam (Suleiman Mourad)
• REL @ SMI 345: Islamic Thought: Topic: The Making of Mohammed (Suleiman Mourad)
• REL @ SMI 345: Islamic Thought: Topic: The Qur'an (Suleiman Mourad)
• REL @ SMI 310: Seminar: Hebrew Bible: Topics: Sibling Rivalry: Israel & the Other in the Hebrew Bible (Joel Kaminsky)
• SPN @ SMI 235: Topics: Jewish Women of the Muslim Mediterranean (Ibtissam Bouachrine)
• SPN @ SMI 250: Sex and the Medieval City (Ibtissam Bouachrine)
• SPN @ SMI 332: SEM: The Middle Ages Today - Topics: Queer Andalusia & North Africa (Ibtissam Bouachrine)