Rutgers University Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Languages and Literatures


The Rutgers University Department of African, Middle Eastern, South Asian Languages and Literatures is dedicated to the study of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. It is the primary academic home of sixteen core faculty and seven part-time lecturers. AMESALL provides instruction in over a dozen languages from these three regions. It offers courses taught in English and regional languages such as Arabic and Hindi, and regularly hosts events such as lectures, workshops, and conferences for the student body, the faculty, and the general public.
Rutgers students can enroll in an undergraduate major program of study, an undergraduate minor, and a post-baccalaureate Translation Certificate program, which is also open to non-matriculated students.
The AMESALL Department is located in Lucy Stone Hall on the Livingston Campus in Piscataway, NJ, part of Rutgers-New Brunswick campus.

Programs of Study

AMESALL currently offers 2 Major and 4 Minor programs:
Major Programs include the Regional Option and the Comparative Option. Both options require at least 6 credits in upper level language courses within the department. They also both require additional credits in literature, sociolinguistics and linguistics, with the Regional Option requiring 18 credits and the Comparative Option requiring 12 credits.

Language offerings

AMESALL regularly provides several years of instruction in about a dozen languages of Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia, including:
AMESALL's core faculty includes scholars representing all three regions, their languages, literatures, and cultures: