Middle Eastern and North African Studies MENA Minor

The Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MENAS) minor, administered by the Humanities Division in partnership with the Center for the Middle East and North Africa (CMENA), supports the development of a robust knowledge of the Middle East and North Africa through a program that consists of a diverse set of courses across departments and divisions as well as the study of at least one regional language. Courses span the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Arts Divisions and draw on the varied and deep expertise of faculty in multiple academic departments that include the Departments of History, Politics, Anthropology, Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, Feminist Studies, Literature, Languages and Applied Linguistics, the History of Art and Visual Culture, and Film and Digital Media. The objective of the MENAS minor is to promote substantive regional knowledge, understanding, and curiosity among students who are interested in positioning themselves as global citizens.

In order to complete the minor, students are required to take at least three quarters of language instruction in Arabic, Hebrew, or Persian, one specified lower-division introductory course, and five upper-division courses whose primary focus is the history, politics, artistic production, and/or cultures of the Middle East and/or North Africa. The minor consists of a total of nine courses and students must complete courses from at least three different departments as part of the non-language course requirements for the minor.

Course Requirements

At least three quarters of language instruction

These three courses:

ARBC 1First-Year Arabic

5

ARBC 2First-Year Arabic

5

ARBC 3First-Year Arabic

5

Or these three courses:

ARBC 4Second-Year Arabic

5

ARBC 5Second-Year Arabic

5

ARBC 6Second-Year Arabic

5

Or three from the following:

HEBR 1First-Year Hebrew

5

HEBR 2First-Year Hebrew

5

HEBR 3First-Year Hebrew

5

HEBR 4Second-Year Hebrew

5

Or these three courses:

PERS 1First-Year Persian

5

PERS 2First-Year Persian

5

PERS 3First-Year Persian

5

Plus at least one lower division survey course from the following list:

HIS 41The Making of the Modern Middle East

5

HIS 50When Pharaohs Reigned: The History of Ancient Egypt

5

HIS 51Pyramids of Earth: Religion and Symbol in the Ancient World

5

HIS 58From Pirates to Refugees: The History of the Modern Mediterranean

5

HIS 74AIntroduction to Middle Eastern and North African Jewish History: Ancient to Early Modern

5

HIS 74BIntroduction to Middle Eastern and North African Jewish History, 1500-2000

5

LIT 81DThe Prophet and the Qur’an

5

Plus at least five upper division courses from the following list:

The primary focus is the history, politics, artistic production, and/or cultures of the Middle East and/or North Africa.

ANTH 130TReligion and Politics in the Muslim World

5

ANTH 194GPolitics and Secularism

5

FILM 168National Cinema and Culture

5

HAVC 153Neither Venus Nor Virgin: Women's Lives Beyond Men's Constructs in Late Antiquity and Byzantium

5

HAVC 154Byzantine Visual Culture: Politics and Religion in the Empire of Constantinople, 330-1453 A. C

5

HAVC 155Constructing Cleopatra: Power, Sexuality, and Femininity Across the Ages

5

HAVC 190CThe Mediterranean from the Rise of Christianity to the Rise of Islam

5

HAVC 190NTopics in Mediterranean Visual Culture

5

HIS 41The Making of the Modern Middle East

5

HIS 50When Pharaohs Reigned: The History of Ancient Egypt

5

HIS 51Pyramids of Earth: Religion and Symbol in the Ancient World

5

HIS 58From Pirates to Refugees: The History of the Modern Mediterranean

5

HIS 74AIntroduction to Middle Eastern and North African Jewish History: Ancient to Early Modern

5

HIS 74BIntroduction to Middle Eastern and North African Jewish History, 1500-2000

5

HIS 154Post-Colonial North Africa

5

HIS 156AArt, Culture, and Mass Media in the Arab Middle East

5

HIS 156BModern Arab Thought

5

HIS 156CLiving Egyptian History in the City of Cairo

5

HIS 157The Ottoman Empire

5

HIS 159ACleopatra to Constantine: Greek and Roman Egypt

5

HIS 159BWomen and Gender in Ancient Egypt

5

HIS 159CTemple and City: The Egyptian New Kingdom and the City of Thebes

5

HIS 159DWhen Cities Were New: the Rise of Urbanism in the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean

5

HIS 170CMediterranean France: The History and Politics of Immigration

5

HIS 185OThe Holocaust and the Arab World

5

HIS 194LExile, Diaspora, and Displacement: Jewish Lives from North Africa to the Middle East

5

HIS 194SSpecial Topics in Ancient Egyptian History

5

HIS 194VFascism and Anti-Fascism: The Global Spanish Civil War

5

HIS 194WSocial Movements in the Modern Middle East

5

LIT 81DThe Prophet and the Qur’an

5

LIT 117AOld Iranian Literature

5

LIT 125HModern Arabic Novel

5

LIT 130AAncient Literature in Cross-Cultural Perspective

5

LIT 130BTravel Writing and Intercultural Relations in the Middle Ages

5

LIT 130DThe Global Middle Ages

5

LIT 141AEarly Mediterranean Cultures

5

LIT 141DClassical Arabic Literature and Islamic Civilization

5

LIT 141EArab-Islamic Literatures II: 1200-1900

5

LIT 141GGranada: The Moor's Last Sigh and the Muslim's Frontier: The City in the Mediterranean Imagination

6

LIT 168AThe Culture of Islamic Law

5

LIT 168BIslamic Law and Society

5

POLI 140EMiddle East Politics

5

POLI 184
/LGST 184
Shariah and Political Thinking: Law and Politics in Modern Islamic Thought

5

POLI 187Decolonial Global Health: A View from the Middle East and Africa

5