Near East, Middle East, Southwest Asia & North Africa

Near Eastern Studies

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Undergraduate Major Faculty Graduate Program Language Study Courses

Engage and Learn

Student writes in Arabic on a chalkboard

Major in Near Eastern studies

Interested in exploring the languages, literatures, cultures, religions, and history of the Middle East from antiquity to the modern day? Consider pursuing a major in Near Eastern studies.

We also offer undergraduate minors in Arabic and Near Eastern studies.

students seated around a table listening to their professor speak

Study a Middle Eastern language

Take Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, or Persian to fulfill the College of Arts & Sciences language requirement!

We also offer instruction in some of the ancient Middle Eastern languages like Akkadian, Biblical Hebrew, Hieroglyphic Egyptian, and Sumerian.

Near Eastern Studies News

Alum spotlight: Ibrahim Gemeah, Ph.D. ’23

Sun beams shoot through heavy clouds over a bay

#RaptureTok and the history of end-times beliefs: Cornell religion expert

Colored rugs make a collage under a blue sky

Einaudi welcomes SWANA Program

Ezra Cornell statue facing A.D. White statue and Goldwin Smith Hall, fall color on the trees

Alumni Spotlight: D. Gershon Lewental '03

Tall display case in a museum room that's full of light

‘Sacred Ground’ exhibit receives Historic Ithaca preservation award

New book introduces Maimonides, ‘one of civilization’s greatest minds’

New Faculty: Jordan Miller

2025 Nexus Scholars talk about academic growth, transformation

More News

Near Eastern Studies Events

Oct 20

Monday

Ross Brann - "Moses Maimonides: A Genius for All Seasons"

Monday, Oct, 20 - 05:30 PM

NYC - Cornell Club

This is a inperson event.

Add to your calendar

Event speaker

Ross Brann

Cornell University

Description

You are cordially invited to attend a talk by the Jewish Studies Program's new Director

Ross Brann (Morris Escoll '16 Director of the Jewish Studies Program, Milton R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies)

Monday, October 20

Cornell Club, 6 E 44th Street, New York, NY

Reception: 5:30 p.m.

Talk begins: 6:30 p.m.

Please, RSVP to attend

Event access

public

https://jewishstudies.cornell.edu

Nov 07

Friday

Spacing Palestine

Friday, Nov, 07 - 12:00 PM

Uris Hall G08

This is a inperson event.

Add to your calendar

Description

This talk invites us to think about what it would mean if we considered Palestine from an a priori space of de-territorialization. Taking the examples of mapping and speculative infrastructures, it proposes to start from the Palestinian condition of fragmentation, distance, and disconnection, and move outward beyond the confines of territoriality.

Helga Tawil-Souri is an Associate Professor in Media, Culture and Communication, and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at New York University. Helga’s work deals with spatiality, technology, infrastructure, and politics in the Middle East, with a particular focus on contemporary Palestine. She is most recently co-editor of the book Producing Palestine: The Creative Production of Palestine Through Contemporary Media (I.B. Tauris, 2024).

Event access

Public

https://bit.ly/swanacornell

See all events

What is the "Near East"?

Map of the "Near East" extends from Morocco (and medieval Spain) across North Africa, through Egypt, the Levant (Israel and Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan), Turkey and South-West Asia

The Near East is an older term for the Middle East. As defined by the department, the “Near East” extends from Morocco (and medieval Spain), through Egypt, the Levant (Israel and Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan), Turkey, Southwest Asia and North Africa.

Faculty specializing in the earliest millennia of the region’s history bring a range of disciplines, methods and theoretical orientations to bear on the study of what is conventionally called the ancient Near East. Geographically, our vision is wide, extending from the shores of the eastern Mediterranean to the lowlands of Mesopotamia, from the highlands of Anatolia and the Caucasus to the plains of southwestern Iran.

Learn more about our faculty, research, undergraduate study and graduate study.