U-AMES-AB - Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (AB)
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Degree Designation
Type
Overview
The Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies explores the cultures of the cities, nations, and regions of East Asia, the Indian Subcontinent, and the Middle East within the framework of the humanities. It provides students with an understanding of the languages, histories, cultural practices, and perspectives of these regions to prepare them for professional work or advanced graduate studies in the international arenas. The curriculum is designed to develop reflective, critical thinking and conceptually grounded understanding of the contemporary cultures of Asia and the Middle East within a global, geopolitical context. The coursework for the major provides an intellectual training that includes the study of languages and of cultural practices as well as of critical frameworks for the analysis of cultural perspectives. The concentration of the major is determined by the language of study: Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Persian, or Turkish. Majors will be advised by AMES regular-ranked faculty.
A minor is also available in this program.
Departmental Graduation with Distinction
Majors with grade point averages of 3.5 or higher in the major may apply in their junior year to the director of undergraduate studies for Graduation with Distinction (see the section on honors in this bulletin). Students working on their honors thesis will take AMES 493 Research Independent Study with their advisor in the fall semester and two departmental honors seminars, one in the fall semester (AMES 498S [0.5 credit]) and one in the spring semester (AMES 499S). Students will have an oral defense of their theses at the end of their final semester. In order to graduate with honors, the student must obtain at least an A in the honors seminars.