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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.
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.
Eleven teaching faculty from across the university have been awarded Cornell’s highest honors for graduate and undergraduate teaching, Interim President Michael I. Kotlikoff announced Oct. 22.
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“Unearthing Unseeing: Archaeology, Heritage, and Forensics in the Shadow of State Violence” will highlight new approaches to cultural remains caught up in contemporary conflicts and past trauma.
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“We felt this is an important resource that should be available to our humanists at all levels, whether they have the resources to pay for membership or not,” said Peter John Loewen, the Harold Tanner Dean of Arts and Sciences.
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Nathan Thrall will talk about his most recent book, “A Day in the Life of Abed Salama: Anatomy of a Jerusalem Tragedy.”
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Cornell researchers have received a $150,000 NEH Digital Humanities Advanced Grant to create a 3D virtual modeling project based on the Casa della Regina Carolina, a large Pompeian house.
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Cornell’s “Antisemitism and Islamophobia Examined” series concludes this semester with a talk by Derek Penslar, the William Lee Frost Professor of Jewish History at Harvard University.
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Cornell, the only institution offering regular multilevel instruction in all six of the major Southeast Asian languages – Burmese, Indonesian, Khmer, Filipino (Tagalog), Thai and Vietnamese – will host a conference on the teaching of these languages on Sept. 19-21.
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"Cornell alumni are generous with their time and efforts to assist students, to answer questions from students, or connect them to people and places."
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MW 11:40-12:55, H. Polat, 3 credits
A counter-history of modern humanitarianism, humanitarian law, and human rights, with perspectives from the Near East.
MW 10:10-11:25, J. Lawrence, 3 credits
This course will introduce students to the study of sex and sexuality in the medieval and early modern Islamic World.
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.
