Department Website
People
Professor
Associate Professor
Adjunct in MELC
Professor, Jackson School of International Studies
Associate Professor
Director of Turkish and Ottoman Studies Program
Graduate Program Coordinator
Assistant Teaching Professor
Professor
Director of Hebrew Bible and the Ancient Near East Program
Assistant Teaching Professor
News
- Farhat G. Ziadeh Distinguished Lectures 2026 Presents Shawkat Toorawa (Yale University) (May 4, 2026)
- Friends of MELC Spotlight 2026: Translation Studies and the Middle East Center (February 7, 2026)
- A Snapshot of Graduate Study in MELC (2026) (February 7, 2026)
- Second Cycle of Persian Literature Residency Concludes with Vibrant
Community Events (November 17, 2025)
Zuhal Olcay, Acclaimed Performing Artist from Turkey, in a Conversation with MELC Professor Melike Yücel-Koç (November 13, 2025)- Didem Havlioğlu Delivers the 2024 Walter Andrews Memorial Lecture (April 30, 2024)
- News from MELC Students (April 26, 2024)
- MELC Faculty Honored during Arab American Heritage Month (April 25, 2024)
- Announcing a New Book by Prof. Amina Moujtahid (April 12, 2024)
- Launch of the Global Literary Studies Major (April 10, 2024)
- Events in the Turkish and Ottoman Studies Program (March 7, 2024)
- Prof. Melike Yücel-Koç Receives Language Educator of the Year Award (February 28, 2024)
- Prof. Stephanie Selover Awarded a Site Preservation Grant by the American Institute of Archaeology (February 27, 2024)
- MELC Summer Study Abroad: Arabic Language and Culture in Morocco! (January 6, 2024)
- Prof. Hussein Elkhafaifi Receives Lifetime Achievement Award (January 4, 2024)
- Israeli Writers and Writing after October 7 (December 28, 2023)
- Dr. Naghmeh Samini brings Theater Workshop to the Classroom (June 12, 2023)
- Announcing the Winner of the Inaugural Mo Habib Translation Prize (June 5, 2023)
- MELC minor Anaëlle Enders awarded the prestigious President’s Medalist Award (March 1, 2023)
- MELC’s Inaugural Walter G. Andrews Memorial Lecture Featuring Dr. Michael Pifer (January 3, 2023)
- Prof. Scott Noegel Interviewed on BBC's "The Forum" (September 22, 2022)
- MELC's New Logo: Designed by Mamoun Sakkal (September 16, 2022)
- Memorial to be Held for Iraj Khademi on August 18 at the University of Washington's Kane Hall (August 12, 2022)
- NELC Students and Theatre Group Bring Shahnameh into Life (June 7, 2022)
- Translation Studies Hub (TSH) has been renewed for the academic year 2022-2023 (May 18, 2022)
- NELC major Lucida Olson awarded the prestigious Irene Dickson McFarlane Tuition Scholarship for 2022-23. (May 9, 2022)
- Symposium: Is There a Persianate Modernity? (December 14, 2021)
- New Book by Prof. Mika Ahuvia (November 23, 2021)
- NELC Welcomes Visiting Scholar Gürbey Hiz in Turkish and Ottoman Studies (August 24, 2021)
- New Minors for Students in NELC (August 18, 2021)
- NELC Welcomes Visiting Faculty Member in Arabic, Makda Weatherspoon (August 16, 2021)
- Explore Historical Diaries, Learn Something New, and Win a Prize! (April 13, 2021)
- NELC Statement in Solidarity with Asian-Americans (March 17, 2021)
- Digitizing Life on the Tigris River via the Svoboda Diaries Project (March 13, 2021)
- American Association for Turkic Teachers Names Award After Prof. Walter G. Andrews (October 15, 2020)
- NELC-PISP Roshan Fellows Present Their Projects at the Simpson Center Event (October 12, 2020)
- "Effusive adoration of Hebrew": Prof. Naomi Sokoloff on Hebrew poetry in two publications (July 13, 2020)
