Langer to Head Center For Middle East Studies

A new center of Middle Eastern Studies will begin operating at the University in September, Dean Bundy announced yesterday.

Covering the area from Egypt to Pakistan, the center "will fill an urgent need felt in government, in business, and in the academic world for trained persons with specialized knowledge of the Middle East," Bundy said.

At the new center, such training in a basic two-year course will lead to an A.M. degree in Middle Eastern Studies.

The new program joins similar research and teaching projects on East Asia and the Soviet Union in the University's Regional Study department. William L. Langer '15, Coolidge Professor of History, becomes chairman July 1 of the governing committee for these programs, succeeding Robert L. Wolff '36, associate professor of History.

Langer first announced plans for the Middle East program March 8 in a speech before the Harvard Foundation for Advanced Study and Research. At the time, he also expressed hope that a new research unit, similar to the Russian Research Center, could be set up for additional study of the Far East, but this project has not yet materialized.

Language Courses

Introductory language courses meeting eight hours a week will form the basis of the Middle East teaching program. Every student will be required to attain a reading knowledge of one of the languages of the area--modern Arabic, Turkish, or Persian--some, two or more of them.

Stress will also be placed upon a thorough study of Middle Eastern history, as well as the area's contemporary economics, politics, and culture.

Five Year Financing

Financing of the new center has been arranged for a five-year period and will make possible the addition of new faculty members in fields relating to the Middle East. The Harvard Foundation has collaborated with the Committee on International and Regional Studies, under Wolff, in securing broad support for the new program from American corporations, foundations, and individuals interested in the Middle East.

Students will be accepted at the center as soon as there are enough additional faculty members. The regional studies program can be combined with graduate training in other fields if the program's participants wish.