From the early 1990s, the Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies (CREES) and Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies (CMENAS) have collaborated on activities to build the University of Michigan's profile in Central Asian studies. In the past decade, CREES has worked with other U-M units to secure approval for two tenured faculty positions in Modern Central Asian Studies, one in history/Near Eastern studies and one in political science.
CREES also partners with other centers and departments in order to provide instruction of Central Asian languages. In addition to Persian and Turkish, which are taught on campus, we are pleased to offer distance Uzbek and Uyghur via videoconferencing through the Big Ten Academic Alliance. Languages courses at the 200-level and above count towards the REES major.
