bluenebraska

Claiming a Penn acceptance and still waiting on Yale. 300+ applicants and 10 acceptances. Great feeling after the Princeton rejection.

Congrats!

Enki - neither have I. Best of luck to you! I imagine we'll get notifications sometime this month.

I haven't met him, but his writing makes me want to weep, it's so brilliant. We communicated a bit about MESAAS via email. My area of research is Middle Eastern and North African Jewry, so Anidjar is a useful advisor especially for theory, even if he hasn't written much specifically on my subject. He was supportive, if understated (understandably as I think MESAAS admits ~2 students a year), of my project, so I am looking forward to hearing decisions and having the stress of where I'll be the next five years off my back.

KevinYoungX - I think you should perhaps revise your opinion of places like Jordan and Morocco. Having studied for quite awhile in Jordan, I have a number of friends who are also white American Zionists (and anti-Zionists) who have had no problem living in Jordan. You would, perhaps, be amazed at the safety of Jordan and Morocco. Additionally, you may or may not be aware that Israelis are fully able to travel to Morocco and many do; Morocco never renounced the citizenship of its Jewish population that left for Israel in the 50s-70s. Morocco also has an embassy in Tel Aviv. As for being gay, yes, this is a problem in much of the Middle East, but it isn't as though someone can look at you and tell that you are either a) gay or a Zionist. You shouldn't have any problems. I would say that, unless your interests are solely in Israeli and Palestinian society (which it sounds like they're not), then you should invest some time in studying abroad in the Arab Middle East. Kurdistan is out of the question, naturally, and unfortunately places like Syria that were popular in years past are now generally off the list. Yet Morocco, Lebanon, Tunisia, Jordan, the Gulf and even Egypt are not out of the question. This would also likely help you expand your list of inspirations, which seem to consist of many Orientalist scholars not well thought of in the Middle East studies academy. Read some Said, for instance. You also definitely need to have a strong foundation of Arabic for jobs inside the academy and out in the policy world, if your focus is on the Arab Middle East and not just the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Lurker drawn in by the discussion of Judeo-Arabic at Columbia - my focus is Israel studies so I have an application in at NYU Hebrew and Judaic Studies/History, because that's where Israel studies is, and at Columbia MESAAS (with Gil Anidjar). Anyone else applying to either program? No idea if this thread is even the right place for NYU Hebrew/Judaic Studies applicants.