The College of Arts, established in 1977, is one of the first colleges at An-Najah National University. The college started with a small number of full-time faculty members and students. It also had a few limited facilities and resources. In a short period of time, the college was able to reinforce its academic staff in terms of quantity and quality. It has also developed its academic programs and administrative apparatuses. It is now home to a burgeoning student body. Its diversified programs, both graduate and undergraduate, are sought by a considerable number of students. These programs secure good working opportunities for them after graduation.


Academic Programs
Like colleges of arts at other universities, the College of Arts at An-Najah offers two academic programs, leading to B.A. and M.A. degrees.
The college is also planning to expand its graduate programs to include other areas. It is now considering offering some Ph.D. programs.
Future Plans
The College of Arts is planning to increase the number of academic majors in line with the needs and changes in Palestinian society. To this end, the college seeks to open new departments, provide students with greater choices, and better enable them to realize their educational ambitions.

Relationship between College and Community
The College of Arts seeks to establish strong ties with the Palestinian society. It has held and organized a number of symposia and conferences on Palestinian related issues, both past and present. The college plans to employ the Community Service course to establish a cooperative relationship between the community institutions and the college. In this way, institutions will develop as a result of students’ services to them. At present, the students in the Department of Archaeology are providing their services and assistance to the preservation of Palestinian archaeological sites. They have done a number of excavations to uncover archaeological finds in Palestine.

Undergraduate Academic Plan
The College of Arts offers academic studies leading to a B.A. degree in the following majors:
1. Arabic Language and Literature (1)
2. English Language and Literature (2)
3. History (3)
4. Geography (4)
5. Sociology and Social Work (5)
6. Archaeology (6)
7. Journalism (7)
8. French Language and Literature (8)
In the freshman year, students, joining the College of Arts, complete general course requirements totalling 27 credits,

Requirements for major: See department concerned.

"Free" courses:
Students are expected to take two or three courses (six credits) from university departments’ course offerings*.
* Except for English and French Majors.

Students should take note of the following:
The 1994 students only may take 15 credits from the college compulsory courses.
1. Introduction to Literary Appreciation 31111
2. College English I 32111
3. History of Modern Thought 33111
4. Geography of Palestine 34111
5. Arab Society 35112
They also have to complete 12 credits from college elective requirements.

Students whose registration numbers begin with "95" and "96" now have six (6) compulsory courses (18 credits) with the addition of Introduction to History of Ancient Civilizations 36112, in the Archaeology Department. The college electives are now 9 credits.
Students holding registration number "97 and above" now have seven compulsory courses (21 credits), as a result of adding Introduction to Mass Media 37111, which came with the creation of the Journalism Department. The electives have become 6 credits.

Course Descriptions
ART31111 Introduction to Literary Appreciation
This course introduces students to the artistic, intellectual and psychological dimensions of the literary text, improves their reading abilities, thus establishing an affective relationship between themselves and the text, on the one hand, and with text and its social environment and values, on the other.

ART32111 College English I
This course emphasizes the major comprehension skills: scanning, skimming, understanding meaning of difficult words from context, drawing inferences, differentiating between literal and non-literal meaning. The course also aims at developing the skill of summarizing a text. In the writing part, emphasis will be on note taking, vocabulary acquisition, completing application forms, writing a summary, and advertisements. The grammatical part focuses on verb tenses, parts of speech, conditionals, and formulation of questions.

ART33111 History of Arab Thought
The purpose of this course is to study the modern (European) intellectual trends and Arabs’ intellectual trends in particular. The course begins with an examination of factors behind European Renaissance from the 16th-19th centuries. The course looks closely at the factors behind intellectual renaissance in the Arab World, namely, study and analysis of religious trends and movements, such as salafiyah (Islamic reform movement) and modernism, political trends such as the Islamic League, Ottoman League, the national, regional and pan-Arabism movements, social factors, underdevelopment and its underlying causes, social justice, freedom, equality, emancipation of women; it also examines scientific factors.

ART34111 Geography of Palestine
This is a regional study of Historical Palestine before 1948, the impact of historical events on it, political upheavals that have been storming the country for a long time, particularly from economic, human, and geographical perspectives.

ART35112 Arab Society
This course covers a number of topics: social institutions, social changes in the contemporary Arab World, Arab family, kinship system, ideological and class divisions. Emphasis is given to problems of growth and modernization.

ART36112 Introduction to History of Ancient Civilizations
This course is a study of Ancient East in terms of states and kingdoms established there and in terms of relationships among them politically and culturally. The course will also identify most important cultural centers in the Ancient East and the extent of man’s contribution, in the area, to human civilization in general.

ART37111 Introduction to Mass Media
In general, this course is an introduction to the principles, concepts and basic theories in public communication. The course introduces various mass media systems, print and electronic, and also traces the historical development of basic public mass media: books, newspapers, periodicals, cinema, radio and television.

ART31112 Arabic Library
This course introduces Arabic writing movements from different dimensions. The course also introduces mainly Arabic heritage library, particularly prose and poetry library and its two streams: literary and linguistic. Students also receive training on how to deal directly with these primary sources.

ART31113 Principles of Syntax
In this course, student will receive instruction in general linguistic rules which help the student formulate a correct Arabic sentence. These rules include definition of grammatical terms, Arabic sentence and its types, number and its rules, grammatical tools representing syntactic methods such as conditional tools, question words and negation words. Students also learn about the principles of constructing the nominative or indicative in Arabic grammar. Student will apply these theoretical rules. These include selected texts taken from heritage books or volumes of classical poetry. Students are expected to make analysis of these texts, note down general grammatical information, thus helping them avoid mistakes in the mechanics of writing.

