About the Program
Minor
The Turkish minor introduces students to the language, peoples, cultures, and histories of the Turkish-speaking world. The minor develops the student's command of reading, writing, speaking, and comprehension in the Turkish language and may complement the student's intended major study. Students minoring in Turkish must satisfy the lower division prerequisite requirements. Students may also take a language proficiency exam to waive the elementary and intermediate language courses. Please meet with the undergraduate major advisor to discuss course options and study abroad plans.
Declaring the Minor
Students may declare the Turkish minor as soon as they begin their study at UC Berkeley. Please find the minor declaration form in the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures department or email the undergraduate major advisor. Students must declare the minor no later than the semester before their Expected Graduation Term (EGT). Please see the L&S minor guidelines page for more information.
Other Majors and Minors offered by the Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC) Department
Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (Major and Minor)
Arabic (Minor)
Hebrew (Minor)
Persian (Minor)
Turkish (Minor)
Minor Requirements
The Turkish minor program requires five upper-division courses in Turkish literature, culture, or history.
General Guidelines
- All minors must be declared no later than one semester before a student's Expected Graduation Term (EGT). If the semester before EGT is fall or spring, the deadline is the last day of RRR week. If the semester before EGT is summer, the deadline is the final Friday of Summer Sessions. To declare a minor, contact the department advisor for information on requirements, and the declaration process.
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All courses taken to satisfy the minor requirement must be taken for a letter grade and be at least 3 units.
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A minimum grade point average (GPA) of 2.0 must be maintained in order to declare and complete the minor.
- No more than one upper-division course may be used to simultaneously satisfy requirements for a student's major and minor program.
- With the prior consent of the faculty major adviser, students may take courses across various disciplines to satisfy the Turkish culture and history requirement.
Minor Requirements
| Code | Title | Units |
|---|---|---|
| Lower Division Requirements | 10 | |
| Elementary Modern Turkish [5] | ||
| Elementary Modern Turkish [5] | ||
| Upper Division Requirements | 15-20 | |
| Turkish Language and Literature | ||
| Intermediate Modern Turkish [5] | ||
| Select two of the following: | ||
| Intermediate Modern Turkish [5] | ||
| Readings in Modern Turkish [3] | ||
| Readings in Modern Turkish [3] | ||
| Directed Group Study for Upper Division Students [1-4] | ||
| Supervised Independent Study and Research [1-4] | ||
| Turkish Culture and History | ||
| Select two courses: | ||
| Students may choose courses related to Turkish culture and history from other departments. Courses must be approved by a faculty major advisor to count towards the minor requirement. | ||
| Middle Eastern Worlds: The Modern Middle East [4] | ||
| Topics in Islamic Art [4] | ||
| Silk Road Art and Archaeology [3] | ||
| Art and Archaeology of Ancient Turkey [4] | ||
| Arts of Iran and Central Asia [4] | ||
| Topics in Islamic Thought and Institutions [3] | ||
| Modern and Contemporary Islamic Thought [3] | ||
| Shi'ite Islam [3] | ||
| Sufism: The Mysticism of Islam [3] | ||
| Islam [4] | ||
| The Rise of Islamic Civilization [4] | ||
| Emergence of the Modern Middle East [4] | ||
| The Modern Middle East from WWI to the Present [4] | ||
| Middle Eastern Women Writers [4] | ||
| Synagogues, Cathedrals, and Mosques: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain [4] | ||
| Wonder and the Fantastic: The Thousand and One Nights in World Literary Imagination [3] | ||
| Sociolinguistics of the Middle East [4] | ||
| Middle East: Post-Colonialism, Migration, and Diaspora [4] | ||
| Middle East, Empire, and Orientalism [4] | ||
| Islamic History and Historiography (600-1050) [3] | ||
MELC 170A | Course Not Available [3] | |
MELC 170B | Course Not Available [3] | |
| Topics in the History of Central Asia and the Turks [3] | ||
| Law and Society in the Early Modern Middle East [3] | ||
| The Quran and Its Interpretation [4] | ||
| Undergrad Seminar: Problems and Research in Middle Eastern Studies: Turkish [2,4] | ||
| Directed Group Study for Upper Division Students [1-4] | ||
| Supervised Independent Study and Research [1-4] | ||
| Total Units | 25-30 | |
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
Undergraduate Major Advisor
Rania Shah, MA
250 Social Sciences Bldg.
Phone: 510-642-3758