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Registrar's Web Team
19 August 1997
Degree Offered
Master of Arts
The University libraries' holdings on the Middle East form one of the leading collections in North America. Holdings include more than 135,000 volumes and 1,230 serial titles in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish, and Azerbaijani, and over 150,000 volumes in Western languages. This collection includes a comprehensive set of English-language reference works, general texts, basic monographs, and essential journals on the Middle East that support teaching at all levels, alongside a large body of more specialized books, periodicals, manuscripts, and archival documents serving the needs of advanced research. Among the special collections are strong holdings on Shi'ism, Islamic jurisprudence, and Arabic and Persian literature; a set of Arabic manuscripts on the Yezidis of Yemen; a virtually complete set of Turkish and Azerbaijani periodicals that forms a unique national resource; and 2,089 volumes of census records from Middle Eastern countries housed in the Population Research Center. The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center holds the nation's largest collection of writers' personal papers, including those of T. E. Lawrence, Paul Bowles, Freya Stark, Richard Burton, and others with a special Middle Eastern connection. Another unique collection is the Development Communication Archive, recently donated by the US Agency for International Development, which includes 350 boxes of original records on issues ranging from agriculture and the environment to health and community development; about a quarter of the documents cover Middle Eastern projects.
The Middle East Resource Center houses a collection of approximately four thousand English-language books and reference works, some ten thousand slides, and hundreds of films, musical recordings, and periodicals. Another important resource is UT-MENIC, the University of Texas Middle East Network Information Center, which provides a comprehensive directory of online information and links to hundreds of databases. The service, developed by the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, forms a major source of information now used widely throughout the world.
The Master of Arts with a major in Middle Eastern studies is an interdisciplinary professional degree with a regional concentration on the Middle East. The degree is intended primarily for those preparing for a career in business, communications, government, law, library science, the military, or junior college teaching. There is a good deal of flexibility in meeting degree requirements; each student, in consultation with the graduate adviser in Middle Eastern studies, designs an individual program within the framework described in the section "Degree Requirements" below.
Students interested in a master's degree in a single discipline with a concentration on the Middle East should contact the graduate adviser for that discipline; for example, the student might major in anthropology, art history, business administration, classics, comparative literature, economics, geography, government, history, linguistics, Middle Eastern languages and cultures (with a concentration in Arabic, Hebrew, or Persian), or sociology.
The entering student must have a bachelor's degree. Students with insufficient academic coursework on the Middle East may be required to take up to fifteen semester hours of prescribed undergraduate coursework before beginning their graduate studies; the amount of additional coursework, if any, is determined by the graduate adviser before the student is admitted to the program.
Degree Requirements
The master's degree program consists of at least thirty semester hours, including a six-semester-hour thesis; or at least thirty-three semester hours, including a three-semester-hour report. Under either option all courses, including Middle Eastern Studies 698 or 398R, must have Middle Eastern content. The student must complete six semester hours in each of the following three areas: history, social sciences, and humanities.
In addition, the student must complete four semesters of formal language instruction, or the equivalent, in a Middle Eastern language; equivalent knowledge must be demonstrated by satisfactory performance on an examination. In either case, no credit toward the degree is earned by fulfillment of the language requirement, since this language competence is a necessary tool for graduate Middle Eastern studies rather than a graduate-level subject of study.
Students seeking admission to any joint degree program must apply through the Graduate and International Admissions Center. Students must be accepted by each program separately in order to be admitted to the joint program. Like all other graduate applicants, the student is responsible for submitting any additional information required by the Graduate Studies Committee for each program.
Master of Arts/Master of Public Affairs
This joint degree program is offered by the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The program combines advanced policy studies with interdisciplinary area studies, responding to an increasing need in both the public and the private sector for policy specialists with a thorough understanding of Middle Eastern politics and cultures. The joint degree program is structured so that students can earn both master's degrees simultaneously in three academic years. Some students, particularly those who enter the program with a language deficiency, may need to enroll for an additional semester or summer session to complete all the requirements of the program. Students must complete at least sixty-nine semester hours in public affairs and Middle Eastern studies, including a master's report and summer internship. Although the program is flexible, students generally take courses in both public affairs and Middle Eastern studies every semester and take the internship in the summer between the second and third years. Students are urged to complete the language requirement in the first two years of the program.