- Reading and Playing Right to Left: Preserving Japanese Comics and Iranian Video Games (June 29, 2020)
- Erin Kelleher (NELC M.A. 2020) will continue her graduate studies at UTexas Ph.D. Program in Middle Eastern Studies (June 6, 2020)
- Walter G. Andrews (1939-2020) (June 1, 2020)
- The Allure of Untranslatability (May 17, 2020)
- UW-NELC Online: Language Teaching During the Lockdown (May 7, 2020)
- Nowruz 2020: A Message from NELC - PISP (March 20, 2020)
- Gary Martin on the "Trouble with Adultery in the Cairo Genizah Biblical Manuscripts" (February 13, 2020)
- Naomi Sokoloff's co-edited volume wins the prestigious National Jewish Book Award (January 15, 2020)
- NELC Major Noah Gruenert Broadcasts in Persian on Radio Iranshahr (January 14, 2020)
- On gazel, ethno-geography and desire: Two talks and a short article by Selim S. Kuru (January 6, 2020)
- NELC STUDENTS REFLECT: Lidwien Kaptiejn on Somalia, A Horn of Africa Initiative Lecture (November 6, 2019)
- HAPPY HALLOWEEN Witches in Turkish Shadow Theater (October 31, 2019)
- ARCE 2019-2020 Public Lecture Series starts with Jere Bacharach on Fustat (October 14, 2019)
- Electronic resources for the study of Islamic numismatics (September 26, 2019)
- NEW Assistant Professor in Persian and Iranian Studies: Aria Fani (September 5, 2019)
- End of the Year Reception (June 12, 2019)
- NELC Major Mira Weimer on the Prophet Jonah across Abrahamic Texts (June 3, 2019)
- Undergraduate Student Erika Arias Recognized for Work with Near Eastern Digital Humanities (May 17, 2019)
- 5th year of cooperation with the NELC-PISP Iranian Film Initiative at SIFF and films from our region at the Festival (May 6, 2019)
- Nowruz at UW (April 30, 2019)
- Farhat J. Ziadeh Lecture 2019: Jane McAuliffe on the Quran in America (April 21, 2019)
- Ancient Iran Day 2018 (April 21, 2019)
- Subaltern Mothering and the Political Elsewhere: Mediha Sorma on Kurdish Mothers (April 21, 2019)
- Reflections on a Symposium (November 29, 2018)
- Turks in Germany: A Panel on a Documentary Film (November 29, 2018)
- Gert Borg on Arabic Studies in Europe and "Gift Called Philology" (November 8, 2018)
- "Islamic Cairo" Autumn 2018 2nd ARCE Lecture by Jere Bacharach (November 8, 2018)
- Turkic and Central Eurasian Studies Program Presents: Darren Byler on Uyghur Freedom (November 1, 2018)
- First Fall 2018 ARCE Lecture, Lost City of Pyramids by Dr. Mark Lehner (October 3, 2018)
- Claudia Yaghoobi on Women's Movements in Iran (October 2, 2018)
- Walter Andrews receives Undergraduate Research Mentor Award with the Newbook Project (May 17, 2018)
- NELC-PISP Presents Third Iran Film Initiative in collaboration with SIFF 2018 (May 17, 2018)
- Graduate Student Conference in Middle East Studies (May 9, 2018)
- MONKEYS IN ANCIENT EGYPT’S VALLEY OF THE KINGS:
THE SEARCH FOR THREE UNUSUAL TOMBS (May 7, 2018) - A Conversation with Shirin Neshat (May 5, 2018)
- Streetwise Istanbul with Meghan Sayres (April 11, 2018)
- Samad Alavi and Afshin Sepehri presented a pre-show talk for Meany Center's Feathers of Fire event (March 22, 2018)
- Prof. Naomi Sokoloff Co-directs a Conference on Israeli Literature @70 (March 21, 2018)
- WholeU Faculty Friday presents NELC Lecturer Shahrzad Shams (March 21, 2018)
- Ece Temelkuran: Turkish and Ottoman Studies Program Annual Lecture Series 2018 (March 21, 2018)
- Farhat J. Ziadeh Distinguished Lecture in Arab and Islamic Studies (March 21, 2018)