Near Eastern Studies

University of California, Berkeley

This is an archived copy of the 2022-23 guide. To access the most recent version of the guide, please visit http://guide.berkeley.edu.

Overview

Instruction in the Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES) is concerned with the languages, literatures, and civilizations of the ancient, medieval, and modern Near East. The department offers specialized training in archaeology; Assyriology; Egyptology; Judaic and Islamic studies; Comparative Semitics; Turkish language; and Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian language and literature.

The department's courses may also serve to enhance programs in related fields such as anthropology, linguistics, history of art, history, political science, comparative literature, and folklore. Lecture courses offered by the department present a comprehensive body of information on past (Near Eastern) and present (Middle Eastern) civilizations. Many of the courses taught in the department are restricted to a small number of students and thus afford an opportunity for close interaction with the instructing staff.

Cooperative arrangements between the University and the nearby Graduate Theological Union (GTU) enable students in the department to use the extensive library holdings of the GTU and to supplement their programs with additional courses in Syro-Palestinian archaeology, Biblical studies, and Semitic epigraphy and philology.

Libraries

The four NES libraries play an essential role in the Department of Near Eastern Studies and are indispensable for student research. The libraries house reference materials and function as reading and seminar rooms for students and faculty.

The Islamic Studies Library contains references and other materials relating to Islamic Studies and Arabic, Persian, and Turkish languages and literatures, and incorporates the Mahjoub Persian Library. The Hebrew/Semitics library includes references and other materials relating to the fields of Comparative Semitics, and Hebrew and Judaic studies. Access — apart from seminar classes — is generally limited to graduate students in the department. Both libraries are non circulating. The Cuneiform Seminar Room is a library that provides a wide range of reference works, text editions, and primary sources for the study of the Ancient Near East, including Sumerian, Akkadian, Hittite, Archaeology, and Art History.

The Baer-Keller Library of Egyptology is a non circulating collection of Egyptological volumes maintained by the Near Eastern Studies Department primarily for the use of UC Berkeley students and faculty pursuing serious study of Egyptology. Egyptology students and professionals from other institutions are also welcome; interested individuals should apply to the Near Eastern Studies Department for access. The core of the library collection comes from bequests to NES by Professors Klaus Baer (1987) and Cathleen (Candy) Keller (2008). Professor Baer was an Associate Professor of Egyptology and History at UC Berkeley before becoming a Professor of Egyptology at the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago. Professor Keller was an Associate Professor of Egyptology at UC Berkeley for many years.

Research

The Phoebe Hearst Museum of Anthropology has extensive holdings of ancient artifacts, including Classical material, cuneiform tablets, and an ancient Egyptian collection of more than 17,000 objects.

The Tebtunis Papyri consist of the papyrus documents that were found in the winter of 1899/1900 at the site of ancient Tebtunis, Egypt. The expedition to Tebtunis, led by the British archaeologists Bernard Grenfell and Arthur Hunt, was financed for the University of California by Mrs. Phoebe Apperson Hearst. The Tebtunis Papyri is the largest collection of papyrus documents from a single site in the United States. Although the collection has never been counted and inventoried completely, the number of fragments contained in it exceeds 21,000.

The department's Ancient Near Eastern Seminar Room houses two Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) projects: the Digital Corpus of Cuneiform Lexical Texts (DCCLT) under the directorship of Niek Veldhuis and Hellenistic Babylonian Texts Images and Names (HBTIN) directed by Laurie Pearce. Dr. Pearce also heads another digital database project, the Berkeley Prosopography Service (BPS).

Other helpful resources can be found at the following website: http://nes.berkeley.edu/resources.html

Colloquia, Seminars, and Lectures

The NES Brown Bag Talks are a series of informal papers presented at noon in 254 Social Sciences Building.