ART32112 College English II
This course begins with a review of all types of sentences in English, and then proceeds to paragraph writing. Students learn how to write a topic sentence, develop and support it with examples. Students also learn how to organize their writing to achieve coherence among sentences in a paragraph. In addition, students learn about different modes of writing: argumentation, description, definition, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, narration and classification. The course also covers other writing styles such as C.V. and application form completion, in addition to cover letters. At the end of the course, students will again go over basic grammatical rules. If time allows, student may also learn a little about essay writing.

ART32113 Spanish I
This is a course for beginners. The course primarily depends on the integration of the four language skills. It teaches students, in a simplified way, the basics of Spanish grammar. Students will be exposed to Spanish-oriented cultural texts in order to introduce students to Spanish society and civilization. This course should enable students to understand spoken Spanish and allow them to express themselves in writing.

ART32114 Spanish II
This course is a continuation of Spanish I 32113. In this course, students learn more basics of Spanish grammar and oral communication in Spanish. The course emphasizes advanced vocabulary and rules of grammar, correct pronunciation, the hows of writing common expressions used in spoken and written language. The course will also deepen students’ knowledge of the Spanish society.

ART32115 German I (for beginners)
This course teaches words and grammatical structures and rules mostly used in daily communication. The course covers a number of things: greetings, introducing people, naming household things, like food and drinks, ordering a meal, entertaining visitors, managing work, making arrangements for appointments, renting an apartment, buying things, … etc.

ART32116 German II
This course is a continuation of German I 32115. By the end of the course, students should have learned the basics of German grammar. Students will also learn how to communicate with native speakers of German. This course covers a number of topics: description of pain, providing advice, narrating a story/reporting an event, talking about urban life, traffic, marketing, German culture, and German-speaking countries.

ART33113 History of Islamic Civilization
This course dwells on the following topics: concept of civilization and urbanism, difference between cultural and historical study, emergence of cultural studies, measures of civilization, potentials and elements of civilization, as well as social and historical potentials for the emergence of the Islamic civilization, the Holy Qur’an as the basis of Islamic civilization, elements and characteristics of Islamic civilization, status of Islamic civilization among other civilizations and its impact on them.

ART34112 Introduction to Human Geography
This course examines human geographic research methodologies, the most important schools of thought, how man came into being on earth and how he spread out.

ART34113 Introduction to Physical Geography
This course introduces a number of topics: solar system, celestial bodies, theories on origin of this planet, age, dimensions and structure of stones, seas, oceans and their origin, movement of sea and ocean waters, climate, soil, water, formation of earth surface phenomena.

ART35111 Introduction to Sociology
This is an introduction to basic concepts in sociology, social behavior, scholarly methods used in sociological analysis.

ART35113 Refugees and Involuntary Emigration
The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with the refugee phenomenon in a global context. The course begins with the historical development of refugee movements, reasons for seeking refuge, the refugee experience including accompanying social and psychological effects, especially when it comes to the life of refugees in a camp environment. Also examined are the influences of international policies and humanitarian aid, the role of donors, and policies of countries hosting refugees.
The role of international law in ameliorating the plight of the refugee and the theoretical frameworks, which have endeavored to explain this phenomenon, are addressed. Inevitably and specifically, the subject comes close to home with the longstanding anguish of our own Palestinian refugees, and deals with factors contributing to their displacement and homelessness, both here and in adjacent countries. Some light is also shed on the transfer process through its stages, and the resulting suffering inflicted on Palestinian people. The course concludes with some emphasis on increasing political awareness among the refugees, their role in the P.L.O., the mandate of the international community to protect Palestinian refugees, and the international initiatives proposed to solve their plight.

ART36113 Introduction to Ancient History of Palestine and Jordan
A study of historical ages of both Palestine and Jordan, course 36113 starts from the Old Stone Age up to the Iron Age. Further, the course highlights the relationships between Palestine and neighboring empires, especially those in Iraq and Egypt. The course also touches on cultural achievements of the region in past ages.

ART37112 Mass Media (in Arabic)
An introduction to journalistic editing, this course reinforces students′ command of the Arabic language and strengthens self-expression abilities through writing effectively and with clarity. The following areas are covered: Grammatical and morphological rules with emphasis on the countable, uncountable, the plural, the numbers, the dual, and the indeclinable, etc.; correct spelling; correct punctuation rules; journalistic idioms.
The theoretical part of the course will be supported with examples and models culled from local newspapers, magazines and journals, in Arabic. This will acquaint students with the language of mass media and common mistakes (goofs) made by people in the field.

ART38111 Writing Practice in French I
This course, which introduces the French alphabet and method of writing words, masculine and feminine nouns, singular and plural, also includes sentence level, types of sentences, personal pronouns, verb conjugations, direct and indirect objects. Visual aids such as drawings and pictures are used to advantage. Editing short responses, accepting or turning down offers, giving thanks or apology, brief justifications of answers, are some learning exercises.

ART38112 Oral Communication in French
This course teaches spoken French through use of modern teaching methods typically employed in non-Francophone countries. At course conclusion, students are expected to speak and understand some French, especially when it comes to introductions, getting to know others, and holding simple conversations.