B.A. in Middle East and Islamic Studies

The major and minor in the Middle East and Islamic Studies offer a broad course of interdisciplinary and theoretically informed study. It is designed to provide a broad understanding of the history, politics, and culture of the Middle East and Muslim societies. The coursework introduces students to the complexity and diversity of the cultural and geographic regions that are represented in the Middle East and Islamic world with focuses on the history, religion, gender and sexuality, literature, art, popular discourses, culture, and politics.
MEIS faculty are currently drawn from the Departments of Anthropology, Comparative Literature and Languages, Hispanic Studies, History, Media and Cultural Studies, Religious Studies, Theatre, Film, and Digital Production, the History of Art, and Gender and Sexuality Studies. Their research and expertise canvass a vast and diverse area from Muslim Spain to Ottoman Greece, and North Africa, in the west, to Central Asia, Indonesia, and South Asia, in the east. Thematically, MEIS faculty examine such issues as social, economic, urban, gender and legal history; Arabic language and literature; identity politics; media in India; theatre and representation; literary studies; state, society, and religion; history of Islamic art, gender and modernity; Islam, colonialism, and modernities, Islamic movements; human rights; transnationality; and pluralism.