Graduate Study in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies
Director of Graduate Studies: Professor Philip Kennedy

Contents
Introduction
Admission
Financial Aid
Advising
Master of Arts
Doctor of Philosophy
Graduate courses

Introduction

The graduate programs of the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies provide training in fields relating to the history, cultures, languages, literatures, and religions of the Middle East, including ancient Egyptian civilization but focusing mainly on the period from the rise of Islam to the present. Members of the department are drawn from different disciplines (including anthropology, history, Islamic studies, language instruction, literature, and the study of religion) and are committed to providing students with a solid disciplinary grounding; at the same time, the department fosters interdisciplinary and comparative approaches to the study of the Middle East and the Muslim world.

Subject to approval by the DGS and their advisor(s), students may opt for one of several available “tracks” of course work and supervised research leading to the doctorate in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. Each of these tracks may have its own specific requirements, in addition to or instead of the basic requirements for the doctorate; see below for details. At present the tracks offered by MEIS include: culture and representation; Arabic literature; and Islamic studies.

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Admission

Please note:Anyone who applies for graduate study in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies should be strongly committed to going on to the Ph.D. The Department regards the Master of Arts degree which it offers not as a terminal degree but as a marker of its graduate students’ progress toward the Ph.D.
If you have or are about to receive your B.A. and are not sure whether you really want to go on to the Ph.D., or if you are primarily interested in a master's degree, you should apply to the Kevorkian Center's Program in Near Eastern Studies, which offers an M.A. in Near Eastern Studies as well as various joint M.A. programs in areas such as with business, journalism and museum studies.
If you do apply to the graduate program of the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies with the intent of continuing on to the Ph.D., please be sure to use the proper code for this Ph.D. program on your application, even if you are applying with only a B.A. in hand. You may apply to the Joint Ph.D. Program in History and Middle Eastern Studies only if you will have received an M.A. before matriculating at NYU; if you will have a B.A. only, you should apply to the graduate program of the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, to the History Department, or to some other NYU department or program.]
All applicants for graduate study in the Department of Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies must submit Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores. Graduates of undergraduate institutions where instruction is in a language other than English must also submit scores from the TOEFL or equivalent. The department strongly recommends that applicants plan to have already acquired proficiency in Arabic, Persian or Turkish at the intermediate level or beyond before their matriculation at NYU. The department accepts applications for fall admission only; no applications received after the deadline set by the Graduate School of Arts and Science will be considered. Students primarily interested in the history of the Middle East, regardless of period, should apply for admission to the Joint Ph.D. Program in History and Middle Eastern Studies. If you have only the B.A., you should apply to MEIS while indicating in your personal statement that your ultimate goal is admission to the Joint Program. Students admitted in this way must meet the requirements for the M.A. specified by MEIS. When you are close to completing your M.A. requirements, you may apply for admission to the History/MES Ph.D. program, in accordance with the procedures specified by the departments of History and MEIS; you will then be evaluated for admission. However, admission is neither automatic nor guaranteed; applicants who are denied admission will receive the M.A. as their terminal degree. Admission is in any case contingent on outstanding academic performance, and will be deemed provisional until the completion of all M.A. requirements and until comprehensive examinations are taken and passed.
There are four ways of obtaining an application:
1. Download an application from the Web
2. Email gsas.admissions@nyu.edu
3. Phone (212) 998-8050
4. Write to:
Graduate School of Arts and Science
P.O. Box 907, Cooper Station
New York, New York 10276-0907
GSAS Application and Admissions FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

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Financial Aid

MEIS can admit only a very limited number of graduate students each year, but all of those admitted are awarded MacCracken Fellowships, which usually provide five years of tuition and stipend. Students will be required to serve as teaching assistants in departmental or other undergraduate courses for half of their MacCracken Fellowship period. The department sees teaching as a very important part of graduate training, and having teaching experience will also serve you well when you pursue academic positions or other employment.
Limited GSAS and departmental funds may be applied for in order to support participation in conferences, summer language study, and research-related travel. Support for language training during the academic year (at approved programs in the Middle East only) and during the summer (at approved programs in the Middle East or the United States) may also be applied for – by U.S. citizens and permanent residents only – through the Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship program; for details contact the Director, Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies, New York University, 50 Washington Square South, New York, N.Y. 10012. The deadline for summer and academic-year FLAS fellowships is usually the end of the preceding January.
As you go through our graduate program you will need to plan ahead, especially with regard to applying for fellowships for predissertation and doctoral dissertation research in the Middle East. Keep in mind that most fellowships have application deadlines about a year in advance of your expected date of departure; that is, you will need to apply in September-November of one year for fellowships that begin in September of the following year. That means that you must begin developing your doctoral dissertation research plans quite early in your graduate career.

