Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (NELC)
Faculty of the Graduate Group
Graduate Studies in NELC are conducted under the auspices of the Graduate Group in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations. In the Graduate Group faculty, the Standing Faculty in the Department of NELC is augmented by archeologists, historians, art historians and specialists on religions of Near Eastern origin who share its focus on the primary sources of the Near East. Many emeritus faculty also continue to be active in working with students in the MA and PhD programs.
NELC faculty also hold close connections with the Penn 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, the Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, and the program in the Art & Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, among other programs and institutions.
| Roger M.A. Allen | Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations; Emeritus Sascha Jane Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought & Comparative Ethics (Modern Arabic Literature) | |
| Dan Ben-Amos | Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations and Folklore & Folklife (African, Jewish and Middle Eastern Folklore) | damos@sas.upenn.edu |
| Paul M. Cobb | Graduate Chair Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Medieval Islamic History) |
pmcobb@sas.upenn.edu |
| Jamal Elias | Class of 1965 Term Professor of Religious Studies (Islam, Sufism, visual culture) | jjelias@sas.upenn.edu |
| Talya Fishman | Associate Professor of Religious Studies (Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History of the Medieval and Early Modern Periods | tfishman@sas.upenn.edu |
| Grant Frame | Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Assyriology and Ancient Near East) | gframe@sas.upenn.edu |
| Nili Gold | Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Modern Hebrew Language & Literature) | niligold@sas.upenn.edu |
| Jessica L. Goldberg | Assistant Professor of History (Mediterranean Economic History) | goldbejl@sas.upenn.edu |
| Renata Holod | College of Women Class of 1963 Term Professor of History of Art, Curator of Islamic Art, Penn Museum (Islamic art) | rholod@sas.upenn.edu |
| Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet | Associate Professor of History (Modern Middle East, the Ottoman Empire, and Iran | fks@history.upenn.edu |
| Joseph Lowry | Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations (Medieval Islam, Islamic Law) | elowry@sas.upenn.edu |
| Ian Lustick | Bess W.Heyman Professor of Political Science (Middle Eastern Politics) | ilustick@sas.upenn.edu |
| Holly Pittman | Professor of History of Art; Curator, Near Eastern Sectio, Penn Museum (Ancient Near Eastern Art) | hpittman@sas.upenn.edu |
| Annette Y. Reed | Assistant Professor of Religious Studies (Late Antique Religion) | reedannel@sas.upenn.edu |
| Heather Sharkey | Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages (Modern Islamic History, Thought & Culture) | hsharkey@sas.upenn.edu |
| David P. Silverman | Eckley Brinton Coxe, Jr. Professor of Egyptology; Curator, Egyptian Section, University Museum (Egyptology) | dsilverm@sas.upenn.edu |
| Brian Spooner | Professor of Anthropology; Curator, Near Eastern Section, Penn Museum (Iranian Studies, Middle Eastern Anthropology) | spooner@sas.upenn.edu |
| David M. Stern | Ruth Meltzer Professor of Classical Hebrew Literature (Classical Hebrew and Jewish Literature) | dstern@sas.upenn.edu |
| Jeffrey H. Tigay | Emeritus Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations; Emeritus Abraham M. Ellis Professor of Hebrew & Semitic Languages & Literatures (Biblical Studies) | |
| Stephen J. Tinney | Clark Research Associate Professor of Assyriology; Associate Curator, Babylonian Section, University Museum (Sumerian Language & Literature) | stinney@sas.upenn.edu |
| Eve M.Troutt Powell | Associate Professor of History (Middle Eastern History) | troutt@sas.upenn.edu |
| Robert Vitalis | Associate Professor of History (Middle Eastern History) | rvitalis@sas.upenn.edu |
| Joseph W. Wegner | Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations; Assistant Curator, Egyptian Section, University Museum (Egyptology, Egyptian Archaeology) | jwegner@sas.upenn.edu |
| Richard L. Zettler | Associate Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations; Associate Curator-in-Charge, Near Eastern Section, Penn Museum, (Syro-Mesopotamian Archaeology) | rzettler@sas.upenn.edu |