Arabic & Islamic Studies

Accelerated PhD


Candidates entering with a Bachelor’s degree or an advanced degree in an unrelated field of study may apply for an accelerated program and are expected to complete 54 credits/18 graduate courses including ten in the major and five in each of two minors. Candidates should consult their graduate advisers to formulate their specific program of study, which should fulfill the following requirements:

Gateway Courses:

Students who have taken these or equivalent courses may replace them with history or religion courses from the Islamic Studies list.

At least 6 additional courses from the Islamic Studies core list. These courses include:
At least 9 additional courses in Islamic Studies including 3 courses in each of the following fields:
Distributional requirements:


Language Requirement
Upon joining the program, students are expected to have achieved advanced proficiency in Arabic, demonstrated through enrolling in advanced Arabic seminars and a proficiency test requiring reading and translating a variety of Islamic texts. Normally, the proficiency test is administered by the department by the end of the first year of enrollment, and no later than the Fall semester of the second year.

Students must also achieve proficiency in at least one other Islamic language at the intermediate level, demonstrated either by taking two years of language instruction or taking a proficiency exam at an equivalent level. The primary recommended languages are Turkish and Persian, both of which we currently offer. Depending on the research interests of the student, and after departmental approval, Turkish and Persian may be replaced by other relevant languages such as Urdu, Greek or Hebrew.

Students must also have reading proficiency in at least one European research language, with a choice of either French or German. The European language exam is administered by the appropriate department. On some occasions, and pending departmental approval, students may take instead another language relevant to their research, such as Italian or Spanish.

All language requirements must be completed before the students take their comprehensive exams.


Time to the Degree
Students must be in residence for a minimum of three years (for advanced standing students) or four years (for the accelerated Ph.D. program), and should take courses for a minimum of two years. In accordance with the Graduate School regulations, advanced-standing doctoral students with a previously granted Master’s degree will be permitted five years to complete the degree requirements and to graduate. Students admitted to the accelerated Master’s/Ph.D. program are allowed seven years to complete all degree requirements. Students who do not satisfy all degree requirements within these time limits may be terminated by the department. Under special circumstances, students may petition the department for an extension, but the maximum number of years may not exceed seven years for advanced standing students and ten for accelerated students.

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