Near Eastern Studies

Field Description

The graduate program in Near Eastern studies emphasizes the languages, literatures, history, and cultures of the Near East. It is designed to help students acquaint themselves with the fundamental elements of these cultures, and also to acquire a high degree of specialization in one or more of the following areas: ancient Near Eastern studies (including archaeology); Arabic literature; biblical studies; early Christianity; Hebrew literature; Islamic studies; Judaic studies; and the modern Middle East.

Candidates for the Ph.D. degree are expected to demonstrate mastery in the language or languages of the main texts that are directly related to the topic of their dissertations. Students are advised to determine early in their training the special field of their concentration and to consult their advisors about linguistic requirements.

Before the end of the sixth term of graduate study, each Ph.D. degree candidate must demonstrate competence in reading scholarly secondary materials in two of the following languages, chosen in consultation with their committee chair: French, German, modern Greek, modern Hebrew, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. Candidates for the master's degree must demonstrate competence in one of those languages at least one term before the degree is awarded.

Contact Information

Website: http://www.neareasternstudies.cornell.edu
Email: neareastern@cornell.edu
Phone: 607 255-1329

409 White Hall
Cornell University
Ithaca, NY  14853

Data and Statistics

• Doctoral Program Statistics

Field Manual

• Manual

Subject and Degrees

Near Eastern Studies

• Near Eastern Studies (Ph.D.) (Ithaca)

Concentrations by Subject

Near Eastern Studies

• near eastern studies

Faculty

Begum Adalet

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Anticolonial thought, transnationalism, the Cold War, development, the built environment, US and the Middle East

Esra Akcan

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Global and intertwined histories of architecture, Turkey, migration and diaspora studies

Benjamin William Anderson

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Byzantine art, architecture, and visual culture; architecture and archaeology of late antique and medieval Anatolia.

Caitlin Barrett

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: classical archaeology; Egyptology

Dina Bishara

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Social and protest movements, state labor relations, labor and employment in the Middle East and North Africa, authoritarianism, and Middle East politics.

Alexandra Blackman

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Politics of the Middle East (gender; political party development; the evolution of authoritarian institutions; the role of foreign and transnational forces in the region)

Jonathan Boyarin

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Jewish ethnography, East European Jewish culture, migration, comparative diaspora, collective memory, politics of identity, textuality and orality, temporalities

Ross Brann

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Judeo-Islamic studies; Muslim Spain

Muhammad Iftikhar Dadi

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: comparative modernities; critical and post-colonial theory; modern South Asian and Islamic Art

Ziad A. Fahmy

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: nationalism and state formation in the 19th- and 20th-century Middle East

Chiara Formichi

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: history of Islam in southeast Asia; contemporary expressions of Islam in southeast Asia; religion and State; west Asia-southeast Asia connections

Seema Golestaneh

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: anthropology of Islam, contemporary Iran

Kimberly Joy Haines-Eitzen

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: early Christianity and Judaism; late Antiquity

Andrew Hicks

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Musicology (medieval music theory)

Pamela Karimi

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Middle East and North African Studies; Iranian Studies; Architectural history and theory; Environmental Issues; Gender Equality and Spatial Justice; Post-Industrial Cities

Lori Khatchadourian

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: eastern Mediterranean in antiquity; Achaemenid Persian empire; first millennium BC near east; archaeology of Eurasia and the South Caucasus

Jonathan Robert Lawrence

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Sexuality, gender and emotions in literature and thought in the pre-modern Arab-Islamic world

Sturt W. Manning

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: East Mediterranean prehistory; Mediterranean archaeology; archaeological theory

Mostafa Minawi

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Ottoman Empire; Modern Middle East

Jason Sion Mokhtarian

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Rabbinic Literature; Iranian Studies; Talmud in its Sasanian context; Ancient Jewish magic and medicine; Religions of Iran; Sasanian history and culture; Middle Persian; Judeo-Persian; Jews of Persia

Lauren Monroe

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Hebrew Bible; Ancient Israel

Christopher M. Monroe

• Campus: Ithaca - (Minor Member)
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: social and economic history of ancient Near East; nautical archaeology

Eric Rebillard

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: history of Late Antiquity; Augustine; Roman funerary archaeology

Cynthia Robinson

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Medieval and Islamic art and architecture

Deborah Ann Starr

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Modern Arabic and Hebrew Literature; Cinema and Media Studies; Jewish Studies

Eric Tagliacozzo

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: history of borders; smuggling; trade; diaspora in Southeast Asian history

Paraska Tolan-Szkilnik

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Historian of 20th century transnational North-Africa; sexuality in 20th century North Africa

Parisa Vaziri

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Iranian film and history, theories of racialization, theories of history

Munther A Younes

• Campus: Ithaca
• Concentrations: Near Eastern Studies: near eastern studies
• Research Interests: Arabic language and linguistics