
Outstanding faculty win 2025 teaching and advising awards
Among those being recognized for exceptional teaching and mentorship this year are faculty members Begüm Adalet, Claudia Verhoeven, and Marcelo Aguiar.
Read moreStudy 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.
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.
Among those being recognized for exceptional teaching and mentorship this year are faculty members Begüm Adalet, Claudia Verhoeven, and Marcelo Aguiar.
Read moreSam Bueker is majoring in government & Near Eastern studies.
Read moreHyrum Edwards is a Robert S. Harrison College Scholar who also majored in history, Jewish studies & Near Eastern studies.
Read moreAshley Koca is a Robert S. Harrison College Scholar and also majors in Near Eastern studies and history of art.
Read moreCornell experts comment on the legacy of Pope Francis, who died on Monday, marking the end of a historic papacy.
Read moreColumbia University's Khatchig Mouradian will give a lecture, “Ethnic Cleansing in the Long 19th Century: The Native American, Circassian, and Armenian Cases,” on April 24.
Read moreWith the award, Ziad Fahmy is working on the first critical history of early Egyptian radio.
Read moreGabe Levin, editor in chief of the Cornell Daily Sun and a student in the College of Arts & Sciences, spent the summer of 2024 reporting on the Israel-Gaza war.
Read moreTake 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.
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.