The Major in African, Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Literatures is open to students admitted to and enrolled in any of the campuses and schools at Rutgers-New Brunswick.

The Major requires two years of language study (or the equivalent proficiency) as a prerequisite, and the successful completion of at least 33 credit hours. It has two options, a Global Humanities option and a Regional option.

The Global Humanities Option (013G)

The Global Humanities major option requires 36 credit hours for completion, of which 9 must be at the 300 level or above. Here is a sample program of study to complete the Global Humanities major option.

All majors must take the following three courses:

  • 013:201: Crossroads: Introduction to the Classical Literatures of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia and
  • 013:205: Cultural Forces in International Politics and
  • 013:401: Capstone Seminar in Literature, Culture and Society

In addition majors must take at least two courses from each of the following two categories:

  1. Transregional Sociolinguistics Courses
    1. 013:115: History of the Alphabet
    2. 013:203: Language and Society
    3. 013:204 Introduction to Discourse Analysis
    4. 013:225 Global Arabic
    5. 013:285: Language and Globalization
    6. 013:305: Languages in Peril
    7. 013:409: Introduction to Semitic Languages
  2. Transregional Culture courses
    1.  013:202  Cinemas of Africa and Asia
    2. 013:206 Banned Books
    3.  013:210 World Literature and Social Change
    4. 013:304: Introduction to Translation Studies
    5. 013:307: Intro to Postcolonial Literature and Theory (with CL)
    6. 013:324: Ottoman Africa
    7. 013:365: Bollywood
    8. 013:412: Literature and Religion
    9. 013:445: Storytelling in the Muslim World

Majors must also take at least 3 courses, in any combination of their choice, from the following:

  • African Literature/Cinema courses
  • Middle Eastern literature/Cinema courses
  • South Asian literature/cinema courses

Majors will take at least 6 credits hours, in any combination of their choice, from the following:

  • AMESALL’s literature/sociolinguistics/cinema/culture courses
  • AMESALL’s language courses at the Intermediate level or above
  • STUDY ABROAD program courses
  • Courses from other units with significant AMESALL regional content (History, Anthropology, Geography, WGS, Art History, etc)

Learning Goals (013G)

As an AMESALL major with the global humanities option, you will demonstrate:

  1. appreciation of major global issues as articulated in Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia and from the perspective of these three regions;
  2. understanding of a variety of epistemologies rooted in the cultures of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia;
  3. proficiency in critical, theoretical, and research-oriented skills in global and comparative cultural studies.

The Regional Option (013J)

This option is designed to allow students to explore in depth one of the literatures offered by AMESALL, within a regional context.  Here are sample programs of study for learning African languages and literatures, Middle Eastern languages and literatures, and South Asian languages and literatures. All majors must take the following two (2) courses in order to complete this major option:

  • 01:013:201 Classical Literatures of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia and
  • 01:013:401 Senior Seminar in Literature and Society

Students enrolling in this option must complete at least six (6) credits of language courses at the advanced (300) level or higher. 

They must also take one of the following three (3) courses, as appropriate to their region of study:

  • 01:013:211 Literatures of Africa or
  • 01:013:221 Literatures of the Middle East or
  • 01:013:231 Literatures of South Asia

Finally, they must complete 18 credits of additional literature, sociolinguistics or linguistics courses on the region of their concentration, nine (9) of which must be upper level courses at the 300-level or above. These courses must either be taught in AMESALL, cross-listed with AMESALL, or approved by the Department Chair.

Learning Goals (013)

As an AMESALL major with the regional major option, you will:

  1. Demonstrate listening, speaking, writing and reading proficiency in one (1) of the languages taught through AMESALL at a level of Advanced-Low or higher according to the guidelines of the American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL);
  2. Demonstrate familiarity with a cross-section of the classical literatures of all three regions;
  3. Demonstrate a broad understanding of the literatures of one of the three regions.