Middle East and North Africa Studies

Mohammad Mahallati, Chair, Presidential Scholar in Islamic Studies
Zeinab Abul-Magd, Associate Professor of History
Farshid Emami, Assistant Professor of Islamic Art History
Jahleh Jalili, Visiting Assistant Professor of Sociology
Christopher Jenkins, Associate Dean for Academic Support

Middle East and North Africa studies at Oberlin draws upon faculty and courses across the humanities and social sciences. We construe the region broadly, including Africa north of the Sahara, the Arabian Peninsula, Eastern Mediterranean, Iran, Turkey, and the Red Sea and Gulf littoral states. Students can add a MENA minor to any other course of study. Completion of a MENA minor demonstrates a basic level of familiarity with this region; the range of courses permits students to develop their curriculum and to pursue deeper and broader studies beyond the minor requirements. Because of the wide range of subject matters relevant to understanding the region, many courses from differing disciplinary orientations can count toward the minor with the only subject requirement being a beginning knowledge of at least one of the languages used in the region.

Middle East and North Africa Courses

Courses applying to the MENA minor:

ARBC 101-102 : Beginning Arabic I and II
ARBC 151: Arab Cinema (will be counted only as a half course for MENA requirements)
ARBC 201-202: Intermediate Arabic I and II
ARBC153: Language and Society in the Arab World
ARTS 153: Approaches to Islamic Art and Architecture
ARTS 352: Coffeehouses and Teahouses, A Global History
ARTS 353: Arabic and Persian Book Arts
ARTS 376: Architecture, Trade, and Power in Early Modern Islamic Empires
ARTS 381: Cities and Monuments of the Islamic World, 1300-1700 (intermediate course)
ARTS 481: Architecture, Art, and Literature in Islamic Cultures (Seminar)
ARTS 482: Cross-cultural Themes in Persianate Painting
CMPL 240: Gender, Power, and Desire in Middle Eastern & North African Literatures
FREN 373: Introduction à la littérature francophone
FYSP 042: The River Nile: Power, Capital and Revolt in Egypt
HIST 121/122: MENA History from the Rise of Islam to the present
HIST 132: Introduction to Jewish Civilization, II (from 1492 on)
HIST 247: Cinema & Revolution in Egypt
HIST 371: Muslim Politics in Modern South Asia
HIST 396: U.S. Foreign Policy in MENA
HIST 401: U.S. Foreign Policy in MENA
HIST 486: France and Algeria, 1830-1962
HIST/JWST 131: Jewish History I from Biblical Antiquity the Present
HIST/JWST 132: Jewish History II from Biblical Antiquity the Present
HIST 383: Borders, Wars, and Refugees in MENA, from the Ottomans to ISIL
JWST 101: Elementary Modern Hebrew I
JWST 102: Elementary Modern Hebrew II
JWST/RELG 208: New Testament and Christian Origins
POLT 112: Introduction to Middle East Politics
POLT 122: Colloquium: Israel-Palestine Conflict
POLT 263: Comparative Political Economy in the Middle East
POLT 264: Urban Politics in Developing Cities
POLT 312: Mastering Nature: The Politics of Science and Technology in the Middle East
RELG 108: Introduction to Religion: Women and the Western Traditions
RELG 191: Muslim Oral Culture: Persian Poetry in Translation, Music and Calligraphy
RELG 205: Hebrew Bible in its Ancient Near Eastern Context
RELG 208: New Testament and Christian Origins
RELG 270: Islam
RELG 272: Introduction to the Qur’an
RELG 274: Friendship: Perspectives from Religion, Politics, Economics, and Arts
RELG 275: Religion and Politics in the Modern Muslim World
RELG 276: The Ethics of Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking in Christianity and Islam
RELG 373: Islamic Mystic Traditions, and Literature, Seminar
RELG 390: Forgiveness in Muslim and Christian Traditions
SOCI 238: Gender and Sexuality in MENA
SOCI 261: Modern Iran: Seeing through the City

Requirements for the Minor

Acquire a MENA Studies minor advisor;

Demonstrate knowledge of first year Arabic, Hebrew, Farsi or Turkish by:
•   Completing two semesters of college-level study at Oberlin or elsewhere; or
•   Attaining first-year or better proficiency as certified by an instructor of the relevant language at Oberlin; or
•   First-year or better proficiency as certified on a case-by-case basis for languages not taught at Oberlin.

Complete at least five additional full academic courses from the MENA class list or their equivalent (for instance at other institutions) from at least two departments or programs and including at least two above the introductory level, not including those applied to the language requirement.

Courses in which a student has earned a letter grade lower than a C- or P cannot be used to fulfill the requirements of the minor.