Skip to main content
Duke 100 Centennial logo
Menu

Secondary Menu

  • News
  • Events
Duke University - Trinity College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies wordmark

Main navigation

  • Undergraduate
    • Major & Minors
    • Language Studies
    • Admissions
    • For Current Students
    • Graduation with Distinction
  • Graduate
    • Program Overview
    • Requirements
    • Milestones & Deadlines
    • How to Apply
    • Graduate Courses
    • CAMEH Faculty
    • Our Students
    • Workshops & Programs
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • For Current Students
  • Courses
    • All AMES Courses
    • Language Courses
  • People
    • Faculty
    • Emeriti
    • Staff
  • Research
    • Research Themes
    • Selected Faculty Books
  • Alumni
    • Alumni Profiles
    • For Current Students
    • For Our Alumni
Historic Buildings
Languages Less Traveled
At Duke, less commonly taught languages are just as impactful
Preeti Singh smiles at the camera
Urban Form and Politics in South Asia
Preeti Singh explores cultural histories of authoritarianism
Eileen Chow and Huiyin Zhou
Living in the Both
Research collaboration between Duke faculty and undergraduate students
Major & Minor
Language Studies
Study Abroad
Critical Asian Humanities M.A.

News

  • A group of about 15 Hindi 203 students gathered in a classroom preparing a street play. Many are smiling and/or gesticulating as the interact with each other.
    Professor Harsh Bala Sharma Helps Hindi 203 Students ‘Find Their Inner Artist’
  • a Hindi language student smiling and laughing while standing in front of a stove tending to a puri frying in a pan with oil.
    Flavors of India
  • A student wearing a grey Duke sweatshirt sitting down wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset. The student is also holding a controller in their hands. In the background there is another person watching the student as well as a computer monitor displaying what the student using VR is seeing (the inside of a store with clothes displayed on shelves).
    Are you asking us to use AI?
  • A Zoom screenshot showing students from Duke and India's IP College convening online
    A Cross-Cultural Exchange in Hindi through Service-learning
See All News

Events

May
15
Thu
EcoEd: Teaching to Attest — keynote talk, EFAN 2025 Durham Workshop
10:00 am
Grainger Hall Field Auditorium

Jul
23
Wed
Bulareyaung Dance Company
7:30 pm
Bryan Center Reynolds Industries Theater

See All Events

 

About the Department of Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

Our department explores East Asian, South Asian and Middle Eastern cultures—primarily Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean—through the lens of language and literature; social movements, nationalism and diaspora; popular culture and the media; gender, visuality and feminism; film theory, cinema and aesthetics; and the implications of religion on identity and globalization.

Featured Video

What We Do

great wall of China

Undergraduate

We offer a major where students focus on one or more languages, and chose either a Regional or Thematic pathway. Two minors are also available.

Learn More about our undergraduate program

bird drawing

Graduate

Providing advanced training in East Asian Cultural Studies and Critical Theory, our department offers a Master's track in Critical Asian Humanities. 

Learn More about our graduate program

hebrew text

Language Studies

Our course curriculum of 9 Asian & Middle Eastern languages help students fulfill their Duke University foreign language requirements.

Learn More about our language studies

globe.
Travel Abroad Programs
9
trophy.
2020 Fulbright Recipients
3
speaking.
Foreign Languages
10

Research

Our department closely examines East Asia, South Asia and the Middle East by studying the languages, cultures, literature, religions, and more that make this region unique. The intellectual focus of the department consists of 10 research fields, with many overlapping into one another.

