INTRODUCTION
The concentration in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations introduces students to the peoples, languages, cultures and societies of the Near and Middle East. Beyond the development of skills in one (or more) of the languages of the region and participation in the department's one-semester sophomore tutorial, a wide variety of directions of study are available to concentrators, (See Focus). The concentration is intended to provide a solid grounding in the student's area of focus and to offer an in-depth look at the ways in which modern scholars seek to understand the languages and cultures that have come from this region of the world.

A common thread uniting the various possible directions of study in the concentration is the conviction that facility with the appropriate language(s) is the starting point of all serious work in the various areas involved. Accordingly all concentrators must complete at least four semesters of a departmental language. To further this goal, as well as to provide prolonged exposure to the civilizations of the region, the Department makes possible a junior year abroad (e.g., in Cairo or Jerusalem), so long as the course work completed abroad falls within the concentration and is approved by the student's advisor.

Many possibilities for joint concentrations exist and are welcome in NELC. Joint concentrators take four semesters of a Department language, the sophomore and junior tutorials, and at least one other course in Near Eastern studies, in addition to a senior tutorial and to writing a thesis. The junior and senior tutorials can ordinarily be taken as a combined tutorial with the other department in which the student is concentrating.

Undergraduate students with advanced standing have the option of applying for a joint A.B./A.M. degree.

The NELC concentration will be of interest to students who are considering careers in government and foreign service, law, journalism, education, business, and divinity, among others, as well as those who anticipate graduate study in Near Eastern or related fields.

Sophomores and other new concentrators meet first with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Peter Machinist, with whom they discuss their interests and arrange to meet with a member of the faculty who will serve as mentor/advisor in the concentration. Other concentrators will meet with their mentors on a regular basis throughout the semester.

CONCENTRATION REQUIREMENTS

-BASIC REQUIREMENTS: 13 HALF-COURSES

1. Required Courses

a. Four semesters of a departmental language are required of all concentrators. The language will be chosen in consultation with the student's mentor/advisor to fit each student's particular focus. If students can show evidence at the beginning of their concentration that they already have two years' knowledge of their language, they will be asked to take the two years at a more advanced level or in another language relevant to their focus. In addition, as noted under 1b, it is expected that two of the other courses for the concentration will be ones using the departmental language in a substantial way.

b. Five other courses to be chosen in consultation with and requiring the approval of the student's mentor/advisor, in addition to the tutorials listed below. These should represent a coherent intellectual program. At least two of them should be courses that make substantial use of the departmental language that the student has chosen to study. None of them may be elected for pass-fail credit, with the possible exception of a Freshman Seminar already taken by the student, providing that seminar is accepted as relevant by the student's departmental mentor/advisor and the Director of Undergraduate Studies.

2. Tutorials

a. Sophomore year: Near Eastern Civilizations 97. A group tutorial required of all concentrators and normally given in the spring semester. It will comprise an introduction to the cultures and literatures of the Near East in ancient, classical, and modern times, and will also emphasize major themes and problems that cut across individual cultures and historical periods. The tutorial will be taught by one or two NELC and, possibly, affiliated faculty members. Papers required.

b. Junior year: Near Eastern Civilizations 98. An individual tutorial required of all concentrators normally in the fall of their junior year. It will normally lie in the particular direction the student has chosen and will require a paper or papers. In the spring of their junior year concentrators, after consulting with their mentor/advisors, will take either a departmental seminar, an appropriate seminar in another department, or a second junior tutorial with a faculty member in the department or in an affiliated department.

c. Senior year: One semester of Near Eastern Civilizations 99 is required in the senior year, culminating in a paper or other approved project that brings together each student's learning in the field.

3. Thesis: None, but see under 2c, above, and p. 20, below.

4. General Examination: Required. An examination based on the student's work (see below).

-HONORS REQUIREMENTS: 14 HALF-COURSES

1. Required courses: Same as Basic Requirements with the addition of a second semester of Near Eastern Civilizations 99.

2. Tutorials: Same as Basic Requirements except, in the senior year, a full year of Near Eastern Civilizations 99, focused on the writing of a senior thesis.