Undergraduate Programs

Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures: BA (with emphases in Arabic, Hebrew, or Persian)
Arabic: Minor
Hebrew: Minor
Persian: Minor
Turkish: Minor

Graduate Programs

Near Eastern Studies: PhD, MA (with concentrations in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian Languages and Literatures, Near Eastern Archaeology, Cuneiform, Hebrew Bible, Biblical and Judaic Studies, Egyptology, and Islamic Studies)

Visit Department Website

Courses

Select a subject to view courses

Arabic

Cuneiform

Egyptian

Hebrew

Near Eastern Studies

Persian

Semitics

Turkish

Faculty and Instructors

Faculty

Azza Ahmad, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Arabic Languages, CMES.

Wali Ahmadi, Associate Professor. Persian languages, Persian literature.
Research Profile

Asad Ahmed, Associate Professor. Islam (social and intellectual history).
Research Profile

Adam Benkato, Professor. Iranian Studies, Senior Research Scholar at CMES.

Simon Brelaud, Assistant Adjunct Professor. Assyrian Studies, Syriac Language.

Ahmad Diab, Assistant Professor. Modern Arabic Literature.
Research Profile

Chana Kronfeld, Professor. Comparative literature, modernism, Hebrew, Yiddish, modern poetry, minor literatures, politics of literary history, feminist stylistics, intertextuality, translation studies.
Research Profile

Margaret Larkin, Professor. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. Classical Arabic Literature.
Research Profile

Rita Lucarelli, Associate Professor. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Egyptology.
Research Profile

Maria Mavroudi, Professor. History, Byzantine studies.
Research Profile

Nasser Meerkhan, Assistant Professor. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, and Spanish and Portuguese.

Benjamin Porter, Associate Professor. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Archaeology, Near Eastern archaeology, Middle East, Arid Environments, anthropology, Heritage, tourism, and Museum Studies.
Research Profile

Carol A. Redmount, Associate Professor. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Egyptology.
Research Profile

Francesca Rochberg, Professor. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, history of science, ancient near east, cuneiform studies.
Research Profile

Niek Veldhuis, Professor. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, digital humanities, intellectual history, Sumerian, cuneiform.
Research Profile

Lecturers

Rutie Adler, Lecturer.

Hatem A. Bazian, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.
Research Profile

Elsa Elmahdy, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Arabic Language Coordinator.

Gholam-Reza Ghahramani, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

John L. Hayes, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

Sanjyot Mehendale, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures, Central Asia, Central Asian studies, archaeology and art history.
Research Profile

Haitham S. Mohamed, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

Laurie Pearce, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

Barbara Richter, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

Jason Christopher Vivrette, Lecturer. Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures.

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.
Research Profile

Guitty Azarpay, Professor Emeritus. Art and archaeology of the ancient Near East and Central Asia.
Research Profile

Ariel A. Bloch, Professor Emeritus.

Chava Boyarin, Professor Emeritus.

Daniel Boyarin, Professor Emeritus. Talmud, rhetoric, Christianity, genealogy of, invention of Judaism.
Research Profile

Wolfgang J. Heimpel, Professor Emeritus. Near Eastern studies.
Research Profile

Ronald Hendel, Professor Emeritus. Textual criticism, Hebrew bible, ancient Near Eastern religion and mythology, Northwest Semitic linguistics.
Research Profile

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.
Research Profile

Muhammad Siddiq, Professor Emeritus. Near Eastern studies.
Research Profile

David B. Stronach, Professor Emeritus.

Contact Information

Department of Near Eastern Studies

250 Social Sciences Building

Phone: 510-642-3757

Fax: 510-643-8430

nes@berkeley.edu

Visit Department Website

Department Chair

Francesca Rochberg

262 Social Sciences Building

Phone: 510-642-3757

rochberg@berkeley.edu

Head Graduate Advisor & Graduate Advisor in Ancient Near Eastern Studies

Niek Veldhuis

280 Social Sciences Building

veldhuis@berkeley.edu

Graduate Advisor in Islamic Studies, Arabic, Persian

Asad Q. Ahmed

272 Social Sciences Building

asad.ahmed@berkeley.edu

Graduate Student Services Advisor

Deanna Kiser-Go

250B Social Sciences Building

Phone: 510-642-4915

dkisergo@berkeley.edu

Undergraduate Student Services Advisor

Rania Shah

250A Social Sciences Building

Phone: 510-642-3758

rania.shah@berkeley.edu

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