Study the people, culture, politics, history, networks and languages of the Middle East and deepen your knowledge through study abroad.
As a Middle Eastern Studies major or minor, you’ll explore the Middle East, Africa and South Asia from a global and cross-regional perspective.
The interdisciplinary curriculum provides opportunities to develop complementary skills in fields such as anthropology, history, international relations, politics or religious studies.
Students study Arabic or Persian and are encouraged to study abroad in locations in the Middle East, Africa, Central Asia, and the Indian Ocean region.
What You’ll Study
- Middle Eastern culture
- History of the Middle East
- Arabic
- Research methods
- Anthropology, history, politics or religion
Learning at Pomona
Studying the Poetry of Palestinian Women
Malak Afaneh ’21 analyzed the symbolism, motifs and literary devices of the poetry of Palestinian women who wrote poetry as a form of healing and processing from trauma.
The major's flexibility of requirements has allowed me to take classes from religious studies to anthropology to art history, all while developing critical thinking skills and fresh perspectives on the region's history as a whole. Furthermore, although I was an Arabic heritage speaker, I still wanted to improve my speaking skills. The MES Department offers abundant classes to learn the standard, colloquial, and even poetic forms of the Arabic language, and opens doors for an opportunity to study abroad in the Middle East or even communicate with Arabic speaking communities.