Major

Admission

Students are accepted into the Islamic Civilization and Societies major by competitive application during the fall semester of the student's second year. The application deadline is October 15. Fifteen students are accepted into the major each year. Admission is determined by the Program's Admissions Committee. Criteria for admission include:

• Academic achievement:

Overall GPA
Rigor of the academic program
Other noteworthy aspects of academic performance

• Strength of the faculty letters of recommendation
• Demonstrated personal and intellectual commitment to the field
• Quality of the student's personal statement
• Foreign language preparation

Online application

Requirements

The major in Islamic Civilization and Societies consists of 14 courses, including two years of required language instruction.

1. Introduction to Islamic Civilization (IC199/HS171/TH174/FA174):

This is a team-taught, integrative, multidisciplinary foundation course, designed as an introduction to the field, which is offered in the fall semester. Faculty from two or three departments participate in teaching the course.

All ICS majors must choose a primary department in which to work, and must take the required departmental foundation courses. Two additional courses must be taken in the student’s primary department from an approved list. (See below)

The five participating departments in the ICS program are: Fine Arts, History, Political Science, Slavic & Eastern Languages and Literature, and Theology.

Departmental Foundation Courses (two courses):

• Fine Arts: FA101/102 Survey of Art History
• History: two courses from the HS001-094 sequence; HS059 Islam & Global Modernities preferred
• Political Science: PO041/042 Fundamentals of Politics I & II
• Slavic & Eastern Languages: Any two of the following: SL147 Language & Identity in the Middle East; SL150 States and Minorities in the Middle East; SL148 Modern Middle Eastern and Arabic Literature; SL 291 Near Eastern Civilization
• Theology: any of the two-semester University Core courses; Religious Quest preferred

Base Discipline Electives (two courses)

Students will choose two additional courses from within their chosen disciplinary base

3. Electives (three courses):

Students will choose three elective courses. Electives must be distributed between at least two other departments in addition to the student’s disciplinary base. Course descriptions can be found under the appropriate departmental listings.

All majors are required to enroll in a research seminar in the fall of their senior year. In the spring term of their senior year, students will complete a senior thesis under the supervision of one of the faculty members affiliated with the Program. The Senior Seminar will allow ICS majors to integrate knowledge, skills and concepts of their diverse disciplinary bases and to share them in a genuinely cross-disciplinary manner.

5. Language Requirement (four courses):

Students will be expected to attain proficiency (completion of intermediate level) in a relevant language such as Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, Turkish or Urdu. In some cases, French, Russian, Chinese or other languages relevant to specific research concerns may be accepted for students specializing in the study of Muslims in Africa, Central Asia, China, Europe or the Americas, subject to approval by the Program’s directors.