PROGRAMS

You can study the Middle East and its languages at Penn in a variety of ways.  The Middle East Center now offers a new cross-disciplinary Major/Minor in Modern Middle East Studies, or you can earn B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees through various disciplinary departments with a focus on the Middle East, both within and outside the School of Arts and Sciences. Joint degrees between disciplines are possible (e.g., Anthropology and Egyptology), and the Huntsman Program in International Studies and Business and The Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies offer special joint B.A. and M.A./M.B.A. programs from the School of Arts and Sciences and the prestigious Wharton School.

The Middle East Center is proud to announce a new Certificate of Study in Middle East and Islamic Studies for students in the Law School of the University of Pennsylvania. For more information, click here.

A wide variety of Middle East languages are taught at Penn, including Arabic, Hebrew, Akkadian, Aramaic, Persian, Turkish, and others.  These are offered through the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.  More information on the Arabic Language program can be found here.

The Lauder MBA/MA Summer Immersion Program in Arabic

Interest in the Middle East has expanded to other schools and disciplines at Penn. Most notably, we are playing a crucial role in the institutionalization of Arabic and Middle East studies in the Lauder Program of the Wharton School of Business. The Lauder Institute and the Middle East Center, with Dr. Roger Allen as the Chair of its Executive Committee, have been working together to develop Lauder's Arabic pilot program.

The Lauder Institute's combined MBA/MA joint degree prepares graduate students to excel in international business, combining an outstanding management education with exposure to Middle East culture, politics, economy, and intensive immersion in the Arabic language. During the two-year program, students spend a quarter of their time in the region. The program begins with cultural immersion in Morocco and Dubai (first summer) and entails an internship (second summer) with a multinational company requiring extensive use of Arabic.

The Morocco segment of the program covers language and culture. The Dubai component allows students to more extensively explore the Arab business environment and meet with businessmen in banking, commercial services, and the information technologies sectors, in addition to US embassy personnel and local journalists.

Lauder graduates earn an MBA from Wharton and an MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania's School of Arts and Sciences. For more information, visit their website.