3. Thesis: Required (see below).

4. General Examination: Required. An examination based on the student's work and thesis.

-JOINT CONCENTRATION REQUIREMENTS (HONORS ONLY): 9 HALF-COURSES

1. Required courses: Four semesters of a departmental language and at least one other departmental course in addition to those listed below.

2. Tutorials: Sophomore year: Near Eastern Civilizations 97. Junior tutorial, at least one semester, to be arranged between the two departments. Senior tutorial: two semesters, again arranged between the two departments.

3. Thesis: Required. Thesis must be related to both fields. Both departments will participate in the grading of the thesis, to be worked out by both departments.

4. General Examination: Required. An examination based on the student's work and thesis (see below).

JOINT A.B./A.M. PROGRAM FOR ADVANCED STANDING STUDENTS
Undergraduate students with advanced standing have the option of applying for a joint A.B./A.M. degree. The Joint Degree Program at Harvard is in practice a double degree program; it involves earning independent master's and bachelor's degrees which are conferred at the same time. Joint degree candidates register at the College in the usual way and carry a normal undergraduate bursar's card. Their academic programs are different from those of other fourth-year students in that they are ordinarily focused narrowly on one area of specialization and often involve quite advanced work in that field. For more information, contact NELC's Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Peter Machinist at 617-495-0333.

Information Concerning A.B./A.M. Degree Candidates

Candidates for A.B./A.M. degrees register as undergraduates (not graduates) during their senior year. An application for the master's degree is due at the Registrar's Office, Graduate Requirements, 20 Garden St., Rm. 109, by April 1.

Note the following requirements, other than departmental, for the Master of Arts degree:

1.) Eight half-courses must be bracketed (i.e. not counted for undergraduate credit) for the master's degree. These courses must be in the subject of, or fulfill the requirements for, the master's degree. The student must file a form to bracket courses taken beyond the bachelor's degree at the Office of Undergraduate Education, University Hall 1st Floor North, by the 5th Monday of the term in which the course is taken.

2.) Courses being used towards the master's degree should ordinarily be taken in the student's fourth year. Courses taken in the third year may, in certain circumstances, be approved by the Chair of the graduate department in which the student is a candidate for the master's degree, as long as these courses are bracketed by the 5th Monday of the term in which they are taken. Retroactive bracketing of courses is allowed only by petition to the Administrative Board explaining special circumstances.

3.) Requirements for the master's degree must be completed by the end of May in the fourth year.

4.) Courses bracketed for the master's degree may not be taken for Pass/Fail. They must be taken for letter grades. A "B" average is required.

5.) In no circumstances may courses taken (or work done - such as a thesis) be counted for both the bachelor's and the master's degree.

6.) Applications for the master's degree, listing the eight half-courses, must be signed by the Chair of the graduate department.

If you have any questions, contact NELC's Director of Undergraduate Studies, Professor Peter Machinist at 617-495-0333

ADVISING
Sophomores and other new concentrators meet first with the Director of Undergraduate Studies, Prof. Peter Machinist, with whom they discuss their interests and who will then help them to find a member of the faculty to serve as mentor/advisor in the concentration. Other concentrators meet with their mentor/advisors on a regular basis throughout the semester.

GUIDELINES FOR SENIOR CONCENTRATORS

Honors Concentrators

1. For the required senior thesis, to be written over the course of the two required semesters of tutorial in the senior year, each concentrator should normally have chosen an advisor/mentor by the spring of his/her junior year. This advisor will usually, though need not, be the person directing the junior tutorial for the concentrator. It is expected, therefore, that the concentrator will be well launched into the thesis by the summer preceding his/her senior year. Indeed, it would be helpful if the junior tutorial, at least for the spring semester, included material related in some way to the area of the thesis topic.

