Welcome

Students interested in Egyptology should apply to the MA/MS in International Studies on the Fall 2026 application and indicate your regional interest. Applicants for Fall 2027 and beyond will be able to select the MA/MS in International and Regional Studies. For any questions, please contact Carissa Garletts, our Director of Admissions, at hlsgrad@iu.edu. Prospective applicants should also contact Professor Steve Vinson, vinsons@iu.edu, to discuss the program and their potential application.

The Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (MELC) at Indiana University – Bloomington has offered a special Master of Arts track in Egyptology since December of 2013. Students who choose to pursue a Masters in Egyptology at Indiana University will receive an introduction to the Egyptian language and its scripts – hieroglyphic, hieratic and Demotic – that is unusually comprehensive at the MA level, and they have the opportunity to learn cutting edge skills in Virtual Heritage, the application of advanced computer visualization and virtual reality to archaeological artifacts and sites. The result is that IU Egyptology alumni are currently pursuing Ph.D. degrees at Harvard, Yale, UCLA, Toronto, Liverpool and here at IU. Currently, more Egyptology doctoral students in the U.S. and Canada received their MA from Indiana University, by far,  than from any other program! 

Aside from the MA in Egyptology, graduate-level Egyptology courses can also be used to fulfill Ph.D. minor requirements, including those of MELC and Ancient Studies. Students may also pursue a dual Ph.D. in Egyptology and in another field, such as Virtual Heritage.  Undergraduates may use courses in Egyptian language to fulfill the language requirement of the undergraduate degree in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. All undergraduate Egyptology courses towards their MELC degree requirements. All Egyptian history, civilization, and language courses also fulfill the College of Arts and Sciences (CASE) and General Education distribution requirements, including the CASE foreign language requirement.