Honours in Arabic and Islamic Studies

• General information
• Honours entry requirements
• What does the honours program consist of?
• Research areas of supervisory staff

The honours program is research oriented and will equip students with better language and cultural skills for further and deeper study in a specialised area of Arabic and Islamic Studies. It is an attractive degree for employers in Australia. It opens the door for advanced research at the postgraduate level, at this university or other universities including overseas.

The program can cover such areas as: Arabic language and literature, Arabic and Islamic history, the contemporary Arab world and the Middle East, Society and politics, and the study of Islam in the modern world.

Students with interdisciplinary interests can enrol in joint honours or double honours, combining Arabic/Islamic Studies with another subject area such as history, linguistics, comparative literature, anthropology, law, gender studies, media studies, etc.

Students who plan to do joint honours or double honours, need to have completed 48 senior credit points in each of the two disciplines (Arabic/Islamic and another subject area). They can take half a load in each department during their honours year, often writing their honours thesis under joint supervision. Joint honours is usually completed in one year, double honours usually takes two consecutive years to complete.

An honours degree in Arabic and Islamic Studies will open up wider opportunities for students to travel, study and/or work in Arabic speaking countries.

Students from ARIS and ARBC (Beginners or Advanced Arabic language strands) are encouraged to plan for honours from their first or second year of study.

You need to be highly motivated and aim to score an average Credit or higher in your Arabic and Islamic Studies Major.

Students need to complete at least 48 credit points at senior level in Arabic & Islamic Studies at an average of ‘Credit’ level or higher. These include the 36 credit points of the major in Arabic & Islamic Studies, combining ARBC & ARIS units, plus 6 credit points chosen from any of the remaining ARBC or ARIS units, and the obligatory Honours entry six credit points of ARIS3680: Approaches to Arabic & Islamic Studies.

Department permission is required for honours enrolment.

• Practical advanced language for research purposes (in Semester One and Two)
• Methodology of research in Arabic and Islamic Studies (in Semester One and Two)
• Honours seminars (Semester One)
• Writing a 15,000 - 20,000 word thesis (in English or Arabic) under the supervision of a full-time member of staff who is an active researcher in the department.

Assessment includes two 3000-words essays (30%), two seminar presentations and bibliographical assignment (20%); thesis (50%).

Coordinator: Dr. Nijmeh Hajjar

Associate Professor Ahmad Shboul: Arabic thought: classical and modern; Islam in the contemporary Arab world; Modern Islamic movements; Arab political culture; Arab and Muslim communities in Australia and Arab-Australian cultural relations; Arab Islamic historiography and human geography; Arab-Greek cultural relations in history and modern times; socio-cultural and intellectual history of the Middle East.

Dr. Nijmeh Hajjar: Arabic language and literature; Arabic political discourse; Arabic political and social thought; Arabic society and culture; Arab and Muslim Women; Arab and Muslim communities in Australia; Arabic media; and Arab and Muslim issues in the Western media.

Professor Rifaat Ebeid: Arabic and Syriac philosophical and medical works of Aristotle, Galen and Rhazes; Muslim-Christian Relations in the Middle Ages.