Applicable only to students admitted during the 2024-2025 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.

Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

Admissions Requirements

Master’s Degree

Advising

When applying, students indicate their preferred specialization, and once admitted the student will be formally assigned a graduate faculty adviser(s) in their given field. If a student wishes to make changes to a faculty adviser prior to their MA exams, they will identify a new faculty member within the department, and submit a formal petition explaining the basis for the change to the Director of Graduate Studies (DGUS), along with the signed consent of the new faculty adviser. Once approved, the petition will be filed with the Student Affairs Officer.

New students should make an advising appointment at the beginning of their first quarter with their faculty adviser(s). During this appointment, students and their adviser(s) agree on a coursework schedule, their future program, and reading lists for their comprehensive exams. Prior to each quarter, the student will discuss and seek the approval of their plans for the next quarter with their adviser(s). If a student wishes to make changes after these plans have been approved by their adviser(s), the changes must be approved by both their adviser(s) and the DGUS before the change is made online.
Approval of all petitions concerning program requirements will require the signatures of the adviser(s) and the DGUS.

Student progress is reviewed annually. At the beginning of spring quarter, all students meet with their faculty adviser(s)and provide them with a written summary of their progress toward the degree and their goals for the coming year. Faculty advisers report to the student review committee, which meets to review student progress and advises each student in writing by the end of Spring Quarter as to whether their progress is sufficient to warrant continuation in the program.

Areas of Study

Major fields of specialization include Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, Arabic, Armenian, Assyriology, Egyptology, Hebrew Bible, Iranian Studies, Jewish Studies, Near Eastern Archaeology, Semitics, and Turkic. Students may concentrate on language, literature, or archaeology in their selected field, but are expected to engage broadly with these fields of study as part of their individual program.

Foreign Language Requirement

Students are required to pass an examination in one major modern research language other than English by the beginning of their fourth quarter in residence. The choice of the language is determined in consultation with their faculty adviser. Students in the master’s degree program specializing in Arabic may study an Arabic dialect rather than a major modern research language.

Students may satisfy the modern language requirement by one of the following methods: (1) a departmentally-administered examination that earns a grade of Pass; or (2) two years of language instruction at a UC campus or equivalent 4 year accredited institution, with a grade of B or better. Students are able to repeat an individual failed exam up to three times in subsequent quarters over a span of two years. Language proficiency must be demonstrated at the time of the scheduling of the written final comprehensive exam for the master’s degree.

If students intend to continue toward the Ph.D. degree, it is strongly recommended that they acquire knowledge of a second major research language other than English while still a candidate for the M.A. degree.

Course Requirements

A minimum of nine upper division (100 series) and graduate courses (200 series) (36 units) is required, of which at least six (24 units) must be at the graduate level for a letter grade. Students are expected to continue to take graduate seminars for a letter grade before advancing to candidacy.

All students are required to study at least one Near Eastern language, although most programs will require both a primary and a secondary language. In Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, two languages are required. For the primary language, either Ancient Egyptian (including Coptic), Akkadian, Aramaic (including Syriac), Hebrew (with Ugaritic and Phoenician), or Old and Middle Iranian (including Old Persian and Middle Persian) may be chosen. For the second language, any of the above or Hittite or Sumerian may be chosen.

For Hebrew Bible, Hebrew (with Ugaritic and Phoenician) and a second Semitic language (e.g., Aramaic/Syriac, Akkadian) are required.

For Turkic, either two Turkic languages or Turkish and a second culturally related language are required.

In Arabic, Armenian and Iranian Studies (modern), a primary language and a second culturally related language are required.

For Semitics, three Near Eastern languages are required, at least two of which should be Semitic; the third may be Hittite or Sumerian.

For Iranian Studies (Old Iranian), students are required to study three Old and Middle Iranian languages (e.g. Avestan, Old Persian, Parthian, Middle Persian, Khotanese, Sogdian, and Bactrian).

Only eight units (usually two courses of four credits each) of a 596 course may be applied toward the minimum graduate course requirement.

Teaching Experience

Not required. In order to teach Arabic, graduate students from any discipline are required to complete Arabic 496 (Arabic Language Pedagogy) or the equivalent as determined by the Arabic faculty.

Field Experience

There are no field requirements for the MA for most programs. Archaeology students will participate in fieldwork during at least one term in connection with their program. If necessary, they may petition to count fieldwork during the 12 months preceding their matriculation or, in consultation with their adviser, construct an alternative summer program to meet the objectives of this requirement.

Capstone Plan

Final comprehensive examinations are required in the program’s major and minor languages, in addition to the history, literature, or archaeology of their major field.

Thesis Plan

None.

Time-to-Degree

Normative progress from graduate admission to conferral of the master’s degree is eight academic quarters.

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

Doctoral Degree

Advising

When applying, students indicate their preferred specialization, and once admitted the student will be formally assigned a graduate faculty adviser(s) in their given field. If a student wishes to make changes to a faculty adviser prior to advancement to doctoral candidacy, they will identify a new faculty member within the department, and submit a formal petition explaining the basis for the change to the Director of Graduate Studies (DGUS), along with the signed consent of the new faculty adviser. After advancement to candidacy, a student must get their committee and department chair approval to change any faculty on their committee. Once approved, the petition will be filed with the Student Affairs Officer.

