In order to provide disciplinary breadth about the region, students must moderate into a primary divisional program (such as Sociology, Literature, or Political Studies) along with MES. Electives also incorporate various disciplines such as anthropology, art history, literature, historical studies, political studies, religious studies, and sociology. To concentrate in MES students must meet the following requirements before moderation:

• Enroll in “Narrating the Middle East,” a core course that provides a historical introduction to the major political, social, and cultural themes of the modern Middle East from the sixteenth to twenty-first centuries (4 credits).
• Obtain one year language proficiency in Arabic or Hebrew in order to gain basic familiarity with the linguistic cultures of the region (8 credits).

At moderation, usually held concurrently with the primary program, students must submit the standard papers on past experience and projected work, as well as an academic paper about the Middle East written in one of their core or elective MES classes. At least one member of the board should be a faculty member affiliated with the MES program.

After moderation, students must meet the following requirements:

• Enroll in four other electives to broaden understanding of the region and its study. One of the four elective courses should be a 300-level seminar in order to allow students to research and write a seminar paper on some topic pertaining to the Middle East (16 credits)
• Successfully complete a Senior Project that addresses aspects of the contemporary Middle East and incorporates themes that the students have learned during their MES coursework. While the two-semester senior project will be based in a primary program, the senior project board must include at least one faculty member who is affiliated with MES.

Until—and only until—such time as a course in modern middle eastern history is offered by the Bard history department, students wishing to have a secondary concentration in MES can consider the following options, all acceptable for fulfilling the requirement for the “narrating the middle east” requirement.  The status of these options will be reviewed by the MES faculty at the time that the Bard history department does offer the course.  It is anticipated in particular that options 3-5 will be discouraged or removed entirely.

In general, students may moderate into MES without having met the modern history requirement.  However, they will not be allowed to graduate with an MES concentration without fulfilling the requirement in one of the ways noted below.

1. Moderate into MES at any time (i.e.: in particular, moderate after having moderated into the student’s major concentration) and as late as the first semester of the senior year.   By then, they may have been able to avail themselves of the modern middle east history course at Bard or elsewhere.
2. Students may substitute a course on the topic given at any four-year college or university with the consent of the MES faculty committee.
3. Students may wish to take a tutorial on the subject with a Bard MES faculty member.
4. The program will offer a reading list of core assignments that students can undertake to master and then take a final exam on them for two credits.
5. Students may substitute 1) “The Arab-Israel conflict” course, 2) “Middle East
   Modernities” or 2) “Religion and Society in the Modern Middle East: a History since 1800” for the required history course