The Middle East Studies Certificate is a credential for students who have studied the history and culture of the Middle East from a variety of disciplinary perspectives.
Requiring a minimum of 12 upper-division credits after the completion of pre-requisites, the MEST Certificate can complement your major or stand alone as a post baccalaureate credential.
Contact MEST Coordinator:
Camron Michael Amin, camamin@umich.edu, 313-436-9171
Information on the MEST Certificate
Required pre-requisites: Hist 101 or 102 or 103 and Comp 106
Course options and certificate notes and guidelines
Earning the certificate requires a minimum of 12 upper-division credit hours selected from among Menu A (history) and Menu B (non-history) courses. No more than 9 credit hours can be from Menu A. No more than 6 credit hours can be from Menu B.
All work will be at the 300+ level and only 3 hours may be shared with another major, minor, or certificate. There will be GPA criteria for admission and posting of the certificate.
If you are interested please contact Prof. Amin, camamin@umich.edu, 313-439-9171, 1270 SSB.
Students who complete the MEST should be able to demonstrate:
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The ability to formulate viable research projects in Middle East Studies.
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The ability to contextualize that research within the scholarly literature of Middle East Studies generally and relevant subfields (e.g. History, Anthropology).
All MEST course offerings are offered online in W 21. Courses listed as being offered as “Online-Dual” have regular online meeting times once per week. In the case of FNDS 3401 and HIST 3632, which are lists as “Online-Dual,” the courses are designed so that they can be taken asynchronously (i.e. students will have convenient alternatives to the occasional “class by Zoom”). So, if you to take ARBC 302 and HIST 3632, you don’t have to worry about the synchronous sessions for HIST3632 creating a conflict for ARBC 302. You are welcome, America!
Also, we have two courses that are so new to the curriculum that they are not yet officially added as MEST courses: FNDS 3401 and ARBC 312. We have a fix for that: simply petition to have the courses count for MEST Certificate. Ask for FNDS 3401 to count for Menu A and for ARBC 312 to count for Menu B.
Winter 2021
Menu A Courses
FNDS 3401: Reporting on the Middle East (CRN: 24167)
|
Online-Dual (Can be taken asynchronously; synchronous sessions scheduled on Th., 2:00-3:15 PM) |
Instructor: Cameron Michael Amin | DDC: Upper Level Writing Intensive |
HIST 339: The Ottoman Empire in the 19th Century (CRN: 24201)
| Online-Asynchronous | Instructor: Ara Sanjian | DDC: Social and Behavioral; Creative and Critical Thinking |
HIST 3632: The United States in the Middle East (CRN: 24093)
|
Online-Dual (Can be taken asynchronously; synchronous sessions scheduled on Weds., 2:00-3:15 PM) |
Instructor: Cameron Michael Amin | DDC: Intersections; Upper Level Writing |
Menu B Courses
AAST 3676: Arab America Since 1890 (CRN: 24091)
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Online-Dual (Synchronous Sessions on Weds., 11:00 AM - 12:15 PM) |
Instructor: Hani Bawardi | DDC: None |
ARBC 302: Higher Intermediate Arabic II (CRN: 20593)
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Online-Dual (Synchronous Sessions on Weds., 2:00 - 3:15 PM) |
Instructor: Rifaat Dika | DDC: None |
ARBC 312: Subtitling Arabic (CRN: 24160)
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Online-Asynchronous. NOTE: You must petition to have this course count towards the MEST Certificate this term; the petition will be granted. |
Instructor: Wissam Elmeligi | DDC: None |
MEST Faculty
Ghassan
Abou-Zeineddine
Ph.D.
Sally
Howell
Ph.D.
Ara
Sanjian
Ph.D.
Projects our faculty are working on
Recent Faculty Publication
Congratulations to Assistant Professor of Anthropology Rose Wellman on the publication of her new book, Feeding Iran: Shi'i Families and the Making of the Islamic Republic, published by the University of California Press.
From the publisher: Since Iran's 1979 Revolution, the imperative to create and protect the inner purity of family and nation in the face of outside spiritual corruption has been a driving force in national politics. Through extensive fieldwork, Rose Wellman examines how Basiji families, as members of Iran's voluntary paramilitary organization, are encountering, enacting, and challenging this imperative. Her ethnography reveals how families and state elites are employing blood, food, and prayer in commemorations for martyrs in Islamic national rituals to create citizens who embody familial piety, purity, and closeness to God. Feeding Iran provides a rare and humanistic account of religion and family life in the post-revolutionary Islamic Republic that examines how home life and everyday piety are linked to state power.