Home
Contents
Introduction
Admissions
Coursework
Financial Aid
The MA Program
Pre-Candidacy
Preliminary Examinations
The PhD Program
Appendix 1 Calendar
Appendix 2 List of Courses
Appendix 3 Forms
Near Eastern Studies
I. Introduction to the Department of Near Eastern Studies
A. The University of Michigan
The University of Michigan, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding non-discrimination and affirmative action, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The University of Michigan is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all persons regardless of race, sex, color, religion, creed, national origin or ancestry, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or Vietnam-era veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions. Inquiries or complaints may be addressed to the University’s Director of Affirmative Action and Title IX/Section 504 Coordinator, 4005 Wolverine Tower, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1281, (734) 763-0235, TDD (734) 647-1288. For other University of Michigan information, call (734) 764-1817.
The University of Michigan was founded 1817 and permanently located in Ann Arbor in 1837. Today the University is one of a handful of public institutions, which, together with the best of the private universities, comprise the leading group in American higher education.
With 4,000 faculty members and a student body of 40,000 (of whom 13,100 are graduate students) the Ann Arbor campus of the University of Michigan is able to provide instruction and carry out research in a wide range of disciplines. Although it is a state university and receives its primary funding from the State of Michigan, The University of Michigan relies heavily on private gifts and its research component is strongly supported by both private foundations and federal agencies. Two branch campuses in Flint and Dearborn are primarily undergraduate colleges.
The University operates on a semester system. The Fall semester runs from early September through the third week of December; the Winter semester goes from early January and to the end of April. The months of May and June comprise Spring half-term; July and August form the Summer half-term.
Graduate tuition depends on the number of credit hours elected. For Fall
2008 the rate for 9 or more hours is $8,176.00 per semester for Michigan
residents, and $16,533.00 per semester for non-residents. Most forms of
financial aid include full tuition (see Admission and Financial Section).
The University offers many ancillary services to students. For example,
there is the Center for the Education of Women, which assists people returning
to school after an absence; the International Center, which advises foreign
students and American students planning to study abroad; and the Graduate
Office of Minority Affairs.
General information about the University can be found on the Rackham School of Graduate Studies website
[http://www.rackham.umich.edu/prospective_students/].
If you would like a broader picture of the University of Michigan’s program offerings, you may want to view a copy of the Graduate Student Handbook [http://www.rackham.umich.edu/student_life/publications/]. You may also want to view a copy of the University of Michigan Bulletin: Program Information and Course Offering at [ http://www.lsa.umich.edu/bulletin/]
B. The Near Eastern Studies Department
The Department of Near Eastern Studies is part of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, which administers its undergraduate programs leading to the BA degrees and of the Rackham School of Graduate Studies, which administers its graduate programs leading to MA and PhD degrees. The Department offers several programs of study at the BA, MA, and PhD levels, covering Near and Middle Eastern languages, literatures, linguistics, history, and cultures.
Near Eastern Studies at Michigan began in the early 1890s with courses on Hebrew, Akkadian, and Arabic. The graduate library has excellent collections of journals and monographs and also contains Arabic and other manuscripts in Middle Eastern languages. A small collection of clay tablets and a large collection of ancient Egyptian artifacts and inscribed materials are in the Kelsey Museum of Classical Archaeology. The department now is one of the largest departments of Near and Middle Eastern Studies in the world and offers a breadth of courses that has few peers. Colleagues in other departments—especially Classical Studies, Anthropology, History of Art, History, Political Science, and Sociology—participate in the department’s academic programs.
MA and PhD degrees in the following fields of specialization are available in three broad categories, Ancient Civilizations and Biblical Studies (ACABS); Arabic, Armenian, Persian, Turkish, and Islamic Studies (AAPTIS); and Hebrew and Jewish Cultural Studies (HJCS). Specialties include the following:
ACABS
• Mesopotamian and Hittite Languages and Cultures
• Egyptology
• Ancient Israel/Hebrew Bible
• Second Temple Judaism/Early Christian Studies
AAPTIS
• Arabic Studies
M.A. tracks in:
Arabic for Professional Purposes
Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language
• Armenian Studies
• Persian and Iranian Studies
• Turkish Studies
• Islamic Studies
• Teaching Arabic as a Foreign Language (TAFL) - MA only
HJCS
• Modern Hebrew Language and Culture
• Rabbinic Literature
• Jewish Mysticism
JCGRW
• Judaism and Christianity in the Graeco-Roman World
Other degree programs may be arranged with permission of the student's PhD committee and the Director of Graduate Studies in the department.