Research Fields

  • Literature
  • Religion
  • Film & Media Studies
  • Cultural Studies
  • Second Language Acquisition
  • Gender & Sexuality
  • Conflict & Violence
  • Diaspora & Refugees
  • Language Pedagogy
  • Intercultural Communication

Faculty Books

Conversations with Orhan Pamuk
Conversations with Orhan Pamuk
Edited by Erdağ Göknar & Pelin Kıvrak
Routledge Handbook on Turkish Literature
Routledge Handbook on Turkish Literature
Didem Havlioğlu (editor)
I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said's America
I Cannot Write My Life: Islam, Arabic, and Slavery in Omar ibn Said's America
Mbaye Lo
Sheikh Moussa Kamara’s Islamic Critique of Jihadists
Sheikh Moussa Kamara’s Islamic Critique of Jihadists
Mbaye Lo
Acting Chinese (An Intermediate-Advanced Course in Discourse and Behavioral Culture)
Acting Chinese (An Intermediate-Advanced Course in Discourse and Behavioral Culture)
Yanfang Tang, Kun-Shan Carolyn Lee, Li Xu, Jin Zhang, and Peng Yu
Reading Hindi: Novice to Intermediate
Reading Hindi: Novice to Intermediate
Kusum Knapczyk, Peter Knapczyk
Anti-Japan: The Politics of Sentiment in Postcolonial East Asia
Anti-Japan: The Politics of Sentiment in Postcolonial East Asia
Leo T.S. Ching
The Arabic Classroom: Context, Text and Learners
The Arabic Classroom: Context, Text and Learners
Mbaye Lo
Jews and the Ends of Theory
Jews and the Ends of Theory
Shai Ginsburg (co-editor)
Yan Lianke - The Day the Sun Died
Yan Lianke - The Day the Sun Died
Carlos Rojas (translator)
Mihrî Hatun: Performance, Gender-Bending, and Subversion in Ottoman Intellectual History
Mihrî Hatun: Performance, Gender-Bending, and Subversion in Ottoman Intellectual History
Didem Havlioğlu
Nomadologies
Nomadologies
Erdag Göknar
Intimate Empire: Collaboration and Colonial Modernity in Korea and Japan
Intimate Empire: Collaboration and Colonial Modernity in Korea and Japan
Nayoung Aimee Kwon
Soft Force: Women in Egypt's Islamic Awakening
Soft Force: Women in Egypt's Islamic Awakening
Ellen Anne McLarney
Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf
Tribal Modern: Branding New Nations in the Arab Gulf
miriam cooke
See All Selected Books
Duke wordmark.

Asian & Middle Eastern Studies

2204 Erwin Road
Box 90414
Durham, NC 27705

phone: (919) 684-4309

Photography Credits

Department Information

Educational Objectives
Academic Dishonesty

Undergraduate

Major & Minor Requirements
Language Studies
Previous Requirements

Graduate

MA in Critical Asian and Middle Eastern Humanities
Graduate Application Process

Stay Connected

Twitter
Facebook
NetID Login
  • Undergraduate
    • Major & Minors
      • Senior Portfolio
    • Language Studies
      • Arabic
      • Chinese
      • Hebrew
      • Hindi
      • Japanese
      • Korean
      • Turkish
    • Admissions
    • For Current Students
      • Advising
      • Independent Study
      • Study Abroad
      • International Opportunities
      • Undergraduate Research
      • Trinity Ambassadors
    • Graduation with Distinction
      • Past Thesis Projects
  • Graduate
    • Program Overview
    • Requirements
    • Milestones & Deadlines
    • How to Apply
    • Graduate Courses
      • Auditing a Course
      • Undergraduate Level Course Enrollment
    • CAMEH Faculty
    • Our Students
      • Past Thesis Projects
      • Student Photos
    • Workshops & Programs
    • Frequently Asked Questions
    • For Current Students
  • Courses
    • All AMES Courses
    • Language Courses
      • Arabic
      • Chinese
      • Hebrew
      • Hindi
      • Japanese
      • Korean
      • Persian
      • Turkish
      • Urdu
  • People
    • Faculty
    • Emeriti
    • Staff
  • Research
    • Research Themes
      • Literature
      • Religion
      • Film & Media Studies
      • Cultural Studies
      • Gender & Sexuality
      • Conflict & Violence
      • Diaspora & Refugees
      • Second Language Acquisition
      • Language Pedagogy
      • Intercultural Communication
    • Selected Faculty Books
  • Alumni
    • Alumni Profiles
    • For Current Students
    • For Our Alumni
      • Assisting Duke Students
      • Contribute
  • News
  • Events