Gateway Courses

Gateway courses will give you foundational training and exposure to the field in preparation for the more specialized advanced work that you will do in your chosen concentration pathway or secondary field.

The department offers four secondary field pathways, with specific gateway courses, for undergraduate concentrators and for secondary field candidates from departments other than NELC. See the my.Harvard course search for complete descriptions of all NELC courses.

I. Middle East in Antiquity

Offered Spring 2023 (subject to change)

  •  Ancient Near East 140 (ANE 140): Sex, Death, and the Bible
  • General Education 1090 (GENED 1090): What is a Book? From the Clay Tablet to the Kindle
  • General Education 1099 (GENED 1099): Pyramid Schemes: What Can Ancient Egyptian Civilization Teach Us?
  • Near Eastern Civilizations 101 (NEC 101): Historical Background to the Contemporary Middle East: Religion, Literature, and Politics

Offered Fall 2022

  • Ancient Near East 197 (ANE 197): Bible and Empire
  • Egyptian 150 (EGYPTIAN 150): Voices from the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Literature in Translation
  • Armenian Studies 111 (ARMENST 111): Art and Culture of Armenia
  • Near Eastern Civilizations 107 (NEC 107): History of the Book

Offered Fall 2020

  • Ancient Near East 102 (ANE 102): Introduction to Mesopotamian Religion
  • Ancient Near East 106 (ANE 106): Ancient Mesopotamian Literature: 2000 Years of Early Storytelling
  • Ancient Near East 120A (ANE 120A): Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 1: Pentateuch and Former Prophets
  • Egyptian 150 (EGYPTIAN 150): Voices from the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Literature in Translation

Offered Spring 2019

  • Societies of the World 38 (SOCWORLD 38): Pyramid Schemes: The Archaeological History of Ancient Egypt

Offered Fall 2018

  • Ancient Near East 103 (ANE 103): Ancient Lives

Not Offered 2018-19

  • Ancient Near East 100 (ANE 100): History of the Ancient Near East
  • Ancient Near East 102 (ANE 102): Introduction to Mesopotamian Religion
  • Ancient Near East 120A (ANE 120A): Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 1: Pentateuch and Former Prophets
  • Ancient Near East 120B (ANE 120B): Introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament 2: Latter Prophets and Writings
  • Ancient Near East 126 (ANE 126): History of the Religion of Ancient Israel
  • Ancient Near East 128 (ANE 128): Ancient Egypt and the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
  • Culture and Belief 23 (CULTBLF 23): From the Hebrew Bible to Judaism, From the Old Testament to Christianity
  • Egyptian 150 (EGYPTIAN 150): Voices from the Nile: Ancient Egyptian Literature in Translation

II. Jewish Studies

Offered Spring 2023 (subject to change)

  • Jewish Studies 158 (JEWISHST) 158: 21st-Century U.S. Jewish Culture 

Offered Fall 2022

  • Hebrew 165 (HEBREW 165): Philosophy and Law: Readings in Maimonides’ Mishneh Torah
  • Jewish Studies 129 (JEWISHST 129): Josephus
  • Yiddish 107 (YIDDISH 107): The Politics of Yiddish

Offered Fall 2020

  • Hebrew 113 (HEBREW 113): Halakhah and Aggadah (Law and Lore) in Classical Judaism
  • Jewish Studies 139 (JEWISHST 139): Jews and Judaism in the Ancient World 
  • Jewish Studies 186 (JEWISHST 186):  Comparative Love: The Song of Songs in Western Tradition
  • Yiddish 107 (YIDDISH 107): The Politics of Yiddish

Offered Spring 2019

  • Societies of the World 35 (SOCWORLD 35): Conditional Equality: The Case of the Jews of Europe in Modern Times

Offered Fall 2018

  • Jewish Studies 111 (JEWISHST 111): Modern Jewish Thought

Not Offered 2018-19

  • Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 29 (AESTHINT 29): Modern Jewish Literature
  • Culture and Belief 27 (CULTBLF 27): Among the Nations: Jewish History in Pagan Christian and Muslim Context
  • History 60E (HIST 60E): Overlapping Spheres: Jewish Life in Early Modern Europe
  • History 1083 (HIST 1083): American Jewish History
  • Religion 25 (RELIGION 25): Judaism: Text and Tradition

III. Histories and Cultures of Muslim Societies (Islamic Studies)

Offered Spring 2023 (subject to change)

  • General Education 1134 (GENED 1134): Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies
  • Islamic Civilizations 111 (ISLAMCIV 111): Transforming Tradition: Islamic Education in the Modern Muslim World

Offered Fall 2022

  • Arabic 152 (ARABIC 152): Introduction to Qur’an and Hadith
  • Islamic Civilizations 128 (ISLAMCIV 128): Religion and Society in Islamicate History (900 – 1300 CE) from Shi’i Centuries to Mongol Invasions
  • Islamic Civilizations 145B (ISLAMCIV 145B): Introduction to Islamic Philosophy and Theology: The Modern Period
  • Islamic Civilizations 163 (ISLAMCIV 163): Introduction to Islamic Mystical Traditions

Offered Fall 2020

  • Islamic Civilizations 163 (ISLAMCIV 163): Introduction to Islamic Mystical Traditions
  • Islamic Civilizations 165 (ISLAMCIV 165): Sufi Masters of Persian Poetry: ‘Attâr, Rumi, Hâfez
  • Islamic Civilizations 178 (ISLAMCIV 178): Being Muslim in South Asia: Religion, Culture and Identity

Offered Spring 2019

  • Culture and Belief 19 (CULTBLF 19): Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies

Offered Fall 2018

  • Islamic Civilizations 145A (ISLAMCIV 145A): Introduction to Islamic Philosophy and Theology: The Formative and Classical Periods (8th to 15th centuries)

Not Offered 2018-19

  • Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding 54 (AESTHINT 54): For the Love of God and His Prophet: Religion, Literature and the Arts in Muslim Cultures
  • Islamic Civilizations 145B (ISLAMCIV 145B): Introduction to Islamic Philosophy and Theology: The Early-Modern and Modern Periods (16th to 20th centuries)
  • Islamic Civilizations 175 (ISLAMCIV 175): Islam in African History
  • Islamic Civilizations 183 (ISLAMCIV 183): Reform and Revival in Modern Islam, 19th -20th centuries
  • Religion 1802 (RELIGION 1802): Introduction to Islamic Mysticism: The Sufi Tradition
  • Religion 1806 (RELIGION 1806): The Vocabulary of Islam

IV. Modern Middle Eastern Studies

Offered Spring 2023 (subject to change)

  • Modern Middle East 104 (MODMDEST 104): Sectarianism and Islamic Identities in the Middle East: Modern and Medieval
  • Modern Middle East 106 (MODMDEST 106): Government and Politics of the Modern Middle East and North Africa
  • General Education 1123 (GENED 1123): Islam and Politics in the Modern Middle East

Offered Fall 2022

  • Modern Middle East 102 (MODMDEST 102): Shi’a Islam and Politics in the Middle East
  • Modern Middle East 103 (MODMDEST 103): History of Modern Iran
  • Modern Middle East 122 (MODMDEST 122): Dynamics of Transformation in the Modern Middle East

Offered Fall 2020

  • Islamic Civilizations 170 (ISLAMCIV 170): Islam, Modernity and Politics

Offered Spring 2019

 

Offered Fall 2018

 

Not Offered 2018-19

  • Modern Middle East 100 (MODMDEST 100): Approaches to Middle Eastern Studies (required for concentration and secondary field)
  • Modern Middle East 105 (MODMDEST 105): Peoples and Societies of the Middle East
  • Modern Middle East 111 (MODMDEST 105): Culture and Society in Contemporary Iran
  • Modern Middle East 160R (MODMDEST 160R): History of Modern Turkey through Literature
  • Culture and Belief 41 (CULTBLF 41): Gender, Islam, and Nation in the Middle East and North Africa
  • History 1860 (HIST 1860): Understanding the Middle East: 1800s to the Present
  • Islamic Civilizations 170 (ISLAMCIV 170): Islam, Modernity and Politics
  • Societies of the World 46 (SOCWORLD 46): The Anthropology of Arabia