A reading and research course is a course created when an individual graduate student (or a very small group of graduate students) wishes to explore a topic not currently offered as a graduate course. The student is responsible for finding a graduate faculty member who is willing to work with the student. In collaboration, the graduate faculty member and the student will create the learning goals, deliverables, resources, timeline, and mechanism for feedback. The supervising faculty member must have a School of Graduate Studies (SGS) graduate faculty membership appointment through the Graduate Department of Near & Middle Eastern Civilizations. These are not meant to replace existing curriculum where sufficient course offerings are available. Reading/Research courses are supplementary and are considered at the discretion of the academic advisor to fill in a gap in knowledge/academic preparedness for the dissertation.