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The College of Arts & Sciences
Study the languages, literatures, cultures, religions and history of regions from ancient Sumer to the modern Middle East.
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 (SWANA).
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.
The collection “Households in Context: Dwelling in Ptolemaic and Roman Egypt” shifts the archaeological perspective from public and elite spaces such as temples, tombs and palaces to everyday dwellings and interactions of families.
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As the new Milstein Faculty Fellow in the Milstein Program in Technology & Humanity, Adam T. Smith co-developed a new course exploring how the latest technologies are reshaping cultural preservation.
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The grants provide funding for students in unpaid or low-paying summer experiences to offset the cost of taking on those positions.
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Sarah Cutler, an alumna of Arts & Sciences, has used her work in journalism to help people understand political polarization in the U.S.
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Students from the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy’s Cornell in Washington program will have an opportunity to observe in person how policymakers contend with Islamophobia and antisemitism at a White House briefing on March 14.
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On March 13, the Department of Near Eastern Studies in the College of Arts and Sciences will host “Academic Freedom and Middle East Scholars after Oct. 7,” one of Cornell’s Freedom of Expression theme year events.
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Your gift allows the College to fulfill our mission — to prepare our students to do the greatest good in the world.
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This fifth cohort of Klarman Fellows is the largest since the program was launched in 2019.
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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.
My NES education afforded me the unique opportunity to look through a multifaceted lens of religion, culture, gender, and language and showed me how much the relationships of the past affect the present. All of these learning experiences proved to be vital in finding my future educational and career path and transformed my thinking in a capacity for which I will always be grateful. - Danielle Greco '23
We also offer undergraduate minors in Arabic and Near Eastern studies.
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.
February 2023
