Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies

The Islamic Studies Ph.D. program at Georgetown seeks to advance knowledge and understanding of classical and modern Islamic religious thought and Islamic textual traditions, and to provide understanding of Islamic culture and intellectual history in the pre-modern and modern periods. The program offers undergraduate and graduate training in the study of the history, religion, culture, society, languages, literatures, and thought of the Islamic world, and introduces students to the traditional and modern scholarly approaches to the study of Islam.

Entering students must have at least three years of Arabic and are expected to enroll in advanced Arabic seminars. To upgrade their proficiency, students may be required to enroll in language classes concurrent with their graduate program. However, Arabic language courses taken to enable students to reach the seminar level do not count towards the degree credits. Students already enrolled in the terminal Master’s program at Georgetown must apply again if they are interested in joining the Ph.D. program; these students are not guaranteed admission, and will be considered by the admissions committee along with other applicants from outside the department.

The Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies offers two tracks for completing a PhD in Islamic Studies at Georgetown University:

1. Candidates entering with a Bachelor’s degree, or an advanced degree in an unrelated field, may apply to the Ph.D. program for an Accelerated Program which requires 54 credits of coursework.

2. Candidates entering with a Master’s Degree in Islamic Studies or a related field may apply to the Advanced Standing Program which requires 36 credits of coursework.

The decision to follow the Advanced Standing track is handled on a case-by-case basis after a student has been admitted, never before. S/He must meet with the Director of Graduate Studies to discuss the relevance of their past degree(s) to the PhD Arabic and then submit a formal request to the Graduate School upon receiveing departmental approval.

Please see our Department's Graduate Handbook for more information on these tracks.