You’ll go places with African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures!

Do you love to read new, different and exciting literature? Do you dream of traveling to faraway places? Would you like to discover the rich and complex worlds that learning a new language can open up? Are you interested in an off-the-beaten-track career in government or non-profit community service, translation, archeology, medieval history, journalism, teaching, international business or development? Studying any one of the range of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian languages and literatures taught at AMESALL can help prepare you for the challenges of the job market in a globalized world, or for graduate school and a range of professional or academic degrees.

Our department offers comprehensive training in Arabic, Hindi, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, Twi, and Urdu, six of which have identified as “critical-need languages” by the US State Department, the US Education Department, and the National Security Administration. In addition, our students also acquire an invaluable cultural competencies associated with these languages and their speakers, without which language training is meaningless.

With an AMESALL major, you will acquire an advanced level of proficiency in any one of these languages and explore their rich and vibrant literary and cultural traditions, from ancient times to the 21st century. Discover the mystical love poetry of Persia, the magical world of African folklore and myth, the magnificent Vedic scriptures of India, and the controversial modern fiction of Nobel-prize winning authors from the three regions, like Orhan Pamuk, Wole Soyinka, Naguib Mahfouz and Nadine Gordimer. Our courses cover a broad range of topics that emphasize the geographic and cultural interconnectedness of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, and that address issues of relevance to the complex world we live in today, such as feminism and Islam in Africa, or modernism and colonialism in the Arab world. An AMESALL degree will give you a strong working knowledge of the major social and cultural movements in the history of these connected regions and the language proficiency you will acquire on the way will prepare you for a job market in a world where the center of business, politics and intellectual wonder is increasingly moving east and south.

The Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL) is part of the School of Arts and Sciences

As a African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures (AMESALL) major in the School of Arts and Sciences, you’ll have full access to a liberal arts education that spans 47 programs for undergraduates. You will acquire both the specialized knowledge of the field you choose to study in depth, and broad knowledge of the world from the renowned scholar-teachers at Rutgers. You’ll graduate ready to meet contemporary challenges in your workplace, in your hometown, and in the global community.

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