Applicable only to students admitted during the 2022-2023 academic year.

Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

College of Letters and Science

Graduate Degrees

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. It also offers the Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in Islamic Studies.

Islamic Studies

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Students may be admitted to the Islamic Studies Program (ISP) for a terminal MA, for the MA-PhD track, or for the PhD track depending on their prior academic record and course work and by recommendation of the Islamic Studies admission committee.

Advising

During their first year, students will be advised by the program director, who serves at the Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) for the Islamic Studies Program. By the end of their first year, students must identify their faculty advisor, who will serve as their MA thesis supervisor, from among the core Islamic Studies program faculty, obtain written consent from that advisor to serve in this capacity, and convey this information to the program director and the NELC Student Affairs Officer (SAO). If a student decides to change their faculty advisor thereafter, they must identify a new faculty member from among the core Islamic Studies Program faculty and submit a formal petition explaining the rationale for the change to the Islamic Studies Program director, along with the signed consent of the new faculty advisor. Once approved, the petition will be filed with the SAO.

New students should make an advising appointment at the beginning of their first quarter with the program director. During this advising meeting, students discuss course work which will advance their future program. In each subsequent quarter, it is the student’s responsibility to discuss their plans for that quarter with the program director and obtain approval for their course plan. If a student wishes to make changes thereafter, the changes must be approved by the department chair or the program director before the student accesses the online enrollment system. Departmental policy requires the signature of the Islamic Studies program director or the NELC chair for approval of all petitions.

Student progress is reviewed annually. During the spring quarter, all students meet with the program director and provide them with a written summary of their progress toward the degree and their goals for the coming year. The program director reports to the ISP faculty advisory committee and to the NELC chair, to fulfill criteria for annual academic review of student progress. Each student will be advised in writing by the end of Spring Quarter as to whether their progress is sufficient to warrant continuation in the program.

Areas of Study

These areas of study are the same as listed under Major Fields or Subdisciplines for the doctoral degree.

Foreign Language Requirement

Terminal M.A. students are required to complete one year of Arabic (three quarters or the equivalent thereof) if they do not have equivalent proficiency upon admission to the program. Students who would like to complete introductory coursework in an Islamicate language other than Arabic must provide a full explanation for this requested exception and petition the director of the Islamic Studies Program accordingly. As specified below, advanced-level Arabic proficiency is required for admission to the Ph.D. program. Terminal M.A. students who intend to apply to the PhD program are advised to plan accordingly with respect to their Arabic language training. Such students are strongly advised to take ARA 130-“Introduction to Pre-modern Arabic Texts.”

Students who have been admitted to the M.A. program and plan to go on for the Ph.D. degree in the Islamic Studies program are strongly encouraged to achieve required levels of proficiency in their research languages early in their graduate study so that language skills will be of maximum benefit. Students should consult the doctoral language requirement under the Doctoral Degree section.

Course Requirements

A minimum of 12 courses (48 units) is required, eight (32 units) of which must be graduate seminars (200-series). Up to four courses may be upper division (100-series). In cases where students are taking upper-division courses, written approval of the Islamic Studies Program director is required. Only four units (usually one course of four credits) of a 596 course may be applied toward the minimum graduate course requirement. All courses applied toward the degree must be taken for a letter grade.

The 12 courses must be divided among three categories of courses as follows:

Category one: Three required courses

1.	ISLM ST 200	Introduction to Islamic Studies
2.	ISLM ST 151 or ARA M106 *These will be offered with cross-listed graduate sections as ISLM ST 251 and ARA CM206.	Islamic Thought or The Qur’an	ISLM ST 151 or ARA M106 *These will be offered with cross-listed graduate sections as ISLM ST 251 and ARA CM206.
3.	ARA 220	Themes in Early and Classical Islamic History	If course is not offered, students may substitute a different graduate seminar in pre-modern Islamic-world history with approval of program director.

Category two: Two required courses

Two graduate-level courses (200-series), in different departments, that introduce methodological approaches in specific disciplines such as anthropology, art history, comparative literature, history, and sociology.

