About the Program

Minor

The Department of Near Eastern Studies offers a minor in Turkish. Option A is open to students with little or no background in the language. Option B is for students who have completed the equivalent of two years of university-level coursework in the language. For specific information regarding the requirements for each option, please see the Minor Requirements tab on this page.

Students may pursue the major in Ancient Near Eastern Archaeology and Art History and a minor in one of the department's language programs, even though both are administered by the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Students may not pursue a major in one of the Near Eastern Studies languages and a minor in another. However, students may pursue the major in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures and a minor in Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern civilizations. 

Declaring the Minor

After finishing a minor, students are required to submit a Completion of L & S Minor form.

Other Majors and Minors offered by the Department of Near Eastern Studies

Ancient Egyptian Near Eastern Art and Archaeology (Major)
Near Eastern Civilizations (Major)
Near Eastern Languages and Literatures (Major)
Ancient Egyptian and Near Eastern Civilizations (Minor)
Arabic (Minor)
Hebrew (Minor)
Persian (Minor)
Turkish (Minor)

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Minor Requirements

Students who have a strong interest in an area of study outside their major often decide to complete a minor program. These programs have set requirements and are noted officially on the transcript in the memoranda section, but they are not noted on diplomas.

General Guidelines

1. All courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements below must be taken for graded credit.
2. A minimum of three of the upper division courses taken to fulfill the minor requirements must be completed at UC Berkeley.
3. A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 is required for courses used to fulfill the minor requirements.
4. Courses used to fulfill the minor requirements may be applied toward the Seven-Course Breadth requirement, for Letters & Science students.
5. No more than one upper division course may be used to simultaneously fulfill requirements for a student's major and minor programs.
6. All minor requirements must be completed prior to the last day of finals during the semester in which the student plans to graduate. Students who cannot finish all courses required for the minor by that time should see a College of Letters & Science adviser.
7. All minor requirements must be completed within the unit ceiling. (For further information regarding the unit ceiling, please see the College Requirements tab.)

Requirements, Option A

Open to students with no background in the language.

Requirements, Option B

Open to students who can demonstrate proficiency at a level equivalent to that expected of students who have successfully completed the elementary and intermediate courses in the language (2 years of university-level coursework).

Courses

Turkish

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Wali Ahmadi, Associate Professor. Persian languages, Persian literature.
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Asad Ahmed, Associate Professor. Islam (social and intellectual history).
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Daniel Boyarin, Professor. Talmud, rhetoric, Christianity, genealogy of, invention of Judaism.
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Ahmad Diab, Assistant Professor. Modern Arabic Literature.

Ronald Hendel, Professor. Textual criticism, Hebrew bible, ancient Near Eastern religion and mythology, Northwest Semitic linguistics.
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Chana Kronfeld, Professor. Comparative literature, modernism, Hebrew, Yiddish, modern poetry, minor literatures, politics of literary history, feminist stylistics, intertextuality, translation studies.
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Margaret Larkin, Professor. Near Eastern studies.
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Rita Lucarelli, Assistant Professor. Egyptology.
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Sabrina Sonia Maras, Assistant Adjunct Professor.

Maria Mavroudi, Professor. Byzantine studies.
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Benjamin Porter, Assistant Professor. Archaeology, Near Eastern archaeology, Middle East, Arid Environments, anthropology, Heritage, tourism, and Museum Studies.
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Carol A. Redmount, Associate Professor. Egyptology.
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Carol Redmount, Associate Professor. Near Eastern Studies.

Francesca Rochberg, Professor. History of science, ancient near east, cuneiform studies.
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Niek Veldhuis, Professor. Digital humanities, intellectual history, Sumerian, cuneiform.
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Lecturers

Rutie Adler, Lecturer.

Hatem A. Bazian, Lecturer. Near Eastern studies.
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Chava Boyarin, Lecturer.

Elsa Elmahdy, Lecturer.

Gholam-Reza Ghahramani, Lecturer.

John L. Hayes, Lecturer.

Lissette M. Jimenez, Lecturer.

Nawal M. Laymoun, Lecturer.

Sanjyot Mehendale, Lecturer. Near Eastern studies, Central Asia, Central Asian studies, archaeology and art history.
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Haitham S. Mohamed, Lecturer.

Laurie Pearce, Lecturer.

Barbara Richter, Lecturer.

Jason Christopher Vivrette, Lecturer.

Visiting Faculty

Manuel Duarte De Oliveira, Visiting Professor.

Emeritus Faculty

Ayla Algar, Lecturer Emeritus. Turkish language and literature, language pedagogy.

Hamid Algar, Professor Emeritus.

Robert B. Alter, Professor Emeritus. Comparative literature, Near Eastern studies, 19th-century European and American novel, modernism, literary aspects of the bible, modern and biblical Hebrew literature.
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Guitty Azarpay, Professor Emeritus. Art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Central Asia.
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Ariel A. Bloch, Professor Emeritus.

Wolfgang J. Heimpel, Professor Emeritus. Near Eastern studies.
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Anne D. Kilmer, Professor Emeritus.

David Larkin, Lecturer Emeritus. Egyptology.

James T. Monroe, Professor Emeritus.

Jaleh Pirnazar, Lecturer Emeritus. Modern Iranian history. Persian language and literature, Iranian Cinema.

Martin Schwartz, Professor Emeritus. Near Eastern studies.
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Muhammad Siddiq, Professor Emeritus. Near Eastern studies.
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David B. Stronach, Professor Emeritus.