Graduate Program

A Letter from the Director of Graduate Studies

Thank you for your interest in the graduate program in Middle East Studies at the University of Utah. We are currently accepting applications for Fall Semester 2005, deadline January 15, 2005. Applications for Spring Semester 2006 have a September 15, 2005 deadline.

The Middle East Center offers two graduate degrees, the M.A.and the Ph.D in Middle East Studies. At the doctoral level, students choose an area of specialization from the following: Arabic, Arabic and Linguistics, Persian, History, or Political Science. At the master’s level, in addition to the above, areas of specialization include Hebrew, Turkish, and Anthropology.

These programs are interdisciplinary in character while permitting a degree of specialization in a particular discipline. The first part of the degree title--Middle East Studies- designates the interdisciplinary "area studies" aspect of a student's program. The second part of the degree title- Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, Arabic and Linguistics, Anthropology, History, or Political Science--identifies the area of specialization. The distinctiveness of the Middle East Studies programs vis-a-vis the various departmental degree programs in which students do work on the Middle East consists in the greater weight given to the interdisciplinary aspect of the programs and to the language component.

For more information, please contact Dr. Peter von Sivers, Director of Graduate Studies or June Marvel, Academic Program Specialist, at (801) 581-7143.