Programs and courses on the Near East are also offered through the following departments: Anthropology, Classical Art and Archaeology, Classical Studies, Economics, History, History of Art, Judaic Studies, Linguistics, Political Science, and Sociology. In addition, the Department of Near Eastern Studies collaborates with the Program on Studies in Religion, the Program in Comparative Literature, the Frankel Center for Judaic Studies, and Women’s Studies with regard to lectureships, students, and the cross-listing of courses.
C. The Faculty
1. Professors
GARY BECKMAN (PhD Yale University) Department Chair, Professor of Hittite and Mesopotamian studies. History and culture of Anatolia, Syria, and Mesopotamia.
KATHRYN BABAYAN (PhD Princeton University) Associate Professor of Iranian Culture and History. Late medieval and early modern central and eastern Islamdom, Safavi political and cultural history.
KEVORK B. BARDAKJIAN (DPhil University of Oxford) Marie Manougian Professor of Armenian Languages and Literature. Armenian literature, language, intellectual history and history.
CAROL B. BARDENSTEIN (PhD University of Michigan) Associate Professor of Arabic Studies. Modern Arabic literature and cultural studies, Arab-Israeli conflict in Arabic and Hebrew literature, gender and representation in modern Middle East.
GABRIELE BOCCACCINI (PhD University of Turin, Italy) Professor of New Testament and Second Temple Judaism. Social and intellectual history of Christian and Rabbinic origins, later Biblical literature, Apocrypha and Pseudepigrapha, Jewish Hellenistic literature, Dead Sea Scrolls, Early Christian literature.
MICHAEL BONNER (PhD Princeton University) Professor of Near Eastern History. Medieval Islamic history and Islamic institutions.
YARON Z. ELIAV (PhD Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Associate Professor of Rabbinic Literature. Jewish literature, history and civilization of Second Temple, Late Roman and Byzantine periods, Judaism and Christianity in their Greco-Roman context.
ELLIOT GINSBURG (PhD University of Pennsylvania) Associate Professor of Jewish Thought and Mysticism. Jewish mysticism, Jewish spirituality, Judaism as religion, study of religion.
GOTTFRIED HAGEN (PhD Free University of Berlin, Germany) Associate Professor of Turkish Language and Culture. Ottoman and modern Turkish language, Ottoman cultural and intellectual history, and Ottoman Islam.
SHERMAN JACKSON (PhD The University of Pennsylvania) Professor of Arabic and Islamic studies, Adjunct Professor of Law
ALEXANDER KNYSH (PhD Institute of Oriental Studies, St. Petersburg) Professor of Islamic Studies and Classical Arabic literature. Islamic mysticism and medieval theological polemics, religious and social history of Yemen, anthropology of religion, Islam in the Russian Empire, Islam in al-Andalus, Islam in South Arabia.
TREVOR LEGASSICK (PhD University of London) Professor of Arabic Literature. Arabic writings: imaginative, poetic, and non-fictional, 19th and 20th centuries.
PIOTR MICHALOWSKI (PhD Yale University) George G. Cameron Professor of Sumerian and Akkadian Languages. Sumerian and Akkadian literatures and histories, literary theory.
DOUGLAS NORTHROP (PhD Stanford) Associate Professor of modern Central Asian Studies. Cultural and social history of Central Asia since the 18th century; especially Uzbekistan and the former Soviet Union. Environmental, gender, and colonial studies.
SHACHAR PINSKER (PhD University of California, Berkeley) Assistant Professor of Hebrew Language, Literature and Culture.
