Middle East - Penn Global

Penn & the Middle East

Penn’s enduring ties with the Middle East reinforce the university’s dedication to impactful global engagement.

In the late eighteenth century, Penn was the first American university to offer Hebrew and Arabic language instruction and, in the late nineteenth cenutry, the Penn Museum was founded to house artifacts from a Penn-led archaeological expedition to Mesopotamia, during which the ancient Sumerian city of Nippur was first excavated.

Since then, the University has consistently pursued deeper engagement with the Middle East. 1965 following an investment from the U.S. government to train a new generation of experts, translators, and diplomats, the Middle East Center – originally the “Near East Center” – was founded to promote the interdisciplinary study of the region, particularly Arab countries and Israel, Turkey, and Iran. In 1993, following a long history as the Dropsie College for Hebrew and Cognate Learning, the now Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies merged with Penn and maintained its focus on a post-doctoral fellowship program.

Today, Penn offers an array of opportunities for the study, understanding, and engagement of the Middle East and Judaic scholarship through language courses, including less commonly taught languages such as Ottoman Turkish, immersion and internship opportunities, events and workshops, and research programs.

Did You Know?

130+

Penn students, on average, participate annually in credit-bearing study abroad programs in the Middle East.

Pictured Left

Professor Scott Moore (front row, third from right) of the Department of Political Science, led a Penn Global Seminar in 2023 focusing on China’s climate policy and its role in the global energy transition away from fossil fuels. Students explored the barriers and challenges related to meeting China’s ambitious climate commitments in part by examining a solar energy project in the United Arab Emirates built and largely financed by Chinese entities. The course was made possible by Penn’s China Education Initiative.

Penn & the Middle East

Campus Initiatives

Penn actively connects with the Middle East through a variety of initiatives and curatorial collections that promote academic cooperation, research advancements, and student exchange.

Penn Global Middle East Distinguished Visiting Scholar Initiative

As part of Penn Global’s mission to connect the world with Penn, the Penn Global Middle East Distinguished Visiting Scholar Initiative invites prominent regional scholars to the University of Pennsylvania. Their expertise and insights facilitate a deeper understanding of the complex and pressing issues influencing the Middle East.

Penn Medicine Clinical Support in Gaza

Penn has engaged with The Ministry of Health and Prevention of the Government of United Arab Emirates (UAE) to discuss support of the UAE’s medical relief in the region. The UAE maintains field hospitals and floating clinics in Gaza and has continued its medical services for Gaza residents. A team from Penn Medicine and the Center for Global Health was formed to support this effort.

Penn Museum Near East Collection

The Museum Near East collections include nearly 90,000 artifacts housed in three main storage areas: Mesopotamia, Syria-Palestine or the Levant and Iran. The Nippur excavations were the first American archaeological project in that part of the world. Since that time the Museum has worked in nearly every country in the Middle East, with research including archaeological surveys, excavations, and ethnographic studies.

Penn Museum Babylonian Section

The Babylonian Section houses a collection of almost 30,000 clay tablets inscribed in Sumerian and Akkadian cuneiform, making it one of the ten largest collections in the world. The vast majority of the texts derive from the Museum’s excavations at Nippur in the latter part of the 19th Century along with smaller excavated groups of tablets from Ur, Billa, Malyan and Fara.

In Focus

Silfen Forum on ‘Waging Peace’

At the 2024 David and Lyn Silfen Forum, former Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority Salam Fayyad and former Israeli Ambassador Itamar Rabinovich spoke about dialogue and diplomacy in the Middle East. The forum, established in 2009, was created to foster conversation and debate regarding important contemporary issues.

Campus Centers

Explore the centers and departments at Penn prioritizing the study and understanding of the Middle East and Middle Eastern languages, cultures, and scholarship.

Middle East Center

The Middle East Center was established in the mid-1900s to facilitate learning and research opportunities, public engagement, and community. Today, the Center continues to serve as a meeting-point for national scholarship by sponsoring lectures and panels by leading intellectuals, authors, and political figures, as well as academic conferences.

Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies

The Katz Center is a global leader in the study of Jewish civilization. The Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania is driven by the mission to deepen and broaden the understanding of Jewish history, texts, cultures, ideas, and experiences.

Middle Eastern Languages & Cultures

MELC engages in the interdisciplinary study and teaching of the cultures and peoples of the the Middle East through the study of languages, texts and literatures, art, architecture, archaeology, and material objects. Studies encompass the geographic region that stretches from North Africa and the Iberian Peninsula through the eastern Mediterranean to Arabia and Iran.

Jewish Studies Program

The history of Hebrew and Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania spans over two centuries and has involved some of the most illustrious names to have graced the University’s roster. Today, the Jewish Studies Program in the School of Arts and Sciences reflects the full range and diverse dimensions of the Jewish experience as well as different approaches to studying Jewish life and culture.