Middle Eastern Studies (research) Leiden University

Overview

The two-year Research MA in Middle Eastern Studies at Leiden University allows you to explore the Middle East across time, borders, languages, and ideas: from the early Islamic world to contemporary politics, from Ottoman, Arab, Persianate, and North African histories to questions of migration, media, ecology, religion, literature, colonialism, and social change.

At Leiden, you will study in a research environment with a long-standing reputation for expertise in Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies. You can focus on a specific region, language, archive, period, or theme, or build a comparative project across disciplines and areas.

A key strength of the programme is its comparative Area Studies approach. You will learn to understand the Middle East not as a fixed or isolated region, but as a dynamic part of the world shaped by movement, exchange, empire, conflict, translation, and everyday life. This includes comparisons within the Middle East as well as connections with other regions, including Asia.

The programme is designed for students who want more than a general MA: more time for independent research, closer supervision, advanced methodological training, and the opportunity to develop their own scholarly profile.

What you will learn

The development of in-depth knowledge in the field, and the ability to think critically and analytically, are key goals of this programme. The Middle Eastern Studies (Research) programme will introduce you to the concepts and academic approaches current in Middle Eastern Studies, including disciplines such as: linguistics, history and social siences.

You will learn to use these concepts and approaches in researching and analysing source material. Your thesis work will give you the opportunity to apply these methods in your own research.

Career prospects

The MA in Middle Eastern Studies (Research) prepares students for a wide number of careers in which in-depth knowledge and advanced conceptual, analytical and interpretative skills are essential. Our graduates have pursued successful careers in the public, private and non-profit sectors. Graduates have also gone on to pursue a PhD and a career in academia. If you wish to pursue an academic career, your Master's is excellent preparation for a PhD programme or a career in a research agency or the research department of a company or government organisation. Your strong analytical and problem-solving skills can also be applied in a wide range of other vocations.

Examples of the diverse roles of our graduates include:

• Freelance writer/translator/project coordinator at a translation centre
• Lecturer at a Dutch university
• Translator and executive secretary at an embassy in the Netherlands
• Policy officer for education and funding at a national student union
• PhD candidate at a university in Spain
• PhD candidate at Leiden University
• Policy officer for Sahel region at a ministry
• Production assistant at a Swedish museum
• Teacher of English/Islamic religion at an educational institute in Saudi Arabia
• Middle East representative at a shipping and forwarding company.

Accreditation

Accredited by NVAO, the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders.