What is NELC?
The Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations Department (NELC) is devoted to:
- the languages, literatures, cultures, and histories of the ancient, medieval, and modern Near East
- the study of the Hebrew Bible, its sources in the Ancient Near East, and the history of its interpretations
- the study of Arabic-, Turkish-, and Persian-speaking Islamic civilizations in the Near East, Africa, South Asia, and elsewhere
- the study of Hebrew-, Aramaic-, Judaeo-Arabic, and Yiddish-speaking Jewish civilizations in the Near East, Europe, the New World, and elsewhere.
Recent Faculty Activity
- Khaled El-Rouayheb Receives British Journal for the History of Philosophy 2020 Best Article Prize
- Ali Asani Featured in Harvard Gazette
- William Granara Chosen as Walter Channing Cabot Fellow
- Dr. Ali Asani Receives Harvard Foundation Faculty of the Year Award
- Peter Der Manuelian awarded Dean's Competitive Fund for Promising Scholarship
- Dr. Piotr Steinkeller Awarded University of Chicago 2019 Alumni Medal
Recent Student Activity
Department Announcements
- NELC alum Paul Anderson wins Foundation for Iranian Studies award for Best PhD Dissertation
- Keynote by Dr. Hilary Kilpatrick
- Newly-Founded Ancient Studies at Harvard Initiative
- Congratulations to NELC's 2020 Graduates! Recording now available
- Harvard Semitic Museum Renamed Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East
- NELC Alum Sadaf Jaffer (PhD 2015) Becomes NJ's First South Asian Woman Mayor