The Board of Visitors approved a new Master's degree program in Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies Feb. 25 during a meeting of the Educational Policy Committee. The degree will require students to take 30 credit hours related to the Middle East or South Asia.
According to the department Web site, students will choose one focus area, along with a regional language concentration. To complete their degree requirements, they can take courses from various disciplinary areas, including history, language, literature, politics and religion, said Dan Lefkowitz, chair of the department of Middle Eastern and South Asian languages and cultures.
"It's a pretty unique MA program," he said. "We have a prerequisite of two years of a Middle Eastern [or] South Asian language and then a requirement to continue in a regional language for a third year in the Master's program, which is a hefty and rigorous requirement."
The program also stands out from other regional studies curricula because of its interdisciplinary nature, Lefkowitz said. Thus, the degree is particularly suitable for students who aspire to be employed in fields that will use their language skills, such as businesses or government jobs, he added. The program also can benefit those students who began studying Middle Eastern or South Asian languages and literature later during their undergraduate careers, he said.
In general, U.S. college students are becoming more interested in studying these fields, University Provost Tim Garson said. Moreover, employers themselves increasingly are in need of experts on Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures, especially when those employees are proficient in the region's languages, he said.
"An MA in this area is not required but very useful in this line of work," Lefkowitz said. "People are extremely valuable in employment when they have functional and deep understanding of a language."
Robert Fatton - who serves as the association dean of the Graduate Academic Program - agreed that there was a "fairly large demand" for the new Master's degree. Although he said he is somewhat uncertain about how the program will unfold, he emphasized that it is a fairly promising initiative that has attracted substantial interest. "We already have 20 students, which potentially bodes well," he said.
The degree program can be supported with existing faculty members, according to official Board materials.
"The recent increase of faculty in MESALC, as well as the coincidental hiring of faculty in other departments who teach on the regions of Middle East and South Asia, will satisfy the growth in demand for courses at the graduate level in these areas," the document stated.
Asst. MESALC Prof. Mehr Farooqi said she was delighted about the new graduate degree.
"I think its an excellent idea because there's obviously a lot of interest," she said.
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