"To make what seems strange more familiar and to work toward understanding ..."

Speaking of her own teaching recently, Kim Haines-Eitzen also succeeded in effectively framing the academic ethos of the Department of Near Eastern Studies (NES) at Cornell University.

Haines-Eitzen, associate professor of NES, is one of 12 faculty members in a field that has witnessed explosive growth since Sept. 11, 2001, when the task of making "the strange seem more familiar" became, very suddenly, more urgent than ever. Campus enrollment in Arabic classes boomed following the attacks. Modern Middle East survey courses swelled and continue to grow. Parallel to this, a trend Haines-Eitzen describes humorously as "The Da Vinci Code syndrome" reflects a growing fascination with religious studies of the ancient world.

But long before international events threw NES into the spotlight, the agile department was developing what Chairman Ross Brann calls "a culture of mentoring undergraduates" that transcends the classroom. Brann, the M.R. Konvitz Professor of Judeo-Islamic Studies, also is dean of Alice Cook House -- an important programming connection for NES and its students. For instance, NES sponsored an intimate musical evening at Cook House in January with Palestinian musician Simon Shaheen.

"It's amazing how friendly everybody is," said Emily Selove, a College Scholar whose thesis includes the translation of an 11th-century Arabic text and her own illustrations. "The professors in the department truly take the time to get to know their students and go out of their way to help us and to talk with us."

Senior Paris Jones, an NES major, concurs.

"There is an ease in the manner of the professors and conduct of the courses that encourage learning and active participation," said Jones, who studies the interactions among Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities prior to the Middle Ages. "And I have not taken an NES course in which more was expected of me than I was capable of giving, or one in which less was accepted."

Getting the right tools

A surge of interest in the region and its importance aren't the only reasons for increased enrollment, Brann said.

"I [also] attribute the rise to the department's growth that allows us to teach subjects previously not represented in the curriculum and, again, to our reputation for excellent instruction and mentoring of undergraduates."

And graduate students, too, for that matter.

Academic excellence is what attracted graduate Louissa Oburra to Cornell. Oburra works primarily with NES Assistant Professors Deborah Starr and Shawkat Toorawa.

"Both are respected in their field and are the reason behind my decision to join Cornell's NES program," said Oburra, whose focus is on Maghrebi literature of northwest Africa. "I get the tools I need from the language and literature classes that I take with these professors. The program's flexibility allows me to take courses in comparative literature, African studies and English literature in order to strengthen my theoretical base and gain exposure to approaches used in other disciplines."

This multidisciplinary method is a trademark of the department. Starr, for instance, is trained in comparative literature and Toorawa in literature and languages. Haines-Eitzen's specialty is religious studies, and Michelle Campos, assistant professor of NES, is a historian who studies the contemporary Middle East.

"One of the keys to our success as a department is the appointment of intellectually ambitious junior faculty who combine rigorous scholarship along with a commitment to working closely with students," said Brann.

NES majors also bring their own ambitions to the table. Junior Ted Van Loan is co-organizing an unprecedented conference -- slated for April 14-15 in the A.D. White House -- geared solely for undergraduate students.

"As far as I know it represents the first time where undergraduates at Cornell will have the opportunity to present their work in a symposium format," said Van Loan, who is sharing duties with Erin Allen, Cornell junior in English and art history. "Aside from a prominent Cornell presence, there will be students from SUNY Binghamton, UPenn, Vassar and Tufts."

Ancient to modern

The academic arc of NES is characteristic of the department as well. While some Near Eastern studies programs tend to focus on specific periods, Cornell's department spans the ancient to the modern.

"That cultural and historical perspective is essential to understanding politics in the modern Middle East," said Brann. "And without dismissing contest and conflict, we take a very integrative view of the object of our study: that includes ancient, medieval and modern studies that embrace Judaic, Islamic and Christian traditions."

Starr, who teaches the course Jews and Arabs in Contact and Conflict, said there are two overarching ideologies that shape her pedagogy: "Keeping the class integrated and a commitment to literature. There is not a single Jewish, Zionist or Israeli narrative, just as there is not a single Palestinian, Arab voice. Most importantly, I aim to create an environment where students of all backgrounds and political stripes can interact and are empowered to learn from the materials and from one another."

In order to "make the strange familiar," the department strives to bring it all back home to the here and now.

"It doesn't make sense to study the societies of the Near East as homogenous blocks living in isolation from each other and completely separated from their histories," said Oburra. "It is only through a combination of historical, archeological, literary, linguistic approaches, etc., that we can even begin to understand what the region means to us today. That is why the NES field is so relevant."

It's also why the small yet influential Cornell NES department is fast gaining a national reputation as a leader in its field.

Founded in 1965 as the Department of Semitics, the Department of Near Eastern Studies now encompasses multidisciplinary course work in Islamic, Jewish and Christian studies. The department was renamed in 1976 and today offers Sumerian, Judeo-Arabic, Islamic mysticism, Christian heresiography, as well as more conventional subjects, such as Arabic and Hebrew literature, Hebrew Bible, Persian language, Israeli society and modern Middle Eastern history. Affiliated programs include Jewish studies and religious studies.

With offices on the fourth floor of a renovated White Hall, NES also is home to the Jonathan and Jeannette Rosen Ancient Near Eastern Studies Seminar Room, which holds part of the Cornell Tablet Collections, the third largest in the world. The Rosen collection is overseen by David I. Owen, the Bernard and Jane Schapiro Professor of Ancient Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.

Nearly 1,600 undergraduates are enrolled in NES courses for the 2005-06 year, up from 1,018 in 2000-01. There are 32 majors and four graduate students in the field. It is one of the few departments on campus with more women faculty members than men. Eight professors and four senior lecturers provide instruction in roughly 40 different courses. That's just the classroom. Seven of these faculty members also have regularly scheduled periods of programming where they might lead a film series, thematic lunch or dinner discussion outside the department. Each faculty member is fluent in at least one Near Eastern language, and often several. Specialists working in different fields might co-teach a course: Munther Younes, an Arabic linguist, and NES Professor David Powers, an expert on Islamic law, for example, have co-taught a course on the Qur'an.

In addition, the recently endowed Reis Family Lectureships in Middle Eastern Languages, named for Sanford Reis '29 and his late wife, Jo Mill Reis, will strengthen the department's burgeoning Arabic language studies.