The Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

is a National Resource Center for the study of a region extending from

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

in the West to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

in the East. As a result, this Area Center covers some of the most important and controversial regions - including

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, and

Central Asia Central Asia, also known as Middle Asia, is a subregion, region of Asia that stretches from the Caspian Sea in the west to western China and Mongolia in the east, and from Afghanistan and Iran in the south to Russia in the north. It includes t ...

. Prior to the Center's formation, scholars originally received funding administered by Title VI of the US Department of Defense's National Defense Education Act. The University of Chicago did not form its center until 1965, well after the administration of funding was moved to the US Department of Education by President

John F. Kennedy John Fitzgerald Kennedy (May 29, 1917 – November 22, 1963), often referred to by his initials JFK and the nickname Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th president of the United States from 1961 until his assassination ...

. This area center consistently ranks in the highest tier of those dealing with

Middle Eastern studies Middle Eastern studies (sometimes referred to as Near Eastern studies) is a name given to a number of academic programs associated with the study of the history, culture, politics, economies, and geography of the Middle East, an area that is gene ...

in the United States according to

US Department of Education The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...

and external reviews. In the most recent competition for Department of Education's Title VI funds in 2014, the Center was awarded both NRC (National Resource Center) and FLAS (Foreign Language and Area Studies) grants, which support courses, extracurricular programs, educational outreach, and graduate student fellowships.

Center functions

The primary function of the Center is to stimulate and coordinate research and teaching about the

region across the University, regardless of discipline. This is accomplished informally in the social atmosphere of the Fazlur Rahman Common Room and in formal settings, such as the Center's lectures, conferences, symposia, and panel discussions. The Center also serves the general public by providing free educational resources and organizing professional development programs for local educators.

Masters of arts program

The Center administers a two-year terminal master's degree through either the Division of Humanities or the Division of Social Science, wherein a student may structure his or her own course of study in such areas as contemporary Middle Eastern studies, Middle Eastern history, Islamic studies, Islamic art and archaeology, and Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, or Turkic languages (Anatolian Turkish, Uzbek, Kazakh), and their accompanying literatures. With over fifty first- and second-year students across two academic tracks, the MA program is one of the largest of its kind in the United States. Additionally, the Center offers a series of joint Masters of Arts programs. These include: M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies/Masters in Business Administration - in conjunction with the

University of Chicago Booth School of Business The University of Chicago Booth School of Business (Chicago Booth or Booth) is the graduate business school of the University of Chicago. Founded in 1898, Chicago Booth is the second-oldest business school in the U.S. and is associated with 10 N ...

M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies/Masters in Public Policy - offered with the Irving B. Harris School of Public Policy Studies at the University of Chicago

Current staff

* Director: Holly Shissler * Deputy Director: * Associate Director: Thomas E.R. Maguire * Deputy Director - Academic Programs: Paul Walker * Project Assistant: Ben Chametzky * Educational Outreach Coordinator: Alexander Barna * Preceptors: August Samie, Mustafa Kaya, and Oren Siegel

Former directors

* Hakan Karateke: 2014-2017 * Fred Donner: 2009-2014 * Holly Shissler: 2007-2009 * Martin Stokes: 2004-2007 * John Woods: 1998-2004 *

Cornell Fleischer Cornell Fleischer is an American historian who is the Kanuni Suleyman Professor of Ottoman and Modern Turkish Studies at the University of Chicago. Education and career Fleischer received his PhD from Princeton University in 1982. After leaving ...

: 1995-1998 *

Rashid Khalidi Rashid Ismail Khalidi (; born 1948) is an American historian of the Middle East and the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He served as editor of the '' Journal of Palestine Studies'' from 2002 until 2020, whe ...

: 1991-1995 * John Woods: 1985-1991 * Richard Chambers: 1979-1985 *

Marvin Zonis Marvin Zonis (September 18, 1936 – November 15, 2020) was an American political economist who focused on Middle Eastern politics and history and an emeritus professor at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, where he taught courses ...

: 1976-1979 * Leonard Binder: 1973-1976 *

Nur Yalman Nur Yalman is a leading Turkish social anthropologist at Harvard University, where he serves as senior Research Professor of Social Anthropology and Middle Eastern Studies. Career Yalman received his high school diploma from Robert College, Istan ...

: 1968-1972 * William R. Polk: 1965-1968

External links

Center for Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Chicago

M.P.P./A.M.
- Joint Degree with the Center for Middle Eastern Studies {{coord, 41.788997, -87.598278, display=title Research institutes of the University of Chicago Middle Eastern studies in the United States