The PhD programme Middle Eastern Studies is conducted in cooperation with the Oriental Institute at the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The prospective students should contact the guarantor of the programme doc. Boušek (daniel.bousek@ff.cuni.cz) and consult with him on the proposed dissertation project and selection of a suitable supervisor.

For more information and to submit your application visit the faculty website. 

Programme characteristics

The study programme Middle Eastern Studies is designed, in accord with contemporary methodological approaches, as area studies with a prominent exterritorial aspect. The area of the Middle East itself is perceived in its broader sense – on the one hand, it includes North Africa, but on the other, the regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan (the borderland of Central Asia). The exterritorial aspect allows us to include for instance the Arabic presence on the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages, Jewish culture in a European diaspora, or Turkish emigration to present-day Germany.

The programme also covers the historical element – it begins with the late antiquity while leaving aside the ancient history, and emphasizes the Middle Ages, early modern period, modern and present history. It compares how history relates to the development of Islamic but also Jewish and Persian culture, as well as to the significance of their presence in Western Europe. Furthermore, the programme addresses the issues of mutual relations, representations, dialogues, and clashes of Middle Eastern cultures and Europe.

Methodologically, the programme has a multidisciplinary design. It pays attention to the historical, contemporary, political, social, economic, and more culturally general phenomena. To study them, it uses historical and literary methodologies but also sociological and religious studies, eventually anthropologic, gender, or cultural studies.