Category three. Seven required courses

These seven courses should engage with at least two different disciplines on topics related to Islamic Studies. These include courses such as Art History 119A (Western Islamic Art); ARA 250 (Premodern Arabic Literature); HIST 200J (Historiography of the Modern Middle East); HIST 201K (Global Islam and South Asia); Iranian 200B (Classical Persian Texts); ISLM ST 201 (Arabo-Islamic Sciences); and ISLM ST M111 (Introduction to Islamic Archaeology). Students also are strongly recommended to take courses that cover at least two geographic regions. Courses should be finalized in consultation with the student’s faculty advisor.

Teaching Experience

Not Required.

Field Experience

Not Required.

Capstone Plan

None.

Thesis Plan

Required. Students must fulfill the thesis requirement by either submitting a single paper (50-100 pages) that combines work in two or more fields of study, or by submitting three papers (each one a minimum of 25 pages) in three fields (e.g. anthropology, history, sociology, comparative literature).

These paper(s) should meet the academic standards of the Islamic Studies Program with respect to research, writing and analytical skills and technical proficiencies, including primary source translation and transliteration, as necessary/relevant to their projects. Regardless of format, the advisor and M.A. thesis committee members must indicate whether the M.A. is pass with terminal M.A.; pass with recommendation to transition to Ph.D.; or fail.

The academic progress of MA students admitted to the M.A.-Ph.D. track who wish to advance to the Islamic Studies Ph.D. program will be subject to further review by a subcommittee of the Islamic Studies Faculty Advisory Committee, which will undertake a holistic review of the student’s academic progress in the program. The subcommittee will provide a written recommendation to the full Islamic Studies FAC with respect to the student’s qualification for advancement to the Ph.D. program.

Time-to-Degree

Eight academic quarters is the expected time-to-degree for full-time students with no deficiencies upon admission.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
M.A.	8	8	16

Doctoral Degree

Advising

During their first year, students meet quarterly with the program director, who also serves as the Director of Graduate Studies for the ISP. In consultation with the program director, students choose a primary faculty advisor. By the end of the first year, students choose three fields of study and the faculty with whom they will work in those fields. Students should consult with these faculty and with the Student Affairs Officer as frequently as needed.

Student progress is reviewed annually. During the spring quarter, all students meet with the program director and provide them with a written summary of their progress toward the degree and their goals for the coming year. The program director reports to the ISP faculty advisory committee, which reviews student progress, and to the NELC chair. Students will be advised in writing by the end of spring quarter as to whether their progress is sufficient to warrant continuation in the program.

Major Fields or Subdisciplines

Anthropology, architecture, art history, comparative literature, economics, education, ethnomusicology, film and television, geography, history, law, management, music, philosophy, political science, psychology, public health, public policy, religion, sociology, urban planning, world arts and cultures, and the literatures of the following languages: Arabic; Berber, Hausa, Indonesian, Iranian languages, Malay, Swahili, Turkic languages, Urdu, Wolof, and Yoruba.

Foreign Language Requirement

Advanced Arabic proficiency is required for admission to the PhD program. If applicants are admitted with a deficiency, e.g. in language proficiency, they must make up that deficiency before taking field exams. Students who intend to focus on pre-modern Arabic texts and have only completed courses in Modern Standard Arabic are strongly advised to take ARA 130-“Introduction to Pre-modern Arabic Texts.”

Intermediate-level proficiency in a second language listed under Major Fields or Subdisciplines and reading proficiency in a European language other than English that is relevant to the student’s research are required prior to taking field exams. Students are encouraged to achieve required levels of proficiency in their research languages early in their graduate study so that language skills will be of maximum benefit.

