The UCLA Department of Ethnomusicology, the largest and first of its kind in a U.S. university, offers courses that cover the music of virtually every region of the world and of many ethnic groups in the U.S., as well as courses on popular music and film music. Ethnomusicology involves the study of all kinds of music from all over the world, using a variety of disciplinary perspectives.

The Center for Musical Humanities is dedicated to advancing the interests of music and the humanities across the whole of UCLA, engaging its faculty, students, and surrounding communities in a series of events that will bring together scholarship, performance, and outreach.

The mission of the center is to foster the study of music within an interdisciplinary context by bringing together scholars and students in a variety of disciplines from around the nation and world to collaborate with scholars and students at UCLA and its associated communities, and to create an effective and vibrant face for the Herb Alpert School of Music by fostering public musical events inspired by its scholarly ventures, featuring faculty and students from across the school.

The UCLA Jahangir and Eleanor Amuzegar Chair in Iranian Studies is the director of the UCLA’s Iranian Studies program, the home to the largest and most comprehensive doctoral program of its kind in the Americas and is the only one to cover the entire spectrum of Iranian Studies across disciplines, linguistic boundaries and periods. Its distinctive strengths are Old and Middle Iranian philology, ancient Iranian history and religions, archaeology, and the study of classical Persian literature.

The program of Iranian Studies at UCLA, established half a century ago, in 1963, is the largest and most comprehensive doctoral program of its kind in the Americas. It covers the entire spectrum of Iranian studies across disciplines, linguistic boundaries, and periods. Among its distinctive strengths is the focus on Old and Middle Iranian philology, ancient Iranian history and religions, archaeology, as well as the study of classical and modern Persian literature. In addition, courses in Judeo-Persian literature and Baha’i history and religion are regularly read in the program.

The UCLA Center for India and South Asia (CISA) supports research, hosts public lectures and workshops, and collaborates with other institutions and centers to raise the profile of South Asia on campus and, more generally, in Southern California. The center’s goal is to transform UCLA into one of the leading poles of integrated research activity on India and South Asia in the country through research, collaboration, and academic integration.

For over half a century, the Center for Near Eastern Studies has promoted the interdisciplinary study of the Middle East at UCLA and beyond, raising public awareness of the region’s diverse peoples and cultures and their relevance to today’s world.

The UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies is one of the country’s oldest organized research centers for study of the Middle East and North Africa. Since 1957 we have furthered interdisciplinary understanding of the region through conferences, symposia, lectures, scholarly research, teacher workshops, partnerships with area schools and colleges, public programs, language training, and supporting graduate and undergraduate instruction.