2. Obviously the length of each thesis will be different, but on the average, they will be 50-100 pages (typed and double-spaced), including notes and bibliography. The notes and bibliography should be arranged, consistently, in one of the standard formats, as suggested, e.g., in The Chicago Manual of Style (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), or Kate Turabian, A Manual for Writers of Term Papers (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). The thesis should have a title page, which includes:

The title of the thesis
by <<name of concentrator>>
A Thesis Submitted to the
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
<<and the other department, if the student is a joint concentrator> >
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts with Honors
Harvard University
March, 2008

There should also be pages for a Table of Contents and, as needed and desired, for Lists of Tables, Illustrations, and Abbreviations, as well as of a dedication and acknowledgements. Finally, the concentrator make enough copies of his/her thesis for each member of the examining committee (see No. 4 below) as well as for the Dept. of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. The theses should each be in some kind of binder; the black spring type is preferred, but not required.

3. For concentrators intending to graduate at the June commencement, the thesis will be due on the Friday before the spring recess by 5:00 p.m. in the office of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, 6 Divinity Avenue. For concentrators intending to graduate at mid-year, the thesis will be due on the last class-day of the fall semester, again by 5:00 p.m., in the same office.

4. In consultation with the Director of Undergraduate Studies and the concentrator, the mentor/advisor will appoint an examining committee for the thesis consisting of himself/herself and two other members, at least one of whom must be a full member of the Harvard University faculty.

5. The three members will submit written evaluations of the thesis to the concentrator in advance of the oral examination. The evaluations will ordinarily consider issues of substance as well as of presentation.

6. Approximately five to six weeks after the thesis has been submitted, the mentor/advisor, in consultation with the rest of the examining committee mentioned above and the concentrator, will schedule an oral examination of the concentrator. This examination will last about an hour to an hour and a half and will cover issues posed by the thesis and growing out of the written evaluations of it that have been given to the concentrator beforehand, related questions connected with the subject area in which the thesis has been devised, and questions about the special field within NELC that the concentrator has pursued, as represented by the courses he/she has taken for concentration credit (e.g., modern Middle Eastern history, Jewish history, classical Islam). The mentor/advisor and concentrator should meet well in advance of this examination to clarify any problems regarding its scope and preparation for it. At this meeting, the concentrator should have ready a list of his/her concentration credit courses, together with a brief description of them. This will be given to the mentor/advisor and the other two members of the examining committee, and will help to provide the framework for the questions discussed in the examination. In sum, then, the oral examination should allow the concentrator the opportunity to discuss the significance of his/her thesis, and to reflect on his/her concentration course work as an integrated whole.

7. The recommendation for departmental honors (cum laude, magna cum laude, and summa cum laude) will be based on three criteria: written thesis (approximately 40%); oral examination (approximately 10%); and performance in courses, including tutorials, counted for the concentration (approximately 50%). The final decision about honors, it should be noted, is not made by the department, but by the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Non-Honors Concentration

1. Non-honors concentrators are required to take a minimum of one semester of senior tutorial, in the course of which they will be asked to produce a paper of approximately 20-30 pages (typed and double-spaced).

2. Normally in the spring semester of their senior year, these concentrators will have an oral examination. The examination will be conducted by their mentor/advisor - who is also responsible for the senior tutorial - along with one or more other faculty persons; of these, at least one must be a full-time member of the Harvard University faculty. The examination will cover questions about the special field within NELC that each concentrator has pursued, as represented by the courses he/she has taken (e.g., modern Middle Eastern history, Jewish history, classical Islam). One important purpose of the examination is to encourage the concentrator to think about the interconnections among the courses and so about the coherence of his concentration field as a whole. Each advisor and concentrator should meet well in advance of this examination to clarify any problems regarding its scope and preparation for it. As in the case of the honors oral examination, the concentrator should submit to his/her mentor/advisor and the other examiners a list and brief description of his/her concentration credit courses, doing so well in advance of the scheduled examination. Performance on this examination will be considered as part of the grade for the senior tutorial.

CITATIONS IN FOREIGN LANGUAGES
The department also offers programs in which undergraduates may earn a citation in specific modern or ancient languages. For more information see Citations in Foreign Language.

Back to top of page