Graduate studies in NELC are conducted under the auspices of the Graduate Group in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. In the Graduate Group faculty, the Standing Faculty 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 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 and Archaeology of the Mediterranean World, among other programs and institutions.
Paul M. Cobb
Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations
Medieval Islamic History
840 Williams HallRead Bio
Natalie B. Dohrmann
Associate Director Herbert D. Katz Center, Adj. Associate Professor of Religious Studies
Early Rabbinic Judaism, Law, Exegesis, Jews in the Roman Empire
420 Walnut StreetRead Bio
Reyhan Durmaz
Assistant Professor of Religious Studies
Medieval Middle East
Cohen Hall 230Read Bio
Jamal J. Elias
Walter H. Annenberg Professor of the Humanities Professor of Religious Studies
Islam, Sufism, Visual Culture
Huda Fakhreddine
Associate Professor of Arabic Literature
Arabic Literature
Williams HallRead Bio
Talya Fishman
Associate Professor of Medieval and Early Modern Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History
Jewish Intellectual and Cultural History of the Medieval and Early Modern Periods
tfishman@sas.upenn.edu(215) 898-5837
706 Williams HallRead Bio
Nili Gold
Professor of Modern Hebrew Language & Literature
Modern Hebrew Language & Literature
niligold@sas.upenn.edu(215) 573-5312
707 Williams HallRead Bio
Simcha Gross
Assistant Professor of Ancient Rabbinics
842 Williams HallRead Bio
Emily Hammer
Assistant Professor of Digital Humanities, Archeology and Anthropology of the Ancient World
Digital Humanities and Near Eastern Archaeology
836 Williams HallRead Bio
Kathryn Hellerstein
Professor of Germanic Languages
Yiddish Poetry
748 Williams HallRead Bio