WHY NYU?

The leading Middle East studies programs can look very similar when comparing their catalogues. Two things make a difference: the intellectual interests and approach of the faculty; and the interactions among students, faculty, and visiting scholars that make up the day-to-day life of the program.

Here are some of the best features of our program to help you decide whether to apply:

1. Our faculty is recognized for their innovative approach to Middle Eastern studies, combining the study of politics, history, economics and culture. The program has less emphasis on current affairs and the problems of U.S. policy, and more on the concerns of peoples and groups in the region, questions of economic and social justice, the contemporary cultural and imaginative worlds of the region, and the historical and cultural pasts that inform the present. The course of study for the master's degree is flexible, to accommodate new directions in faculty research and the individual learning goals of students.

2. We are not just an Arab studies program. Our strength is the study of the Arab world, but our faculty include three scholars of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey and five of modern Iran. We do not study the Middle East in isolation, but explore historical and contemporary connections with other regions including the Balkans, the northern Mediterranean, and Central, South, and Southeast Asia.

3. The masters program is part of a larger community of students and scholars. We are an independent MA program with our own faculty and staff. But unlike many other programs, we are housed and share activities with a department of Middle Eastern Studies. At NYU this is an active, interdisciplinary department that has abandoned the old model of Oriental Studies and recruited mostly younger faculty interested in questions of social theory, comparative history, and cultural studies. Master's students share classes, activities, and ideas with PhD students from this department, as well as from Anthropology, Politics, Comparative Literature, and History.

4. We are a research center, and all our teaching is related to current research on the region. Graduate students participate with faculty in frequent workshops, where leading scholars from within and beyond Middle Eastern studies argue over current research and ideas.

6. New York is a global city, one of the centers of world culture and politics. The internship program takes advantage of our location, providing a chance to sample careers and make contacts with organizations like the United Nations, diplomatic missions, human rights groups, and international cultural organizations. We also host many of the writers, film makers, musicians and other intellectuals and public figures from the Middle East who pass through the city.

7. We are in Greenwich Village, a cultural and social center of New York City, and the liveliest neighborhood in one of the country's safest major cities. NYU is an open, urban campus, located amid sidewalk restaurants and coffee shops, new and second-hand book stores, the art and design world of SoHo, and an endless choice of film screenings, theater, music, and entertainment. The Kevorkian Center lies in the middle of the campus and Village, on historic Washington Square. Its screening room, library and seminar rooms, and its active program of classes, workshops, luncheons and coffee hours, make it a center for students' intellectual and social life .