Middle Eastern Studies

Overview

The Department of Middle Eastern Studies  offers instruction in Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish. There are also course offerings in related languages, including Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Akkadian, Syraiac, and Ugaritic.

Arabic

Arabic has approximately 300 million native speakers across the Middle East and northern Africa, and is the liturgical language of the world's 1.8 billion Muslims. Modern Standard Arabic is the official language of the third highest number of states after English and French, and is one of the six working languages of the United Nations. A cradle of civilization, the Arab world saw major advances in philospohy, mathematics, and medicine, to name but a few.  

Read more about Arabic at UT, and if you are interested in learning more, try out the BBC's Guide to Arabic.

Middle Eastern Studies at UT is also the home of the Arabic Flagship Program. Check out this video about it!

And see student testimonials here:

The Flagship Program can include a capstone year studying in Morocco!

Hebrew

Hebrew is the native language of Israel and has approximately 9 million speakers, of which 5 million are native speakers. Approximately 220,000 fluent Hebrew-speakers live in the USA. Hebrew is considered the only successfully revived dead language. The first five books of the Torah, and most of the rest of the Hebrew Bible, is written in Biblical Hebrew, and as such is seen as a holy language in Judaism. 

Read more about Hebrew at UT.

Persian

Persian, or Farsi, is an official language of Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan, with approximately 70 million native speakers. Though it uses an Arabic-based script, Persian is an Indo-European language. It is the language of one of the world's great literary traditions.

Read more about Persian at UT.

Turkish

Turkish, an official language of Turkey and Cyprus, has approximately 75 million native speakers, and 13 million other fluent speakers. Turkey is the 16th largest economy in the world and is of growing importance politically and economically, and historical and archaeological finds within her borders make Turkey a cradle of human civilization.

Check out this video on learning Turkish at UT Austin, with Dr. Jeanette Okur: 

Information on the 2021 minor in Turkish, and other opportunities to study Turkish at UT, can be found here. Read more about Turkish at UT, and if you are interested in learning more, try out the BBC's Guide to Turkish.

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowships

The Center for Middle Eastern Studies is also an awarding center for FLAS fellowships to support language study. Here, Matthew Rabatin, Senior Program and Outreach Coordinator for the Center for European Studies, talks through the opportunities and requirements of FLAS in the context of European Studies (a European link would not be required for fellowships awarded through Middle Eastern Studies).

Department Scholarships

• FLAS
• Arabic Flagship
• Dan C. Danciger Scholarship in Hebrew Studies
• Schusterman Center for Jewish Support

Course Offerings for Summer 2023

Arabic Summer Institute

Arabic Summer Institute: Intensive language and culture program for beginning, intermediate, and advanced students of Arabic.

https://liberalarts.utexas.edu/mes/summer-language-institutes/arabic-summer-institute/