You do not have to be a MELC major to benefit from MELC courses. The Department offers broad-based, culturally-integrated general education courses on Middle Eastern languages, literatures, history, cultures and thought, as well as more specialized courses which incorporate texts taught in translation, to all students. Many of these fulfill the General and Distributional requirements. We offer several Freshman Seminars each year and participate actively in the Pilot Curriculum and other initiatives in the School of Arts & Sciences.
But for more in-depth knowledge, students should pursue our major, which, through its curricular requirements, offers a broad base of knowledge about the Middle East and, through its Concentration Paper requirement, encourages undergraduate research in one of five areas of concentration: Ancient Middle Eastern Civilizations (AME), Arabic & Islamic Studies (Arab/Islam), Arabic & Hebrew Studies - modern or medieval (Arab/Heb), Hebrew & Judaica (Heb/Jud), and Persian Language & Literature (PLL). Talented majors may wish to consider our Honors Program, or, in rare cases, a special intensified major program leading to the award of both the BA and MA degrees, a process known as submatriculation.
For students majoring in other departments, MELC offers a double major, a minor, and language certification in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish.