MENA

Table of Contents

Program Description

The Middle East and North African (MENA) Program at Binghamton University coordinates study of the Middle East, North and Sudanic Africa, and European countries that have extensive Islamic contact. The program develops and integrates research and graduate and undergraduate instruction about the MENA area. Courses related to this area are offered in history, geography, political science, anthropology, sociology, economics, music, Arabic, Ottoman and modern Turkish, Hebrew, and Persian.

Undergraduate students with majors in the humanities and social sciences may enroll in the Middle East and North African Program and, upon successful completion of the program, receive a MENA certificate. To receive the certificate, students must meet all college and departmental major requirements and complete the MENA requirements, including a total of eight MENA courses. Independent studies and honors work may be credited as MENA courses, when approved by the appropriate department and the MENA committee. The program does not supplant the normal disciplinary specialization or undergraduate major, but permits certain selections that constitute a coherent course of study about this area, within the framework of requirements for graduation. Opportunities are available for travel and study in the MENA region under SUNY sponsorship (for example, in Binghamton's Arabic studies program in Morocco).

Graduate work for certification in MENA studies, leading to the MA and Ph.D., may be taken in history, political science, anthropology, comparative literature, sociology, and classical and Near Eastern studies. The graduate program offers flexibility in programming courses for individual student interests. There are opportunities for collaboration with faculty, exchange programs with other leading Middle East and North African study centers, and individual language instruction in Arabic, Ottoman and modem Turkish, Hebrew, Sanskrit, and Persian. MENA graduate students interested in the developing nations may have access to the resources of the independent Institute for Development Anthropology upon application to its office in Binghamton.

For the most up to date, official information on the program, see the Binghamton University Bulletin.

 

Courses

Anthropology

Civilization and Peasant Culture; Southwest Asian and North African Culture; Old World Prehistory; Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology; Folk and Peasant Societies; Women in the Middle East; Mediterranean Ethnology; Anthropology of Developing Nations; Political Ecology of Drought, Desertification, and Hunger.

 Instructors: Antoun, Horowitz, Mohsen, Moench, Pollock, Salem-Murdock
 

Art and Art History

Ancient Egyptian Art

 Instructors: Kadish, Ruggles
 

Geography

Geography of Southwestern Asia and North Africa

 Instructors: Blumler, Budin

Political Science

Political Institutions and Processes in the Middle East and North Africa; International Politics of the Middle East; Politics of Israel; Political Systems of the MENA Area; The Arab-Israel Dispute.

 Instructor: Mazrui

Economics

Economics of Developing Countries; Economics of the Middle East.

Instructors: Staff
 

History

Ancient Egyptian Civilization; Ancient Near Eastern Civilization; Islamic History and Civilization to 1453; Islamic History and Civilization from 1500 to the Present; History of the Ottoman Empire; Religious History of Judaism; Biblical History from Hebrew Origins to the Exile; Jewish History from Ezra to the Rise of Islam; Muslim Peoples of the World; Ancient Near Eastern Religions; Mideastern Jews to Modem Times; Muslim Social History to the 19th Century; History of North Africa, 16-20th Century; Islam in Africa; Middle East in Modern Times; 20th Century Middle East; Social and Economic History of the Middle East; Colonialism and Decolonialization in North Africa; Medieval Muslim West; American Diplomatic History (Middle East).

 Instructors: R. Abou El-Haj, Kadish, Muhammad, D. Quataert

Sociology

Sociology of the Middle East

Instructor: Keyder
 

Music

Music of the East; Performance Groups Specializing in Non-European Music; Ethnomusicology.

Instructor: Clatworthy
 

Arabic

Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Arabic; Readings in Modern Arabic Prose; Historical Introduction to Arabic Literature; Arabic Conversation and Composition; Modern Novel and Short Story; Arabic Reading for Social Science; Arabic Poetry.

Instructors: R. Abou El-Haj, Lacey, Muhammad, Staff

 

Hebrew

Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Hebrew; Readings in Hebrew Literature; Hebrew Literature in Translation; Hebrew Conversation and Composition; Biblical, Post-Biblical, and Modem Hebrew Literature.

Instructors: Morell, Taub
 

Persian

Introductory Persian

Instructors: Lacey, Staff
 

Turkish

Modem Turkish; Ottoman Turkish.

Instructors: R. Abou El-Haj, D. Quataert, Staff
 

MENA Seminar

Offered each semester on various topics.

Instructors: Staff

 

 

Faculty

Rifaat Abou El-Haj, PhD, Princeton University
Richard Antoun, PhD, Harvard University
Allan Arkush, PhD, Brandeis University
Reinhard Bernbeck, PhD, Freie Universität Berlin
Mark Blumier, PhD, University of California at Berkeley
Michael M. Horowitz, PhD, Columbia University
Gerald E. Kadish, PhD, University of Chicago
Caglar Keyder, PhD, University of California at Berkeley
Kevin Lacey, PhD, Harvard University
Ricardo René Laremont, PhD, Yale University
Saul Levin, PhD, University of Chicago
Ali A. Mazrui, DPhil, Oxford University
Richard Moench, PhD, Harvard University
Sofia Mohsen, PhD, Michigan State University
Akbar Muhammad, PhD, Edinburgh University
Susan M. Pollock, PhD, University of Michigan
Donald Quataert, PHD, University of California at Los Angeles
Muneera Salem-Murdock, PhD, Binghamton University
Jalal Zuwiyya, (MENA Bibliographer and Coordinator)  MLS, SUNY-Geneseo; MA, Binghamton University

Study Abroad Programs

Morocco
Turkey

Information on Binghamton University

Binghamton University Web Page--including links to related programs, application information, etc.

The Graduate School--Click here for information on Graduate Programs at Binghamton University, including and on-line application

The Binghamton University Library--has an outstanding collection of texts dealing with North Africa and the Middle East, including a substantial collection of Arabic and Hebrew texts


 

 For more information, write or call:
Middle East and North African Program
Binghamton University
P.O. Box 6000
Binghamton, New York 13902-6000
Telephone: 607-777-4738
FAX: 607-777-2896
email mena@binghamton.edu
Last updated 4-2000

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