The Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures brings together a variety of disparate cultural and linguistic studies, both ancient and modern, into a vibrant interdisciplinary whole. In the NELC department, we make the past come alive. We make cultural studies of the Middle East relevant to undergraduate students and the larger Los Angeles community, and in our graduate programs, we create the next generation of experts in the ancient Near Eastern and modern Middle Eastern region.<br><br>The Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (NELC) department sees as its mission the scholarly discovery, interpretation, dissemination, and preservation of the history, practices, and conceptual categories originally from the Near Eastern region, the cradle of human civilization, created over a period of more than 10,000 years and continuing as a font of human innovation and a focus of world attention. NELC concentrates its teaching and research on West Asia and North Africa, a region of the world usually called the Middle East (for modern studies) or the Near East (for ancient studies). Some cultural studies, including Islamic Studies, Jewish Studies, and Iranian Studies, can transcend those geographical boundaries.