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.