New students should make an advising appointment at the beginning of their first quarter. During this appointment, students and their advisers agree on a coursework schedule, their future program, and reading lists for their comprehensive exams. In each subsequent quarter, it is the student’s responsibility to discuss their plans for that quarter with their adviser and obtain approval for their study list. If a student wishes to make changes in the study list after it is approved by the graduate advisor, the changes must be approved by the department chair or the graduate advisor before the student accesses the online enrollment system. Departmental policy requires the signature of the chair or the graduate advisor for approval of all petitions.

Student progress is reviewed annually. At the beginning of spring quarter, all students meet with their faculty adviser(s)and provide them with a written summary of their progress toward the degree and their goals for the coming year. Faculty advisers report to the student review committee which meets to review student progress and advises each student 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

Major fields of specialization are Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations, Arabic, Armenian, Assyriology, Egyptology, Hebrew Bible, Iranian, Jewish Studies, Near Eastern Archeology, Semitics, and Turkic. Students may concentrate on either language or literature in their selected field but are required to do work in both.

Foreign Language Requirement

Two modern major research languages other than English are required. The choice of languages must be approved by the advisor, who may also require additional language skills in modern and/or ancient languages if such skills are needed for scholarly work in the area of the student’s interest. The requirement is fulfilled by one of the following options: (1) a departmentally-administered examination with a Pass; or (2) two years of language instruction at a UC campus, or equivalent 4 year accredited institution, with a grade of B or better. For modern language exams only, students are able to repeat a failed individual exam up to three times in subsequent quarters over a span of two years. Language proficiency must be demonstrated at the time of the scheduling of the Written Qualifying Examination for the doctoral degree.

Course Requirements

Students are required to achieve high competence in two languages and to familiarize themselves with the cultural backgrounds of each of the languages chosen. Students who study Arabic may request to use an Arabic dialect as their second language per faculty adviser approval given the dissertation topic. Students are required to familiarize themselves, through appropriate course work, with the history of the cultural area, and the methods of literary research and the history of literary criticism.

If the archaeology emphasis in the Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations specialization is chosen, students are required to achieve high competence in two ancient Near Eastern languages and must be well-versed both in the history of the cultural area and in archaeological methodologies.

Students who choose a language emphasis for the Ph.D. degree are required to add a third Near Eastern language to the two that are required for the MA degree.

Students in the Near Eastern Languages and Cultures Ph.D. 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. In order to teach Arabic, graduate students from any discipline are required to complete Arabic 496 (Arabic Language Pedagogy) or the equivalent as determined by the Arabic faculty.

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.

Written qualifying examinations must be passed before the formation of a doctoral committee. Candidates in languages are examined in three Near Eastern languages and the literary and historical background of at least two of them. Candidates in literature are examined in the literatures written in two languages within the cultural area of concentration and the historical and cultural background of these languages, with emphasis on one of them. Candidates in Arabic literature are also examined in one outside field to be determined in consultation with the advisor. Candidates in Ancient Near Eastern Civilizations are examined in two ancient languages and in the history and archaeology of the major areas of the ancient Near East.

Following successful completion of the course and language requirements and the written qualifying examinations, students are required to form a doctoral committee and take the University Oral Qualifying Examination.

To formally nominate a doctoral committee a student must email the Student Affairs Officer the committee, which is formed with email approval from all faculty committee members. The department chair or graduate advisor will sign off on the final committee.

Advancement to Candidacy

Students are advanced to candidacy and awarded the Candidate in Philosophy (C.Phil.) degree upon successful completion of the written and oral qualifying examinations.

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 the Dissertation)

Not required for all students in the program. The decision as to whether a defense is required is made by the doctoral committee.

Time-to-Degree

Ph.D. students are expected to respect the following normative guidelines in carrying out their program. From admission to the Ph.D. program (i.e., after obtaining the M.A. degree) to:

(1)  the written qualifying examinations – six academic quarters.

(2) the oral qualifying examination and approval of the dissertation prospectus – twelve academic quarters (and four summer terms).

(3) the conferral of the Ph.D. degree – eighteen academic quarters.

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

In addition to the standards reasons outlined above, a student may specifically be recommended for academic disqualification because of: (1) a terminal master’s degree recommendation from the student’s master’s committee; (2) inadequate scholarship as recommended by the Graduate Committee; or (3) inadequate progress toward the degree as recommended by the departmental section in the student’s specialization.

In all cases, the student’s academic progress is discussed in depth by the departmental section that made the recommendation. A recommendation for academic disqualification is forwarded to the departmental chair for review and decision. The student is notified of a recommendation for academic disqualification in writing.

A student may appeal a recommendation for academic disqualification by stating the reasons in writing to the departmental chair. The chair transmits the appeal to the student’s departmental section for consideration.