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Advising

When you enter the department's graduate program you will be assigned an adviser with whom you should consult regarding course selection and other questions; but you should always feel free to discuss any questions or concerns you may have with the department’s Director of Graduate Studies (DGS). You may change your adviser with the approval of the DGS. Over the course of your graduate studies you will be working closely with a range of faculty advisers, for your major fields, your dissertation, etc. The DGS will need to approve your choice of adviser(s), to make sure that you are working with the faculty member(s) most suited to your needs and interests; when the time comes, the department will also need to approve the composition of your dissertation committee and any changes thereto.
You should plan on meeting your adviser(s) frequently -- at the beginning, middle and end of each semester, at the very least. While you are still doing course work, you will need to meet with your adviser at the beginning of each semester, before registering, to discuss your plans for the semester and get his or her signature on a proposed plan of study for the semester; the signed plan should be turned in to the department office and will be kept in your file. Once you've finished your course work, you will need to meet with your dissertation adviser and other faculty regularly to discuss your research and report on your progress.

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Master of Arts

The Master of Arts degree requires the completion of 32 points of course work, no more than 8 points of which may be transferred from other graduate schools. All incoming students must take the following courses: Problems and Methods in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (G77.1687); two courses in Middle Eastern history; two other Middle East-related courses; one seminar on a Middle East-related topic; and two language courses at the advanced level or beyond.

Students must also either complete a master’s thesis that meets departmental standards or, with the approval of their adviser, submit two seminar papers, at least one of which would contain substantial original research based on primary sources and both of which would, in the judgment of the faculty members reading them, have been developed and substantially reworked such that they are roughly equivalent in caliber to work that might reasonably be submitted for publication in a scholarly journal in the student’s field. The master’s thesis or the two papers must be discussed and approved in an oral defense that will include the faculty readers and the student.

Requirements for the Master of Arts degree should be met within two years of matriculation at New York University. No student who has not yet received the master’s degree by that time may register for additional course work without departmental approval, nor may any student who has already received the M.A. degree continue course work without departmental approval.

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Doctor of Philosophy

Students already in the department working toward the M.A. degree who want to continue graduate study and pursue the Ph.D. degree should apply to the department for permission by the beginning of the semester in which they will complete all requirements for the M.A. degree. That application should include a statement of research interests, an outlined plan of study, and at least three letters of recommendation from NYU faculty. Departmental permission to continue graduate work toward the Ph.D. degree is neither automatic nor guaranteed; students to whom the department denies permission to continue graduate study receive the M.A. as their terminal degree, provided they have met all the requirements for that degree.

Students who already have, or are about to receive, an M.A. degree from another department, program, or university should apply for admission in accordance with the procedures specified by the Graduate School of Arts and Science. At the department’s discretion, students may be granted up to 32 points of degree credit for graduate-level course work done elsewhere.

Students must complete 72 points of graduate course work, including at least three graduate seminars and Problems and Methods in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies (G77.1687), if not already taken. They must also demonstrate proficiency in either Arabic, Persian, or Turkish as well as a reading knowledge sufficient for research purposes of at least one European language. A student may be required by his or her dissertation adviser to learn additional languages, in keeping with the student’s specific research needs.

As early as possible in their graduate studies, students should choose two major fields and begin focusing their studies on them. Subject to the availability of faculty, major fields may include Islamic studies; ancient Egyptian history/language/culture; classical Arabic language and literature; modern Arabic language and literature; culture and representation in the modern/contemporary Middle East; Persian language and literature; and Turkish language and literature. Students primarily interested in any period or aspect of Middle Eastern history should see below for information about the Joint Ph.D. Program in History and Middle Eastern Studies.