RAJI M. RAMMUNY (PhD University of Michigan) Professor of Arabic. Arabic language and culture, teacher training, applied linguistics.
JANET E. RICHARDS (PhD University of Pennsylvania) Associate Professor of Egyptology. Ancient Egyptian society and ideology, Egyptian and Nubian Nile Valley, archaeology, mortuary studies, sacred landscapes.
BRIAN B. SCHMIDT (DPhil University of Oxford) Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient West Asia. Ancient West Asian religions, histories and cultures, classical Hebrew and Northwest Semitic languages.
ANTON SHAMMAS (Hebrew University, Jerusalem) Professor of Middle Eastern Literature. Intellectual history of the Arab Renaissance; and modern Arabic fiction and poetry.
RUTH TSOFFAR (PhD University of California, Berkeley) Assistant Professor of Hebrew Language and Culture. Contemporary Jewish culture and ethnography, modern Hebrew literature with emphasis on Women and Mizrahi/Sephardic Jews, feminist and critical theory.
TERRY G. WILFONG (PhD University of Chicago) Associate Professor of Egyptology. Egyptology, Coptic, gender studies.
GERNOT L. WINDFUHR (PhD University of Hamburg) Professor of Iranian Studies. Persian and Iranian linguistics and literature, Iranian religions.
NORMAN YOFFEE (PhD Yale University) Professor of Mesopotamian Studies. Assyriology, Mesopotamian civilizations, Near Eastern archaeology, anthropology.
2. Lecturers
BEHRAD AGHAEI (PhD University of Texas) Persian.
FAWZIA BARIUN (PhD University of Michigan) Arabic.
MILKA ELIAV (Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, Israel) Hebrew.
MEHMET ER (PhD University of California, Berkeley) Turkish.
RIMA HASSOUNEH (University of Michigan) Arabic.
DORON LAMM (University of London) Hebrew.
ERIC REYMOND (PhD University of Chicago) Northwest Semitic languages, history.
ILAN ROSENBERG (Tel-Aviv University) Hebrew.
HANI SABBAGH (PhD University of Michigan) Arabic.
WAHEED SAMY (PhD University of Michigan) Arabic.
AYELET SASSON (Indiana University of Pennsylvania) Hebrew.
WALTER SLATER Uzbek.
PAULA WEIZMAN (Tel-Aviv University) Hebrew.
3. Adjunct Assistant Professors
MARJORIE FISHER (PhD University of Michigan) Egyptology.
4. Emeritus Professors
JAMES E. BELLAMY (PhD Yale University) Medieval Arabic Literature, Arabic textual criticism, Arabic papyrology.
EDNA A. COFFIN (PhD University of Michigan) Modern Hebrew language and literature.
ANDREW EHRENKREUTZ (PhD University of London) Islamic history.
JOHN KOLARS (PhD University of Chicago) Geography and ecology of the Near East and North Africa.
CHARLES R. KRAHMALKOV (PhD Harvard University) Professor of Ancient Near Eastern languages. Northwest Semitic philology.
ERNEST N. MCCARUS (PhD University of Michigan) Arabic and Kurdish linguistics.
GEORGE MENDENHALL (PhD Johns Hopkins University) Biblical Studies.
LOUIS L. ORLIN (PhD University of Michigan) Ancient Near Eastern history.
GENE M. SCHRAMM (PhD Dropsie College, Pennsylvania) Semitic languages and linguistics, classical Judaism.
D. The Director of Graduate Studies
The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS or Graduate Chair) advises graduate students on departmental and graduate school requirements. He/she chairs the admissions committee and the fellowships and awards committee. The DGS works with the departmental student services coordinator, who maintains student files and forms. For 2008-09 the DGS is Prof. Kevork B. Bardakjian and the student services coordinator is Angela Beskow. All forms needed for departmental and graduate school purposes can be found in the office of Angela Beskow.
E. Graduate Student Advisors
Graduate students select their graduate faculty supervisors, who are specialists in the field of interest of the student. Students fill out a form listing the faculty advisor. This form must also be signed by the faculty advisor and the DGS.
