2024-2025 University Catalog
Middle East and South Asia Studies
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The Middle East and South Asia (MESA) minor program is an interdisciplinary program of study focused on the Middle East (including Arabic-speaking North Africa) and South Asia (including Tibet, and mainland and insular Southeast Asia as far east as Indonesia). These regions, though wide in extent and culturally diverse, contain multiple cradles of civilization, and have been linked since antiquity by cultural, religious, and economic networks, both on land (the Silk Road) and by sea (the Indian Ocean). Our broad course offerings allow students to delve into the complex and subtle ways these areas have been and continue to be responsive to one another and to the rest of the world through art, religion, trade, economics, politics, and media. Within these vectors of investigation are other nested concerns related to gender, human rights, terrorism, civil war, cultural heritage, and identity, among others.
The Middle East and South Asia (MESA) Studies program currently offers minors in 1) Middle East and South Asia Studies, and 2) Middle East and South Asia Studies with Arabic language emphasis. These offerings are in the process of being revised. Beginning in academic year 2025-2026, the program plans to offer minors in 1) Middle East and South Asia Studies, and 2) Arabic. (Note that any revision will be subject to review and approval by the faculty.) Descriptions of the minors currently offered can be found here.
For further information, see wlu.edu/middle-east-and-south-asia-studies-program.
Program Head: Seth Cantey
Core Program Faculty
First date is the year in which the faculty member began regular faculty service at the University. Second date is the year of appointment to the present rank.
Kameliya Atanasova, Ph.D. (2017, 2017)
Assistant Professor of Islamic Religion and History
Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
Alexandra Brown, Ph.D. (1987, 2001)
Fletcher Otey Thomas Professor of Bible
Ph.D., Columbia University
Seth Cantey, Ph.D. (2014, 2020)
Associate Professor of Politics
Ph.D., Duke University
Anthony (Antoine) Edwards, Ph.D. (2015, 2023)
Associate Professor of Arabic
Ph.D., University of Texas, Austin
Timothy Lubin, Ph.D. (1997, 2009)
Professor of Religion
Ph.D., Columbia University
Affiliate Program Faculty
Aliaa Bassiouny, Ph.D. (2012, 2019)
Lawrence Term Associate Professor of Finance
Ph.D., ESADE Business School
Hugo Blunch, Ph.D. (2006, 2021)
Darrold and Kay Cannan Term Professor of Economics
Ph.D., The George Washington University
Stuart Gray, Ph.D. (2015, 2021)
Associate Professor of Politics
Ph.D., University of California, Santa Barbara
Shikha Basnet Silwal, Ph.D. (2012, 2019)
Associate Professor of Economics
Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh
Pooja Thakur-Wernz, Ph.D. (2010, 2020)
Assistant Professor of Business Administration
Ph.D., Rutgers University
Courses listed below meet the requirements of at least one of the Middle East and South Asia studies minors, but other courses across the curriculum that include an appropriate proportion of material may be substituted with the approval of the program director. In such cases, students may petition the director to allow relevant courses.
Middle East and South Asia Studies Courses
Middle East and South Asia studies courses are as follows:
- ARTH 140 - Asian Art
- ARTH 242 - Arts of India
- ARTH 243 - Imaging Tibet
- ARTH 245 - Ancient Cultures, New Markets: Modern and Contemporary Asian Art
- ARTH 342 - Love, Loyalty, and Lordship: Court Art of India, 1500s to1800s
- ARTH 343 - Art and Material Culture of Tibet
- ECON 246 - Caste at the Intersection of Economy, Religion, and Law
- ECON 376 - Health: A Social Science Exploration
- ECON 377 - Global Public Health
- FILM 237S - Field Documentary
- FILM 252S - Peoples and Culture of Ghana
- HIST 226 - Pillage, Peddling and Piety: Travel in the Middle Ages
- HIST 170 - The World of Islam: Origins to 1500
- HIST 171 - The World of Islam: 1500 to the Present
- HIST 172 - Muslims in the Movies
- HIST 226 - Pillage, Peddling and Piety: Travel in the Middle Ages
- HIST 282 - Picturing Muhammad? Perceptions of the Prophet from the Hijra to Hip-Hop
- LIT 273 - Modern Jewish Literature in Translation
- POL 384 - Seminar in Middle Eastern Politics
- POL 386 - Poli-Wood: Indian Epics, Myth, and Cinema as Political Philosophy
- REL 101 - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
- REL 102 - New Testament
- REL 106 - Judaism: Tradition and Modernity
- REL 108 - The Qur’an
- REL 120 - War and the Bible
- REL 130 - Religion and Conflict in Asia
- REL 131 - Buddhism
- REL 132 - Hinduism
- REL 172 - Muslims in the Movies
- REL 216 - Sainthood in Four Traditions
- REL 222 - Law and Religion
- REL 226 - Death and Immortality in the Ancient World
- REL 231 - Body and Soul in India
- REL 235 - Religions of the Silk Road: Gods in Transit
- REL 246 - Caste at the Intersection of Economy, Religion, and Law
- REL 250 - Truth, Belief, Dissent: Defining Insiders and Outsiders in Ancient, Medieval and Modern Religion
- REL 271 - Islam in America: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness
- REL 273 - Modern Jewish Literature in Translation
- REL 282 - Picturing Muhammad? Perceptions of the Prophet from the Hijra to Hip-Hop
- REL 283 - Islam and Spirituality
- REL 284 - Gender and Sexuality in Islam
- REL 333 - Meditation and Self-Knowledge
- REL 335 - Hindu Law in Theory and Practice
- REL 350 - Seminar in Biblical Studies
- REL 381 - Islamic Law in Society
- REL 273 - Modern Jewish Literature in Translation
- SKT 101 - Elementary Sanskrit I
- SKT 102 - Elementary Sanskrit II
- SKT 201 - Intermediate Sanskrit I
- SKT 202 - Intermediate Sanskrit II
- SKT 301 - Advanced Readings in Sanskrit
- SOAN 247 - Food, Culture, and Politics in Israel
And when appropriate (with a MESA-related topic),
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