Middle Eastern Studies (MA)
About the programme
The MA in Middle Eastern Studies provides intensive and comprehensive training to prepare you for a range of careers requiring specialist language, cultural, or political knowledge.
This one-year (60 EC) programme starts with a common core course of 10 EC, ‘Theories and Methods of Middle Eastern Studies,’ in the first semester. Next to this course, you can choose courses in historic and contemporary cultures, languages, literatures, and religions, politics and society either covering the Middle East as a whole or focusing on a specific region in the Middle East.
The programme is concluded with a Master’s thesis of 20 EC. You write your thesis based on your individual academic research and supervised by one of the members of staff of Middle Eastern Studies.
Some examples of Master’'s theses written by students in this programme:
- Gender and Feminism in post-2009 Iran: Tracing a Pictorial Discourse in Mana Neyestani’s Cartoons
- Can Kurmanjan Datka unite Kyrgyzstan a Second Time? The Film Kurmanjan Datka and Nation Building in Kyrgyzstan
- Nationality and Ethnicity in the Western Sahara: The Role of Morocco in Shaping Perceptions of Identity
- Subjects of Stability: Understanding the Stability of the Qaboos Regime through the Views and Experiences of Omani Students
- The “Ethnic-Split” in Contemporary Israeli Politics and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict
- Who Turns the Tap? The Impact of Non-State Actors on the Hydro-Hegemony of Turkey
- Towards an Understanding of Qur’ān Verse 4:24: On the Role of Vocabulary Choices in English Qur’ān Translations
- The Warrior in Seclusion (Khalwat): A Narrative Inquiry on Two Persian Sufi tales from 13th-Century Khurasan and Anatolia
- From Hobby Orientalist to Seeking Prominence: The Life, Collection, and Network of Rudolph Said-Ruete (1869–1946)
- Soulless Buildings, Bosses and Bodies: Oil Wealth in the Contemporary Saudi Novel
- Al-Shāfi’i’s Hadith-Centrism Revisited: A Historical Re-examination of al-Shāfi’i’s Risāla
- The Iran-Russia Nexus (Development of Bilateral Relations 2012-2015)
The programme facilitates and supports extra-curricular internships. In recent years students have held internships at:
- Embassies and consulates of the Netherlands in Turkey, the Middle East, and North Africa.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague, the Netherlands
- Dialogue for Common Future Association, Istanbul, Turkey
- UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia, Beirut, Lebanon
- Greenpeace, The Netherlands
- Nederlands Centrum voor Handelsbevordering, The Hague, The Netherlands
- Leiden University Library
- Museums in the Netherlands and abroad, for example the Wereld Museum (National Museum of Ethnology) in Leiden and the Samarkand State Museum of Cultural History in Uzbekistan
- The Textile Research Centre Leiden
- And many more
The principal modes of learning during your master's are:
- Lectures
- Seminars
- Tutorials
- Self-study
We assess your progress through:
- Exams
- Peer feedback and assessment
- Essays and reports
- Oral presentations
- MA thesis
Course overview
For an overview of all the courses and course descriptions, please check the Prospectus. Please note that this guide applies to the current academic year, and does not reflect annual changes to the diversity of our curriculum.
Tsolin Nalbantian
Senior University Lecturer
“Students of this master's programme are surrounded by faculty who are as diverse in their backgrounds as they are in their teaching and research interests. This diverse academic environment encourages students to pursue their own interests; all while being exposed to a wide variety of new experiences and ideas.”
Many career paths
“When it comes to the careers of our graduates, the sky is the limit. Our alumni go on to become journalists, NGO workers, teachers, academics, consultants, and diplomats, to name a few of their many career paths.”
Long-term commitment
“We aim to nurture in our students a long-term commitment to the region and its people. The training our students receive at Leiden provides them with the skills to connect with the people, customs, experiences, and history of the Middle East: skills that are of increasing importance in a great many organisations today.”
Admission and Application
Do you want to find out if you are eligible for this Master’s Programme?