Recent News
MELC is proud to announce that former MELC undergraduate and recent NMES PhD Corinna Nichols has been been selected to receive the Graduate School’s 2025 Distinguished Dissertation Award in the Humanities & Fine Arts category for her fantastic dissertation, “Entangled Identity: Control, and Depictions of Hair in the Ancient Near East.”
As a furthe
Aria Fani's first book, Reading across Borders: Afghans, Iranians, and Literary Nationalism (U. of Texas Press, 2024) has won the American Comparative Literature's prestigious René Wellek prize for best monograph in the field.
On May 14, 2025, the Arabic Language and Culture Association marked the official launch of its Registered Student Organization (RSO) with a vibrant celebration in Denny Hall.
MELC is excited to share that MELC major Remi Alidon has been selected for an undergraduate Bonderman Fellowship this year! Each year a select group of UW students are provided a rare opportunity to independently travel the world as Bonderman Fellows.
MELC Assistant Professor Aria Fani's co-translations to the modernist Iranian poet, Bijan Jalali, was published earlier this month by Asemana, an independent press in Toronto. The cover of the book is illustrated by MELC major Amelia Ossorio. The book is now available on Amazon for purchase.
The Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures recently celebrated its third annual Walter G. Andrews Lecture, featuring an insightful exploration of Ottoman literary traditions. This event was made possible thanks to the generous contributions from our community supporters of the Turkish and Ottoman Studies Program.
The Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures at the University of Washington is proud to announce the second cycle of the Iraj Khademi Residency in Persian Literature.
On February 27, Deniz Türker of Rutgers University delivered an insightful lecture at the University of Washington on The Last Ottoman Palace: Yıldız and Its Many Makers (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2023).