By Sara Patterson

The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Chicago Division of the Humanities announced Aug. 19 that it will be renamed the Department of Middle Eastern Studies, effective immediately.

The change is the result of the Department’s work in recent years to acknowledge the interdisciplinary and geographic research of its scholars. In an email announcing the change, Department Chair Ahmed El Shamsy wrote that the new name is “more recognizable, fits the region geographically, and arises from a new understanding of its relevance and significance now and throughout its ancient history.” Also, he noted that the usage and meaning of “Near Eastern” have changed over time.

“Today our department attracts scholars of philology, linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, literature, history, visual art, art history, law, and religion among others,” said El Shamsy, professor and chair in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and the College at the University of Chicago. “The name of our department should reflect the interdisciplinary nature of these scholars and their research in this region of the world.”

The Department’s former name frequently led to misunderstandings, contributing to the perception that its work focused on language instruction and on civilizations of the ancient Near East. 

“The Middle East is a complicated part of the world, and we have the expertise in the cultures, history, and languages of the region to help nonspecialists understand what is happening there, including (but not exclusively) in the war between Israel and Hamas,” said Hervé Reculeau, associate professor at the Institute for the Studies of Ancient Cultures, Department of Middle Eastern Studies, and the College at the University of Chicago.

During the past few years, UChicago faculty members and students held several discussions about changing the name and through consensus agreed on the name of Middle Eastern Studies.

For more than 100 years, the history and mission of the Department of Middle Eastern Studies has been intertwined with that of the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, West Asia & North Africa (ISAC). Under its new name, the Department of Middle Eastern Studies can move in the same direction with ISAC  and collaborate on new discoveries and field-defining research and scholarship at the University of Chicago.

“The Department of Middle Eastern Studies and ISAC are leading centers in the production of knowledge in this region,” said Orit Bashkin, the Mabel Greene Myer Professor in the Department of Middle Eastern Studies and the College at the University of Chicago. “Now we can have more innovative and constant conversations, which takes into account the history of our discipline; incorporates, from a regional vantage point, other disciplines such as environmental history and comparative literary studies, and enhance the profile of the department. We want to express that what we do relates to the contemporary world while cultivating a greater understanding of the Middle East’s long, rich, and complex history.”

Research conducted at the University of Chicago has helped form the foundations of modern disciplines of Assyriology, Egyptology, and ancient Middle Eastern archaeology.