F. The Graduate Representative
Each year the Near Eastern Studies Organization of Graduate Students (NESOGS) elects a graduate representative who attends departmental faculty meetings. The graduate representative brings matters of concern to students to the faculty and conveys faculty decisions to graduate students at NESOGS meetings.
G. The Graduate Employee Organization
The Graduate Employee Organization represents all 1600 Graduate Student Instructors (GSI’s) and Graduate Student Staff Assistants (GSSA’s) at the University of Michigan. Becoming a member of GEO makes a graduate student eligible to vote in union elections. The GEO contract covers all GSI’s and GSSA’s at the University of Michigan whether or not the student joins the GEO. Approximately 75% of graduate students choose to become a member of the GEO. Both members and non-members will have 1.38% of their wages deducted once per semester as union dues or service fees. Non-members are charged representation service fees because all GSI’s and GSSA’s--members and non-members-- benefit from the same contractual settlements. For further information please contact the GEO at 330 East Liberty Street Suite 3F / Ann Arbor, MI 48104/ Phone: (734) 995-0221 / Fax: (734) 995-0548 / E-mail: umgeo@umich.edu
H. Resources Available
1. Departmental Resources
a. Thayer Building Library
The Department of Near Eastern Studies shares library space with the other units in the Thayer Building. The library is located in room 3020, and contains books, journals, and maps dedicated to Near Eastern Studies that are part of the Graduate Library as well as donated books. Books may not be taken from this room. A reading lounge is located directly outside of the library.
b. Graduate Student Resource Room
Graduate Students have access to the Graduate Student Resource Room located at 4080 Thayer Building. The Resource Room consists of two joint spaces; a computer lab and GSI Meeting Room. Stationary computers are available in the computer lab for e-mail and student work. Students may not download programs on these computers. The computer lab is also wired for students to use their own laptop computers. The GSI meeting room (4076 Thayer Building) is to be used primarily for Graduate Student Instructor’s to hold their office hours. Both of these rooms remain locked, and keys are available to NES graduate students. Please see the main office to be issued a key.
c. Departmental Mailboxes
All graduate students have mailboxes in the department located in 4141 Thayer Building. Personal mail should not be sent to the department, and the student mailboxes are used mainly for intra-departmental purposes.
2. University Resources
a. The Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS)
The Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS) brings together faculty in our department with other area specialists in a number of disciplines within the College of Literature, Science and Arts (e.g. Anthropology, Archaeology, History, Linguistics and Sociology) as well as the Schools of Law, Business, and Public Health. The Center is supported by the U.S. Department of Education and organizes and sponsors numerous activities (language circles, lectures and colloquia by visiting scholars), and administers fellowships such as the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) grants. The application deadline for FLAS is February 1, 2006. If you would like more information about the FLAS fellowships, please contact the Administrative Assistant at CMENAS / SSWB Room 4640 / Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1106 / Phone: 734-764-0350 / Fax: 734-764-8523 / Email: cmenas@umich.edu / Website: http://www.umich.edu/~iinet/cmenas
b. Harlan Hatcher University Graduate Library
The University Graduate Library is the main depository for Near Eastern Collections. The collections, which are maintained and supervised by a Near Eastern bibliographer, Jonathan Rodgers, contain more than 329,785 monograph titles, 1,158 serial titles, and 32 current newspapers. Of these titles, approximately 195,000 are in the languages of Middle East and North Africa, Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, Armenian, Turkish and several others. Particular collection strengths lie in the ancient and modern history of the Near East, modern Arabic and Hebrew literature, Hebrew Bible, the ancient Near East, and politics of the Near East. A Near Eastern Reference Room is maintained in the library, containing important encyclopedias, dictionaries, bibliographies, and other reference works, and it also provides study space for the Near Eastern Studies students. For more information, please visit the library’s website: http://www.lib.umich.edu/
c. University Computing
