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Minor in Middle Eastern Studies

Middle Eastern Studies at MIT offers students the opportunity to explore the connections among culture, society, politics, economics, technology, and environment in the Middle East, including North Africa. MIT offers a number of subjects open to undergraduates which provide a variety of perspectives on the ancient, Islamic, and modern Middle East. The goal of the HASS Minor Program in Middle Eastern Studies is to lead the student from the basic language into survey subjects and then into more focused studies of individual countries or specific historical periods and to encourage analysis of the main methodological and conceptual issues in Middle Eastern Studies.

The Minor Program in Middle Eastern Studies consists of six subjects (at least three of which must be MIT subjects) arranged into four areas of study.

Area I: Language
Area II: Humanities and the Arts
Area III: Social Sciences
Area IV: Historical Studies

As with all HASS Minors, only five of the six minor subjects may be counted toward the 8-subject Institute HASS Requirement. Of these five, at most one (1) shall count toward satisfaction of the HASS-Distribution Requirement.

Area I: LANGUAGE

Two intermediate (Levels III and IV) subjects in one of the following Middle Eastern languages are required: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish.

Because MIT does not offer instruction in these languages, students may satisfy the Area I language requirement at Harvard University. They may satisfy the language requirement at other institutions provided they receive permission in advance from the HASS Minor Advisor in Middle Eastern Studies. Students who can demonstrate language competence beyond the intermediate level may take two more advanced language subjects (highly recommended), or two more subjects from Areas II, III, and IV.

Areas II, III, IV: Four subjects to be selected from at least two areas.

Area II: HUMANITIES AND ARTS

4.613 Civic and Architecture in Islamic History
4.614 Religious Architecture and Islamic Cultures HASS-D
4.615 The Architecture of Cairo
4.617 Issues in Islamic Urbanism
4.621 Orientalism and Representation
4.629 Special Problems in Islamic & Nonwestern Architecture (G)
21A.453 Anthropology of the Middle East
21A.458J The Harlem and the Veil: Images and Representations of Gender in the Middle East [SP.450J]

Area III: SOCIAL SCIENCES

3.993 Archaeology of the Middle East
17.405 Seminar on Politics and Conflicts in the Middle East
17.545 Political Change in South Asia

Area IV: HISTORICAL STUDIES

21H.601 Islam, the Middle East, and the West HASS-D
21H.615 The Middle East in the Twentieth Century CI-H
21H.621 Nation, Faith, and Gender in the Middle East
21H.631 Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Courses offered elsewhere:

A substantial number of courses dealing with Middle Eastern Studies are available to our students at Wellesley College and Harvard University. Students may take relevant courses at these institutions provided they receive permission in advance from the HASS Middle Eastern Studies Minor Advisor.

Additional information can be obtained from the Minor Advisor.