Mission
Mission
The Department aims to be a center for the investigation of the linguistic, historical, cultural, religious, philosophical and intellectual legacy and treasures of Near and Middle Eastern, as well as South and East Asian civilizations and traditions.
In the field of languages, the Department embraces non-European languages such as Arabic, Persian, Turkish, Hebrew (as Middle Eastern languages) and Japanese, Chinese, Korean and Urdu (as South and East Asian languages). Among these languages Arabic and Persian currently have the status of minors for students of Humanities and Social Sciences, and are offered from the beginner’s level to the advanced level, while other languages are offered as electives in two levels. All language courses are designed to develop proficiency in the basic skills of reading, writing, understanding and speaking.
The Department also offers a wide range of courses that covers major religions of the world such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam (as Middle Eastern traditions) and Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Jainism, Shinto, and Taoism (as South and East Asian traditions) which appeared in the motherlands of these Middle Eastern and Far Eastern languages, and turned out to be a lasting legacy of the world’s civilizations. The courses are focused on the study of religions from historical, scriptural, ethical, sociological and philosophical perspectives, from ancient to modern times.
The Department holds strong ties with several other departments at KU, including History, Political Sciences and International Relations, Philosophy and Human Studies, and Azerbaijani Language and Literature. Currently, in partnership with the relevant departments, the Department offers specific graduate-level Area Studies programs with concentrations in Middle Eastern, South and East Asian Studies, and organizes public lectures, seminars and workshops for students and scholars in the field on a regular basis. The Department supports several interdisciplinary graduate programs leading to master’s and PhD degrees.
