Middle-East Studies

The Master's degree in European and International Studies aims to train through research in the social sciences, in an approach of real studies, specialists in contemporary issues from three major regional areas: East Asia (China, Japan, Korea and South-East Asia); Europe; the North Africa and Middle East region. These three regional areas are considered as much in their own dynamics as in the recompositions of a globalized world. In addition to research methods in the social sciences and deepening in real studies, the mention is also based on the mastery at a high level of languages of the regional area studied. 

The Middle Eastern Studies (EMO): Politics, Law, Religion course offers a specialization on the States of the Middle East taken in the broad sense of the term, which can integrate, in the West, the Maghreb countries and, in the East, countries such as Pakistan or Afghanistan. At the heart of this broad definition is the overlap between the religious issues often common to this vast ensemble, and the linguistic, cultural and civilizational heritages that testify to a great mix between these spaces at all levels, and for several centuries. 

Based on a multidisciplinary approach combining the mastery of contemporary issues with the knowledge of their multiple anchors in texts dating back to the foundation of Islam in the 7th century, this program is structured around three areas that are essential to understand contemporary issues and to stand out both from the essentialist approaches of Islam and the apologetic works to which it is often subjected:  political, legal, and religious thoughts. These three areas help to understand the relationship between religion and politics in Islam, as well as how they were theorized in classical or contemporary times.
At the end of the training, the students are specialists in the Middle East; they are familiar with the specific political, theological and legal issues; they are proficient in at least one language of this geographical and cultural area (Arabic, Turkish or Persian), and have basic knowledge in another language of the same area. They are also able to place their approach to contemporary issues in long-term perspectives, making it possible to understand the uses made at the present time of the issues that have nourished the political thought of classical Islam.