The University of Michigan's computing resources are among the best in the world. As a U-M student, you will have access to state-of-the-art technology and the opportunity to learn from knowledgeable faculty and staff. All students have access to computers, printers, and software; free computer workshops; consultants to help answer your questions; and network services such as e-mail, Internet access, and access to the University Library's electronic card catalog. For more information on the University's computing services, visit the Information Technology Division website: http://www.itd.umich.edu/
d. The Kelsey Museum
The Kelsey Museum of Ancient and Medieval Archaeology houses a collection of nearly 100,000 objects from the civilizations of the Mediterranean and the Near East. A selection of these artifacts is featured in two permanent galleries: Egypt and the Ancient Near East, and Greece, Etruria, and Rome (5000 BCE – CE 900), as well as in a gallery with annual changing exhibitions. Included among these are materials from Egypt, Iraq, Greece, Cyprus, and Syria; most notable are the materials from the Michigan excavations at Karanis in Egypt and Seleucia in Iraq. Current fieldwork associated with the Kelsey includes excavations at Kedesh, Israel and Abydos, Egypt. For more information, please visit the Kelsey website: http://www.lsa.umich.edu/kelsey
e. The Summer Language Institute
The University of Michigan Summer Language Institute (SLI) provides students with an opportunity to develop language skills in the summer. The language courses are directed and taught by faculty from the University of Michigan’s Departments of Asian Languages and Cultures, Germanic Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Studies, Romance Languages and Literatures, and Slavic Languages and Literatures. U-M’s English Language Institute offers the TESL course. Administrative support is provided by the U-M International Institute. Undergraduate, graduate, professional school students, practicing professionals, graduating high school seniors, and interested community members are welcome to apply. A Program Fee option is available to applicants who wish to participate in a language course but do not require academic credit. For further information please contact the SLI Coordinator. Email: um.sli@umich.edu / Phone: 734-764-8571 / Fax: 734-763-4765 / Website: http://www.ii.umich.edu/sli
3. External Resources
a. The Center for Arabic Study Abroad
(CASA)
CASA offers intensive Arabic programs for advanced students of Arabic
who are committed to Near Eastern Studies. The program is located at the
American University in Cairo. It is administered at the University of Texas at Austin on
behalf of a consortium of nineteen United States universities (to which
the University of Michigan belongs) and in cooperation with the U.S. Department
of Education. Fellowships are awarded for either the intensive summer
program or the intensive full-year program (summer and academic year);
competition is open to U.S. citizens from all institutions. Michigan students
are encouraged to work toward the inclusion of the summer and/or the full-year
program at an appropriate point in their studies. For further information,
please contact the CASA program directly. Center for Arabic Study Abroad
(CASA) /University of Texas at Austin/ WMB 6.102/ 1 University Station F9400/ Austin, TX 78712-0527/ Phone: 512-471-3513/
Email: UTcasa@austin.utexas.edu. Applications may also be obtained from the CASA website at:
http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/casa/about/contact/.
b. The American Research Institute in Turkey (ARIT)
The American Research Institute in Turkey awards fellowships to graduate
students who wish to do research in Turkey as well as summer fellowships
to students who want to attend Intensive Advanced Turkish Language programs
at the Bosphorus University in Istanbul. For further information contact:
American Research Institute in Turkey / Telephone: (215) 898-3474 / Fax:
(215) 898-0657 / University of Pennsylvania Museum, 3260 South Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6324 / Email: leinwand@sas.upenn.edu / Website: http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/ARIT
I. Departmental Social Activities
1. Beginning of the Year Party
Early in the Fall semester, the entire department gathers for a reception for the new graduate students, faculty, and visitors. A brief history of the department is presented along with a description of the year’s special activities. New students are introduced as are visiting faculty. Light refreshments are served.
2. End of the Term Party
At the end of the Fall semester, the department partners with the Center for Middle East and North African Studies to host a reception just before Winter Break. The event is informal with a variety of refreshments served.
3. Recruitment Weekend
Graduate students, faculty, and staff from the Near Eastern Studies Department annually host a departmental Recruitment Weekend for prospective graduate students during mid February.
3. Awards Dinner
At the end of the second semester there is a departmental awards dinner.
Recipients of BA, MA, and PhD degrees are recognized. Also honored are
students who have passed exams and/or have received special fellowships
and distinctions.