By the end of their third year of graduate study, students should have taken and passed written comprehensive examinations in each of their two major fields. Students prepare for these examinations by course work and by working through reading lists developed by departmental faculty for each major field. This preparation will take place under the supervision of the faculty member(s) in the framework of formal or informal reading courses and/or by taking the “literature of the field” course that may be offered for that field. If there is no "literature of the field" course offered for your major field, you may, during the two semesters preceding the exam, register for a total of no more than 4 points of Directed Study with your major field adviser in order to prepare for the exam.

Each written comprehensive examination will be read and evaluated by your major field adviser and by a second reader designated by the department, and it will be followed by an oral examination administered by the two readers. Students who do not pass a major field examination may petition the department for permission to take it one more time.
After completing the major field requirements, all course work (including all incompletes) and all language requirements, the student should formulate a dissertation proposal in consultation with his or her primary dissertation adviser and other department faculty. The dissertation proposal should include an extensive critical bibliography of the relevant scholarly literature, a thorough discussion of how your proposal relates to that literature, and an explanation of the approaches, methods and sources you plan to use in your dissertation research. The proposal must be successfully defended before the student’s adviser and two other faculty members serving as examiners.
You may then proceed to research and write your doctoral dissertation, under the supervision of your adviser and committee. The completed dissertation must conform to departmental and Graduate School of Arts and Science standards, be read and approved by the student’s supervisor and two other NYU faculty members (or approved faculty from other universities) who serve as readers; however, such approval means only that the dissertation is ready to be submitted to a defense. It must then be submitted for a public oral defense in which these three readers, along with two other examiners designated by the department, participate. To be accepted, the dissertation must be approved by at least four of the five participants in the dissertation defense, in accordance with GSAS procedures.

Arabic Literature

This track offers training in various periods of Arabic literature and in theoretical approaches to Arab cultural production. These include medieval poetry and poetics; the theory of medieval narrative and fiction (from high-brow historiography to the popular canon of the Arabian Nights); modern Arabic literary theory; the modern Arabic novel in a global context; drama and theater criticism; modern poetry; contemporary Arabic popular culture and mass media; literature and film; theoretical and practical perspectives on literary translation from and into Arabic; and Arab Anglophone and Francophone transnational cultural production.
 
Students in this track will, in consultation with their advisor(s), craft a program of coursework and supervised training in a range of areas, including medieval Arabic poetry and poetics; medieval Arabic historiography, fiction and narrative; modern Arabic poetry; the modern Arabic novel; and modern Arabic literary theory. Students in this track will also take courses, and work with faculty, in the Department of Comparative Literature in order to enhance their training in literary theory and
comparative approaches.

Culture and Representation

This track focuses on focuses on the theories, methodologies, discourses and practices of representation as they relate to Middle Eastern societies and cultures. This track seeks to provide a coherent interdisciplinary framework and academic space for exploring a range of overlapping fields of inquiry, including film/media studies, visual culture, literature, and cultural anthropology. The purpose of the track is to familiarize the student with scholarship concerning Middle Eastern cultural politics in relation to broader intellectual debates, including postcolonial theory and transnational cultural studies.

All students in this track must fulfill the department’s basic requirements for the doctorate (see above). One of the two required major fields which students in this track will prepare and in which they must pass a comprehensive examination will focus on some of the landmark texts and key debates in the scholarly study of culture and representation, though the reading list for the field may also be formulated to reflect individual students’ specific needs and interests. Faculty may specify an exam format which differs from that used for other tracks in MEIS.

Islamic Studies

The Islamic Studies track is designed to offer students an integrated program of training in the academic study of the religion of Islam, combining the philological study of texts with the methodological perspectives of religious studies. Students opting for this track can draw on faculty expertise in such areas as Qur’an, prophetic tradition, Islamic law, Islamic theology, and religious praxis, while also taking advantage of the comparative and methodological resources of NYU's Program in Religious Studies.

The requirements for the Ph.D. in this track are essentially the same as those for the regular MEIS Ph.D., with the following modifications:

1. As soon as possible after your arrival at NYU you must take G77.2725 (Problems and Methods in the Study of Islam), instead of G77.1687, Problems and Methods in Middle Eastern Studies.

2. As soon as possible after your arrival at NYU you must take G77.1001 (Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion).

3. Your choice of courses, at both the M.A. (if applicable) and Ph.D. levels, must be designed to cover all aspects of the Islamic religious tradition, to the extent feasible.

