People
Acritical mass of some 1500 individuals are involved at UCLA in teaching, learning and transmitting critical knowledge and perspectives on the Middle East. These include more than 60 faculty members, a dozen professional staff, some 200 graduate students and over 1000 undergraduates, as well as a host of fellows, scholars and researchers who visit the University to participate in conferences and workshops or to use the extensive Middle East resources housed in its libraries.
Interest in the Middle East and the Islamic world is at an all time high, generating a corresponding increase in demand for specialized knowledge, command of the languages, and interaction with Middle Easterners from diverse walks of life, such as the overseas delegations that regularly visit UCLA.
The Middle East studies community extends to include over 100 Southern California scholars connected via the information and communication networks, as well as a multitude of individuals from local ethnic communities and the general public who take part in the many Middle East events and activities sponsored by the Center and the University, including the popular musical performances and film series held on campus.
The synergy generated by these individuals and groups and their nexus in CNES is amplified by their interaction and collaboration with members, affiliates and constituencies of other area studies centers housed at the UCLA International Institute focusing on Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and Eurasia, and International Relations.
The talents, dedication and combined interest of all these individuals affirm the role of CNES as an Organized Research Unit of the University of California and a federally-designated National Resource Center of Excellence.
Faculty
From a core of four scholars in 1957, the faculty corps involved in Middle Eastern and Islamic studies at UCLA has grown to include more than 60 individuals across the humanities, social sciences and professional fields.
These faculty have mentored more than 1000 current and former graduate students, thereby assuring the growth and diversification of the field and the profession. As a collective, they have contributed significantly through their research and travel to deepening our knowledge base and our understanding of the Middle East and its people, both in the region and in diaspora.
Their accomplishments in the past five years include hundreds of publications on a variety of topics, from a concise history of the modern Middle East to works on aspects of Islamic law, Ottoman historiography, Arabic music, Ismaili legal doctrine, Persian philosophy, modern Iran, and the evolution of Biblical Hebrew. Three UCLA faculty have translated five volumes of al-Tabari’s History in the SUNY Press edition.
CNES faculty have excelled professionally as well, five having served as president of the Middle East Studies Association (including G.E. von Grunebaum, MESA’s honorary first president in 1966), while other faculty are active members of various MESA committees. Many have been recognized for their teaching and lifetime achievements, including Afaf Marsot and Nikki Keddie who received the MESA Mentorship Award in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
UCLA faculty took the lead in forming the California Middle East Social and Cultural History Association (CAL-MESCHA) and founding the UCLA Journal of Islamic and Near Eastern Law.
Students
Some 200 individuals constitute the graduate student corps in Middle East studies at UCLA, including 20 students in the CNES-sponsored interdepartmental program in Islamic Studies, and 49 in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC).
The CNES-sponsored undergraduate program in Middle Eastern and North African Studies (MENAS) currently boasts 19 majors and 11 minors, more than twice as many as last year. And more than 60 undergraduates have declared themselves as NELC majors. Some ten thousand students take Middle East related courses across the disciplines as part of their undergraduate degree requirements each year, and nearly a thousand current students have made the Middle East a significant component of their studies by taking three or more such courses.
The Middle East studies graduate student population has a diverse mix of backgrounds and nationalities. A solid representation of students from across the Middle East and the Islamic world complements the American-born students, many of whom trace their ancestry to the Middle East including the Arab world, Iran, Armenia, Israel and Turkey.
CNES-affiliated students are active in numerous campus organizations. For more than 20 years the JUSUR (Bridges) graduate student collective has published a journal based on its research conferences which attract graduate students nationwide.
Students take full advantage of oversea travel opportunities afforded them by the UC Education Abroad Program, the Council of American Overseas Research Centers and other study-abroad programs in Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey and Yemen. Graduate students have a record of successful competition for Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships and other grants.
In the past three years, 21 doctoral students have received their PhDs and joined the ranks of academia, government service, media, law and the public health professions.
Alumni
Since Center’s inception in 1957, some 700 individuals have received graduate degrees in Middle East and Islamic studies. CNES alumni span the globe. Their numbers include prominent academicians, university presidents and department chairs, ambassadors and government officials. They work as children’s rights advocates, religious leaders and professionals involved in humanitarian relief, banking and finance, information technology, public health, media and the arts.
The presence of Middle East and Islamic studies alumni is especially notable in Southern California and statewide: CNES alumni teach in the University of California branches at Berkeley, Irvine, Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, and the California State University campuses of Fullerton, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Pomona, San Bernardino, San Francisco, San Marcos and San Diego.
Visitors
For nearly fifty years, visitors from across America and overseas have made UCLA and the Center for Near Eastern Studies a destination point and a crossroads of academic, professional and personal interests.
CNES has offered resources and facilities to dozens of resident scholars carrying out individual or sponsored research on such topics as politics in the Gulf states, religiosity in Muslim countries, Turkish language instructional technology, Iranian art and architecture, and contemporary Arabic and Hebrew poetry.
In this nurturing academic environment, visiting scholars interact with UCLA faculty and students and their colleagues from the seventeen-member Southern California Consortium on International Studies, and with the dozens of visiting lecturers and conference participants who come to UCLA annually, including high-profile foreign ministers and Nobel Prize laureates.
Institutional collaboration with universities in Egypt, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey and the Gulf states facilitates the regular flow of students and scholars in the course of sponsored training and research. Most recently, the Young Research Library organized and hosted a training session for prospective librarians and information technology specialists from the United Arab Emirates.
On a regular basis the Center invites local high school students and teachers to visit the university and interact with scholars and students, and to explore the resources and opportunities available to them in higher education.
These interactions between Americans and Middle Easterners are essential, now more than ever. In this regard the Center regularly hosts delegations of students and scholars, journalists, filmmakers and other professionals from the Middle East and facilitates their interaction with their American counterparts. Multiculturalism and democracy, religion and society, and the role of the media and a free press are recurrent topics of discussion in these meetings.
