Required courses 

Foundational courses (6 credits)

• ARST 5500: Constructing the Modern MENA
• ARST 5501: Introduction to the Study of the Arab World

Core courses (9 credits) 

You will select three 6000+ level courses offered by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies from this list: 

• ARST 6518: Culture & Society: Arab World
• ARST 6519: International Relations: SWANA
• ARST 6525: Comparative Politics of the SWANA
• ARST 6532: Women & Gender in the Arab World
• ARST 6540: Development in the Arab World
• ARST 6564: Political Economy: SWANA
• HIST 6602: Social and Cultural History of MENA (or other core history seminar)

Electives 

You will complete the remaining 21 credits through elective courses. You must select a minimum of three electives offered by:

• The Center for Contemporary Arab Studies
• The Department of History
• The Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies
• The Alwaleed Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding

You may take a maximum of four electives from other departments at Georgetown University. All courses must be numbered above 4000 to count as graduate courses.

Language proficiency 

A cornerstone of our program is ensuring that you are rigorously trained in the Arabic language. To better prepare for your studies, we encourage you to enter our program with intermediate-level Arabic proficiency. Once in the program, you will take instructional Arabic courses until you achieve advanced-mid level proficiency on the Modern Standard Arabic oral and written exams, administered at the start of the program and then at the end of every semester.  

The written exam consists of sections on grammar, reading comprehension and writing. The oral exam is an ACTFL oral proficiency interview (OPI) conducted in Modern Standard Arabic and administered through the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies. You must achieve a passing score of advanced-mid to graduate.

Once you fulfill this requirement, you will continue to take one Arabic course per year.

Language classes

The Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies offers all instructional Arabic courses that are intended to develop your Arabic language proficiency. Unless you have passed the proficiency exam, you will take one intensive Arabic course, worth six credits, every semester in addition to your graduate coursework. After completing these courses, the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies and the Center for Contemporary Arabic Studies offer post-advanced Arabic courses to help you continue developing your Arabic language skills.

You have the unique opportunity to take undergraduate or graduate-level Arabic skills courses; content courses on topics ranging from Arabic literature to the region’s politics, history and culture; or courses taught in English that utilize Arabic materials. 

Because all Arabic instructional courses needed to reach proficiency are undergraduate courses, MAAS students are eligible for Language Study Scholarships that cover the cost of one undergraduate-level language course per semester.

Culminating experience 

To complete the program, you must either pass an oral comprehensive exam or write and defend a thesis. 

Oral comprehensive exam

Your oral exam provides a cross-disciplinary conclusion to your coursework and total educational experience in the program. A panel of three faculty members administers the exam after you complete your coursework.

Thesis option

You can write and defend a thesis in your final semester instead of the oral exam. If you choose the thesis option, you must take a Research Design course and the MAAS Thesis Colloquium course.