The School of Middle Eastern and North African Studies is a multi-disciplinary unit focusing on the region extending from Morocco to Afghanistan which includes the Arab world, Iran, Israel and Turkey, providing a full range of language courses in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Hebrew (through Judaic Studies) and undergraduate and graduate studies in culture, history, religion, politics and conflict. Our faculty have been training graduate students since the 1980s. Our very diverse students and alumni come to Tucson from all regions of the United States as well as the Middle East, Europe, Africa and Latin America.<br><br>This track is designed for students who aspire to make use of qualitative methods of social science research in the study of social phenomena and their cultural dimensions. The primary disciplines and fields related to the track are cultural anthropology, cultural geography, gender studies, and political science, and students are ordinarily expected to take a minor in one of these areas.<br><br>The track provides a solid disciplinary grounding not only through the required minor, but by means of courses taught by faculty members within the department who are trained in social science disciplines and employ a variety of qualitative methods in their own research. You can take advantage of the Ph.D. program language requirement to learn two languages (or in some cases dialects) spoken or used in the country or countries of your research.