
Alumni Spotlight: D. Gershon Lewental '02
"Without question, my years as an NES major had an enormous impact on my career path, my scholarship, and my teaching," says Dr. Lewental of his time at Cornell.
Read MoreWe offer undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to study the languages, literatures, cultures, religions and history of regions from ancient Sumer to the modern Middle East. We also help to educate students and the wider academic community about cross-cultural, trans-historical and inter-religious issues related to the region.
"Without question, my years as an NES major had an enormous impact on my career path, my scholarship, and my teaching," says Dr. Lewental of his time at Cornell.
Read MoreThis semester’s work also featured an end-of-semester mini-field course for local children and youth presented by two Cornell students.
Read MorePre-enrollment for Spring 2023 begins November 2 for undergraduate students at Cornell. Check out the courses offered by the department.
Read MoreAnna Kawar '06 started her time at Cornell initially planning on going to medical school; however, after taking courses in areas such as sociology, Near Eastern Studies, history, etc., she decided to broaden her possibilities for a future career.
Read MoreAfter graduating from Cornell University as an NES major and College Scholar in '02, Jonathan Levine moved back to the Washington, DC area to work as an international affairs fellow at the American Jewish Committee, a nonprofit advocacy organization.
Read MoreThe study compiled decades of high-resolution satellite imagery from the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic of Azerbaijan.
Read More“These efforts recognize the critical questions Jewishness raises and its place as part of a shared heritage.”
Read MoreNES Ph.D. student Sasha Prevost received the UW Madison Summer Program Poetry Award.
Read MoreInterested 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.
Explore the diversity of the Middle East in a class like "Wondrous Literatures of the Near East" (NES 2754) or "Islam and Gender" (NES 2270).
We offer classes on a wide range of topics, regions, and time periods of the Middle East.
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 and Biblical Hebrew.
See all of the Middle Eastern languages taught in the department.
We send out e-newsletters regularly during the academic school year.
Isaac Kramnick
Edited by: Ross Brann
Occasional Publications of the Program of Jewish Studies and the Department of Near Eastern Studies #7, 2022