4. Of your two comprehensive examinations, one must be in Islamic Studies and the other in either Middle Eastern history (with a focus on a specific period) or in literature (of a designated Middle Eastern language).

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Graduate Courses

Graduate students at NYU can, with a minimum of bureaucratic hassle, take graduate courses at several other New York area universities, including Columbia, Fordham, the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, the New School for Social Research and Princeton. The department encourages graduate students to explore the many opportunities for course work, faculty assistance and research available in the New York area.
All graduate courses normally offered by the department are worth 4 points. The courses for which you can register can be divided into the following types:
Graduate-level lecture courses:we offer (on a rotating basis) three graduate-level lecture survey courses. These are G77.1640 (History of the Middle East, 600-c.1200), G77.1641 (History of the Middle East, c. 1200-c. 1800) and G77.1642 (History of the Middle East, c. 1750-present). MEIS students who need an introduction to some period of Middle Eastern history may take one or more of these courses, after consulting with their advisor; if an introductory survey course in which you are interested is not being offered in a particular semester, you may (with your advisor's approval) take the corresponding undergraduate survey course as a Directed Study (see below) and thereby get degree credit for the course.
Colloquia:Most graduate course work takes place in colloquia, which focus on a specific topic and/or period. Enrollment is usually limited to about 15 and permission of the instructor is sometimes required. The goal of the colloquium is to familiarize students with key issues, debates and texts in a particular field or subfield, through readings, discussion, and writing assignments. Faculty may require students who lack adequate background in a particular subject to take some more introductory course as a prerequisite for a particular colloquium.
With the permission of the instructor, to be obtained at the beginning of the semester, you may take a colloquium for seminar credit; the instructor will specify additional course requirements accordingly, including submission of a seminar paper.
As noted above, all incoming graduate students are required to take G77.1687, Problems and Methods in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, the first time it is offered after you arrive at NYU.
Seminars:Like colloquia, seminars are kept small and enrollment requires the instructor's permission. Seminars explore a particular issue or period in depth, and participants will be required to research and write a seminar paper based to the greatest extent possible on primary sources in a Middle Eastern language.
In addition to the regular classroom-based courses described above, the department offers various forms of individualized study, which may carry 1-4 points. Before registering for any of the following types of individual study, however, you must use the form available in the department office to secure the approval of both the faculty member with whom you wish to work and the DGS. Certain restrictions apply to these courses:
Master's Thesis Research:During the semester in which they will be completing their master's thesis - normally the spring semester of their second year of full-time study - M.A. candidates may register for a maximum of 4 points of Master's Thesis Research. This will give you some time free from course work to research and write your master's thesis.
Directed Study:Over the two semesters preceding your comprehensive exams, you may register for a maximum of 4 points of Directed Study to prepare your major fields, under the supervision of your major field adviser(s). However, if a "literature of the field" course is offered to prepare you for a comprehensive exam in a major field, you may not take both that course and a Directed Study for the same field.
Directed Study also has another use: it is a means by which graduate students can register and receive degree credit for undergraduate courses – for example, for an undergraduate lecture survey course they need to take when the equivalent graduate course is not being offered. The DGS must approve all such uses of Directed Study.
Dissertation Research:After the successful completion of your comprehensive exams, you may register for a maximum of 4 points of Dissertation Research; this time may be used to formulate a dissertation proposal and prepare for its defense.
Independent Study:With approval from both the faculty member with whom you want to work and the DGS, you may register for no more than 4 points of Independent Study in any academic year. Every Independent Study must include a writing assignment, which might be a research paper, a bibliographical essay, etc. However, please keep in mind the department discourages excessive use of Independent Study: given the growth in the size and diversity of our faculty, you should plan on pursuing and developing your research interests in the framework of regularly-offered courses.
Reading Courses:This category of courses allow a faculty member and a group of students some flexibility if they wish to work together on a specific set of texts. However, as with Independent Study, the department much prefers that students develop and pursue their special interests through participation in regularly-offered colloquia and seminars.
In any case, you may not register for more than 4 points of credit for Master's Thesis Research, Directed Study, Dissertation Research and/or Independent Study combined in any one academic year, unless you have obtained prior approval from the DGS.

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