Middle East and South Asia (MESA) Studies Program

The Middle East and South Asia (MESA) minor program is an interdisciplinary program of study focused on the Middle East (including Arabic-speaking North Africa) and South Asia (including Tibet, and mainland and insular Southeast Asia as far east as Vietnam and Indonesia). These regions, though wide in extent and culturally diverse, contain multiple cradles of civilization, and have been linked since antiquity by cultural, religious, and economic networks, both on land (the Silk Road) and sea (the Indian Ocean). Our broad course offering allows students to delve into the complex and subtle ways these areas have been and continue to be responsive to one another and to the rest of the world through art, religion, trade, economy, politics, and media. Within these vectors of investigation are other nested concerns related to gender, human rights, terrorism, civil war, cultural heritage and identity, among others.

Through dynamic interdisciplinary courses MESA students will:

  • Gain broad-based, historically grounded knowledge about the societies and cultures of the Middle East and South Asia, including their linkages and area-wide patterns
  • Formulate empirical questions on social, religious, political, or cultural processes or products;
  • Analyze and interpret specific historical data or cultural artifacts, using appropriate terminology and methods for MESA area studies;
  • Evaluate logically and/or empirically the arguments of other scholars based on logic and uses of evidence;
  • Write and revise analytical or interpretive studies of specific cultural artifacts and texts.

Feature Stories


Meet Nava Berwick ’27

Berwick embraces other cultures through her Japanese major and performing classical Indonesian dances.

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Poet Yahya Ashour to Give Glasgow Endowment Reading at W&L

The public reading will take place Nov. 4 at 6:30 p.m. in Northen Auditorium.

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Latif Bolat to Perform Turkish Folk Concert

The Oct. 20 concert is sponsored by W&L’s Middle East and South Asia Studies Program.

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Addie-Grace Cook '25 interning at Project Horizon.

Summer of Growth

Addie-Grace Cook ’25, a politics major with a double minor in Middle East and South Asia studies and poverty and human capability studies, is spending her summer making an impact in the greater Rockbridge community through a Shepherd Program internship with Project Horizon.

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W&L Outcomes: Pari Ahmadi ’24

Pari Ahmadi ’24 will be working as a clinical research coordinator at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute before attending medical school.

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Four W&L Students Awarded Boren Scholarships for Global Language Study

The David L. Boren Scholarship supports the intensive study of languages deemed important to U.S. interests.

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W&L’s Maddy Mayer ’24 Earns U.S. Teaching Assistantship to Austria

Mayer will teach English in Austria before pursuing a master’s degree in international relations.

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Anthony Edwards, professor of Arabic

Shared Language

Anthony Edwards, professor of Arabic, brings his boundless energy to his teaching, research and mentorship of students.

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W&L Student Accepted into American Economic Association Summer Training Program

Janae Darby ’25 will participate in the prestigious program this summer at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

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W&L’s Brandon Bishop ’26 Awarded the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Fellowship

Starting in July, Bishop will participate in a year-long cultural immersion program in Germany.

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Record Number of W&L Students Awarded Critical Language Scholarship

The Critical Language Scholarship Program funds a summer of overseas language and cultural immersion.

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Anthropology Professor Publishes Essay in Online Publication

Hafsa Oubou’s essay “Churches Can, Mosques Can’t” appears in the January edition of Canopy Forum.

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