Research language proficiency (for languages other than Arabic) may be demonstrated by (1) passing a program-administered examination; or (2) completing three intermediate-level courses with a grade of B or better (these courses are not counted toward the degree) or completing a graduate seminar that requires Advanced language proficiency (for example, Iranian 250-Classical Persian Literature); or (3) submitting evidence of completion of equivalent course work elsewhere. For modern language exams only, students are able to repeat a failed exam up to three times over a span of two years. Language proficiency must be demonstrated before students take Written Qualifying Examinations for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

Students who have received the M.A. in Islamic Studies from UCLA’s Islamic Studies program and satisfactorily fulfilled the requirements above must complete an additional 12 courses (48 units) and demonstrate advanced proficiency in Arabic before taking field exams. The 12 courses are to be distributed as follows:

• ISLM ST 201: Arabo-Islamic Sciences (4 units)
• 596—Directed Individual Study or 597—Examination Preparation: Up to 9 courses (36 credits) to support student’s preparation for field exams and Ph.D. prospectus preparation.
• The two remaining courses should be graduate seminars or 100-level courses (with the approval of the ISP director) which will advance the student’s research agenda.

Students entering the Ph.D. program with an M.A. from a different institution, irrespective of whether that M.A. is in Islamic Studies, are required to either complete coursework for the M.A. detailed above under “M.A. course requirements” OR to petition the ISP director and an ad-hoc committee of members of the Islamic Studies faculty advisory committee, appointed by the director, to have courses they have already completed be assessed for equivalency to UCLA Islamic Studies M.A. program requirements. They are also required to submit their M.A. thesis or a minimum of two research papers for assessment by the program director and the ad-hoc subcommittee. Upon approval certifying that the student has met requisite coursework and M.A. thesis requirements, students may begin Ph.D. course requirements outlined above. Students who have not met coursework and M.A. thesis requisites must make up deficiencies before beginning Ph.D. course requirements.

All courses applied toward the degree must be taken for a letter grade. Students in the Islamic Studies PhD program are required to maintain a minimum cumulative grade point average of 3.5 annually to remain in good standing in the program.

Teaching Experience

Not Required. While teaching experience is not required, Ph.D. students are strongly advised to acquire teaching experience which will enhance their professional development.

Written and Oral Qualifying Examinations

Academic Senate regulations require all doctoral students to complete and pass university written and oral qualifying examinations prior to doctoral advancement to candidacy. Also, under Senate regulations, the University Oral Qualifying Examination is open only to the student and appointed members of the doctoral committee. In addition to university requirements, some graduate programs have other pre-candidacy examination requirements. What follows in this section is how students are required to fulfill all of these requirements for this doctoral program.

All committee nominations and reconstitutions adhere to the Minimum Standards for Doctoral Committee Constitution.

Following successful completion of course and thesis requirements, language requirements, and the written qualifying examinations, students are required to form a doctoral committee and take the University Oral Qualifying Examination. The committee must include faculty from the student’s three fields plus a methodology examiner if the latter is not from one of the three fields.

The written examination committee conducts four separate written examinations, one in each of the student’s three fields and one in a methodology appropriate to the student’s dissertation.
Students in the M.A.-Ph.D. track should consult with their faculty advisor in the year they undertake their M.A. thesis to begin preparing for written exams as outlined below. Students entering directly into the Ph.D. track who have met the M.A. coursework and thesis requirements specified under “Course Requirements” above should prepare to take their Ph.D. written exams upon completion of any additional coursework and in consultation with their advisors and the program director. Typically, such students should expect to begin taking their exams in the second year of their Ph.D. program.

Students should identify the three fields which will constitute the basis for their written Ph.D. field exams and also identify the faculty members who will administer those exams. All students should also consult with their advisor about research methodologies and proficiencies required for their dissertation, which in turn will constitute the basis for the methodology exam. In the year after successful completion of their M.A. requirements, students should focus on preparing for these four exams (three field exams and the methodology exam) by enrolling in 596 and 597 independent study or exam preparation courses with those who will administer their exams. This preparation consists of finalizing reading lists and immersing themselves in the required reading/analytical writing necessary to prepare for exams and regular meetings with advisors/examiners to ensure timely progress, and reviewing expectations with examiners well in advance of the scheduled exams. The methodology exam is typically administered by the primary faculty advisor, who will chair the dissertation committee.

