DURHAM, N.H. - University of New Hampshire students will have the opportunity to learn more about the Middle East with the addition of a new program that teaches them about the languages, history, politics, geography, and anthropology of this dynamic region.

The new minor in Middle Eastern Studies will be offered through the College of Liberal Arts for the first time this fall. UNH launched the new program in response to growing interest from students about the region.

"The minor in Middle Eastern studies helps connect our students with opportunities at UNH and elsewhere to study the languages, cultures, politics, and history of the region-- and how developments in the region affect the rest of the world. We have some wonderfully motivated, curious students interested in the minor, most of whom also go to the Middle East to supplement their studies at UNH," said Jeannie Sowers, assistant professor of political science and coordinator of the program.

The university has a core group of faculty who study various aspects of the Middle East. Students will be required to take five courses drawn from a broad selection of classes that investigate various aspect of the Middle East. These course options include Arabic, Islamic Cultures and Civilizations, Peoples and Cultures of the Middle East, Geography of the Middle East, and Comparative Politics of the Middle East.

The university also sees the new minor in Middle Eastern Studies as a complement to its other regional minors in Asian studies, Latin American studies, Canadian studies, African and Africana studies, and European cultural studies.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling more than 12,200 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.

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