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FACULTY

Each member of the Standing Faculty and Graduate Group Faculty is occupied with:

· Finding, deciphering, and translating the primary sources to make them accessible to specialists and non-specialists
· Interpreting them by placing them in their historical, cultural and intellectual contexts and explicating them by means of pertinent disciplines such as philology; literary criticism and comparative literature; history; archaeology; art history; architectural history; comparative law; religion; philosophy and ethics; psychology; gender studies; anthropology; linguistics; theater, cinema, and other performance studies.

NELC faculty also hold close connections with the University of Pennsylvania Museum (which draws several of its curators from the faculty of NELC), the Middle East Center, the Center for Ancient Studies, the Program in Ancient History, and the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies.
 

Faculty

Location & Directions
Standing Faculty
Roger M. A. Allen Professor of Arabic Language and Literature in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Dan Ben-Amos Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and Folklore (African, Jewish and Middle Eastern Folklore)
Paul M. Cobb Associate Professor of Islamic and Middle Eastern History in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Grant Frame Associate Professor of Assyriology in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Nili Gold Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Hebrew language and literature)
Joseph Lowry Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (medieval Islam; Islamic law)
Heather Sharkey Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Islamic history, thought and culture)
David P. Silverman Eckley Brinton Coxe, Jr. Professor of Egyptology; Curator, Egyptian Section, University Museum (Egyptology)
David M. Stern Ruth Meltzer Professor of Classical Hebrew Literature (Classical Hebrew and Jewish literature)
Jeffrey H. Tigay Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew and Semitic Languages and Literatures ( Biblical Studies)
Stephen J. Tinney Clark Research Associate Professor of Assyriology; Associate Curator, Babylonian Section, University Museum (Sumerian language and literature)
Josef W. Wegner Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations; Assistant Curator, Egyptian Section, University Museum (Egyptology, Egyptian archaeology)
Richard L. Zettler Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations; Associate Curator-in-Charge, Near East Section of the University Museum
Adjunct Faculty
Jennifer Houser Wegner Adjunct Assistant Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Egyptology)
Lecturers
Tajmah Assefi-Shirazi Lecturer (Persian language and literature)
Maya Buchsbuam Lecturer (Hebrew language)
Michael Carasik Lecturer (Biblical Hebrew)
Ronit Engel Lecturer in Foreign Languages in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Hebrew; Coordinator of the Hebrew Language Program)
Christine Kalleeny Lecturer (Arabic language)
Pardis Minuchehr Lecturer in Foreign Languages in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Persian language, literature and film)
Hassan Nitami Lecturer (Arabic language)
Salwa Shishani Lecturer (Arabic language)
Emad Rushdie Lecturer in Foreign Languages in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Arabic; Coordinator of the Arabic Language Program)
Nechama Sataty Senior Lecturer in Hebrew in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Hebrew language)
Mbarek Sryfi Lecturer (Arabic language)
Graduate Group Faculty
The standing faculty in the Department is augmented by archaeologists, historians, art historians, and specialists on religions of Near Eastern origin who share its focus on the primary sources of the Near East. Many of these faculty offer courses that are cross-listed in the Department and are members of the NELC Graduate Group.
Talya Fishman Associate Professor of Religious Studies (Jewish intellectual and cultural history of the Medieval and Early Modern Periods)
Renata Holod Professor of History of Art; Curator of Islamic Art, University Museum (Islamic art)
Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet Assistant Professor of History (modern Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, and Iran)
Ian Lustick Bess W. Heyman Professor of Political Science (Middle Eastern politics)
Holly Pittman College for Women Class of 1963 Endowed Term Professor of History of Art; Curator, Near East Section, University Museum (Ancient Near Eastern art)
Brian Spooner Professor of Anthropology; Associate Curator-in-Charge, Near East Section, University Museum (Iranian studies, Middle Eastern anthropology)
Robert Vitalis Associate Professor of Political Science
Eve Troutt Powell Associate Professor of History (Middle Eastern History)
Jamal Elias Professor of Religious Studies
Jessica L. Goldberg Assistant Professor of History
Annette Y. Reed Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Emeritus Faculty
Robert H. Dyson, Jr. Emeritus Professor of Anthropology (Iran)
William L. Hanaway Emeritus Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Persian)
Erle V. Leichty Emeritus Clark Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Emeritus Curator, Akkadian Language and Literature, University Museum (ancient Near East)  
James D. Muhly Emeritus Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (ancient Near Eastern history; Hittitology)  
Thomas Naff Emeritus Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies (Middle Eastern history)
David B. O'Connor Emeritus Professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Emeritus Curator, Egyptian Section, University Museum (Egyptology; Egyptian archaeology)
Åke W. Sjøberg Emeritus Clark Research Professor of Assyriology; Emeritus Curator, Tablet Collection, University Museum (Sumerian)  
Barry L. Eichler Associate Professor of Assyriology in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations; Associate Curator-in-Charge Tablet Room - Babylonian Section, University Museum (Assyriology; ancient Near East; Biblical and Jewish studies)