Students should take all three field exams and their methodology exam within the span of three consecutive quarters. Ideally, the field exams should be completed before the methodology exam. If there are extenuating circumstances causing a delay of one or more exams, students must petition the program director and the NELC chair for an exception. The petition must outline a revised plan for completion of exams and provide documentation of the extenuating circumstances. Exams must be assessed by the faculty examiner within two weeks of submission. Each examiner must convey in writing to the NELC SAO and the program director their assessments as follows: high pass; pass; re-examine; or fail. Students may re-take up to two exams once each. Decisions on retakes are at the discretion of the exam committee. Students are not automatically permitted to retake an exam, irrespective of their exam performance. If the exam committee has permitted a re-examination, the retake must be completed within two weeks of the approval being granted. If the exam committee has not permitted a re-exam or if the student fails the second attempt, the program director will recommend the student for Academic Disqualification. The examiner must also submit a copy of the completed exam to the NELC SAO and the program director.

Concurrent to preparing for and completing the four written exams, students should consult with their dissertation faculty advisor to prepare their dissertation prospectus, which should be defended within one quarter of completing the four written exams.

The dissertation prospectus must contain (1) a detailed summary of the dissertation topic and primary questions being pursued; (2) a discussion of the scholarly literature related to the topic; (3) a detailed statement of the methods and research plan which outlines field or archival research and other academic preparation necessary for completion of the dissertation; an outline of proposed chapters; and (4) a proposed bibliography to be consulted in the course of research and writing. Typically, a satisfactory prospectus is 45-60 pages, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. Students should consult with their advisors to ensure that their prospectus meets the academic standards of the Islamic Studies Ph.D. program.

Students must work with their faculty advisors and committee members to schedule a dissertation prospectus defense within one quarter of completing their four written exams. Exceptions to this policy must be approved by the program director. The prospectus defense constitutes the oral qualifying exam for the Islamic Studies Ph.D. program.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written examinations and successfully defending their dissertation prospectus

Doctoral Dissertation

Every doctoral degree program requires the completion of an approved dissertation that demonstrates the student’s ability to perform original, independent research and constitutes a distinct contribution to knowledge in the principal field of study.

Final Oral Examination (Defense of Dissertation)

Required for all students in the program.

Time-to-Degree

For full-time students with no deficiencies upon admission or advancement to the Ph.D. program, the normative time from admission to approval of the dissertation prospectus, completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations, and advancement to candidacy, is three years and two academic quarters. The normative time from advancement to candidacy to the final oral examination (defense of the dissertation), if required, and filing of the dissertation, is two years and one academic quarter. Overall, the normative time from graduate admission to award of the Ph.D. degree is six years (18 quarters). Students who undertake field research abroad may require an additional one to two years to complete the program.

DEGREE	NORMATIVE TIME TO ATC (Quarters)	NORMATIVE TTD	MAXIMUM TTD
Ph.D.	12	18	28

Academic Disqualification and Appeal of Disqualification

University Policy

A student who fails to meet the above requirements may be recommended for academic disqualification from graduate study. A graduate student may be disqualified from continuing in the graduate program for a variety of reasons. The most common is failure to maintain the minimum cumulative grade point average (3.00) required by the Academic Senate to remain in good standing (some programs require a higher grade point average). Other examples include failure of examinations, lack of timely progress toward the degree and poor performance in core courses. Probationary students (those with cumulative grade point averages below 3.00) are subject to immediate dismissal upon the recommendation of their department. University guidelines governing academic disqualification of graduate students, including the appeal procedure, are outlined in Standards and Procedures for Graduate Study at UCLA.

Special Departmental or Program Policy

A recommendation for academic disqualification is formally made by the chair of the NELC department after consultation with the director of the Islamic Studies Program and the student’s primary faculty advisor. A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification to the Dean of the Graduate Division.