The curriculum includes twenty-one semester hours of required public affairs core courses, including Public Affairs 684A, 684B, 391, and 693; Public Affairs 882; three hours of elective coursework in public affairs; eighteen hours of required coursework in Middle Eastern studies, equally distributed among history, arts/humanities, and social sciences; six hours of elective coursework in Middle Eastern studies; six hours of general electives; a summer internship in or related to the Middle East; and a master's report on a Middle Eastern/public affairs topic. In addition, students are expected to demonstrate proficiency in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish equivalent to that shown by completion of two years of coursework. This requirement may be met either by coursework or by passing an equivalence examination.
Master of Arts/Master of Business Administration
This joint degree program is offered by the Graduate School of Business and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The program is designed to provide students with the skills and perspective necessary to work effectively in business, particularly in its application to the contemporary Middle East.
The student must complete sixty-nine to seventy-five semester hours of coursework in the Graduate School of Business and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, including a professional report. In addition, students in the program are expected to demonstrate proficiency in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish equivalent to that shown by completion of two years of coursework. Students are urged to complete this language requirement in the first two years of the program.
Master of Arts/Master of Arts with a Major in Communication
The College of Communication and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies offer a joint program that combines advanced communication studies with interdisciplinary area studies and language. It responds to a need in both the public and the private sector for communication specialists with a thorough understanding of the culture, economics, geography, history, and politics of the Middle East and North Africa.
The joint degree program is structured so that students can earn the two master's degrees simultaneously in approximately three academic years. Degrees are awarded when the required coursework in both areas is completed. Students must complete sixty-three semester hours of work in the College of Communication and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, including a thesis based on original research and co-supervised by a faculty member from the College of Communication and a faculty member from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. For the communication degree, students major in advertising, journalism, radio-television-film, or speech communication.
Upon completion of the program, students are expected to have proficiency in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish equal to that shown by completion of two years of coursework. This requirement may be met either through formal language study or by passage of a proficiency examination administered by a University faculty member. Students are encouraged to achieve the required level of proficiency as early as possible. Those with no previous knowledge of a Middle Eastern language are advised to enroll in intensive language courses during the summer before they begin the joint degree program. Students who are native speakers of a Middle Eastern language must take a second Middle Eastern language.
Master of Arts/Doctor of Jurisprudence
This joint degree program is offered by the School of Law and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies to combine the study of law with interdisciplinary area studies and language. It is one of the few programs in the United States designed to meet the need in both the public and the private sector for legal specialists with a thorough understanding of the economics, geography, history, politics, and culture of the Middle East and North Africa.
Students must complete 119 semester hours of coursework in law and Middle Eastern studies, including a three-hour report course based on original research and co-supervised by a faculty member from the School of Law and a faculty member from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. During the first year, students must complete the normal first year of coursework at the School of Law. This must be done before they take any language courses or other courses on the Middle East. After the first year, students should arrange their schedules so that they complete the requirements of both degrees in the same semester. Generally, a student with the requisite language background can obtain both degrees in eight semesters. Students with no previous knowledge of a Middle Eastern language are advised to enroll in intensive language courses during the summer before they begin the joint degree program.
Master of Arts/Master of Library and Information Science[2]
The Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the Graduate School of Library and Information Science offer a joint program leading to the Master of Arts with a major in Middle Eastern studies and the Master of Library and Information Science. The program combines training in library and information science and study of the cultures and societies of the Middle East and North Africa.
Students must complete sixty-nine semester hours of coursework, including a professional report co-supervised by a faculty member from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science and a faculty member from the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Students must also demonstrate proficiency in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, or Turkish equal to that shown by completion of two years of coursework.
2. Final approval of this program is pending.
Campus address: West Mall Office Building (WMB) 6.102, Phone (512)
471-3881,
Fax (512) 471-7834
Mailing address: Graduate Program, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712-1193
E-mail: cmes@menic.utexas.edu
URL: http://menic.utexas.edu/menic.html
Chapter Four
Graduate Catalog
Contents
Chapter 1: Graduate Study
Chapter 2: Admission and Registration
Chapter 3: Degree Requirements
Chapter 4: Fields of Study
Chapter 5: Members of Graduate Studies Committees
Appendix: Course Abbreviations
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