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| Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (University of Chicago) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations |
| Parent institution | University of Chicago |
| Established | 1894 |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations (University of Chicago) is an academic unit within the University of Chicago devoted to the study of the languages, literatures, histories, religions, and cultures of the Near East. The department engages with primary sources across Ancient Mesopotamia, Sumer, Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Achaemenid Empire, Parthia, Sasanian Empire and extends to Arab world, Ottoman Empire, Safavid dynasty and modern Middle East contexts. It intersects with neighboring units such as the Committee on Social Thought, the Oriental Institute (Chicago), the Divinity School (University of Chicago), and the School of Social Service Administration.
The department traces antecedents to the founding of the University of Chicago and early departments of Philology, Classics, and Oriental studies in the late 19th century, shaped by scholars influenced by projects such as the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, the excavations led by the Oriental Institute (Chicago), and international scholarly networks connected to the British Museum, Louvre Museum, and the Vatican Library. Faculty and students contributed to decipherment traditions associated with cuneiform, Akkadian language, Old Persian cuneiform, and the study of texts from Ugarit and Elam. Throughout the 20th century the department evolved alongside major events including scholarly responses to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, the discoveries at Persepolis, and debates sparked by the Iranian Revolution and conflicts such as the Arab–Israeli conflict. Institutional collaborations fostered ties to centers like the Institute for Advanced Study and the American Oriental Society.
The department offers undergraduate majors, minors, and graduate degrees including PhD programs with concentrations in Assyriology, Egyptology, Hebrew Bible, Rabbinic Studies, Islamic Studies, Modern Middle Eastern Studies, and Iranian Studies. Coursework ranges from instruction in Akkadian language, Sumerian language, Classical Syriac, Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic language, Middle Persian, Ottoman Turkish, Modern Standard Arabic, and Persian language to seminars on literatures such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, the Quran, the Talmud, and poetic corpora of Rumi. Joint-degree options and interdisciplinary tracks connect students with the Booth School of Business, the Harris School of Public Policy Studies, and area-focused fellowships like the Title VI programs.
Faculty research spans philology, epigraphy, archaeology, intellectual history, legal history, and literary criticism, with emeriti and active scholars who have worked on problems ranging from the grammar of Sumerian language and editions of Amarna letters to analyses of Islamic jurisprudence and modern political thought in Egypt, Turkey, and Iran. Project affiliations include the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, text editions of Dead Sea Scrolls, compilations of Cuneiform texts, and collaborative ventures with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the British Library, and the Library of Congress. Faculty have received honors such as fellowships from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and membership in bodies like the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Royal Asiatic Society.
Language instruction covers both ancient and modern tongues, offering proficiency tracks and dialect studies in varieties connected to Levant, Maghreb, Mesopotamia, and Anatolia. Area studies curricula integrate primary-source training for texts from sites like Nineveh, Nippur, Uruk, Persepolis, Byzantine Empire archives, and consular records from the Capitulations of the Ottoman Empire. The department collaborates with language pedagogy centers and study-abroad programs in countries including Egypt, Turkey, Iran, Israel, and Morocco; it also supports research on migrant communities, diasporas linked to Armenia and Azerbaijan, and transregional networks across the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean.
The department benefits from proximity to the Oriental Institute (Chicago), the Regenstein Library, and specialized holdings such as papyri and manuscript collections, cuneiform tablets, and the university’s holdings of rare editions of works by Ibn Khaldun, Al-Ghazali, Saadi Shirazi, and Sa‘di. Research infrastructure includes language labs, epigraphic equipment, digital humanities support for corpus projects, and access to museum partnerships with institutions like the Field Museum of Natural History and the Art Institute of Chicago. Archival resources extend to microfilm and digitized copies of Ottoman-era records from the Başbakanlık Ottoman Archives and mission collections related to 19th-century travelers like E. A. Wallis Budge.
Alumni and former students have become prominent in academia, diplomacy, publishing, and cultural institutions, including scholars who edited the Chicago Assyrian Dictionary, curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the British Museum, diplomats posted to Tehran, Cairo, and Ankara, and authors of influential monographs on Zoroastrianism, Sufism, and Biblical criticism. Graduates have been associated with appointments at the Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, international organizations like the United Nations, and policy institutes such as the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Council on Foreign Relations. The department’s philological editions, archaeological reports, and digital corpora continue to shape fields including Assyriology, Egyptology, Semitic studies, and Iranology.