2025–2026 Melton Fellow News
The 2025–2026 Samuel M. Melton Fellow was Armand Rogers, from the Department of Near Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures.
During his final program year, supported by the Samuel M. Melton Graduate Fellowship, Armand continued his work, expanding his expertise in Semitic languages by taking advanced seminars in Arabic and advanced reading courses in Hebrew, including biblical and Dead Sea Scroll varieties, as well as courses in ancient Phoenician and Syriac. Each of these courses was integral to advancing his interest in Near Eastern Jewish literature, and for term papers, when possible, he focused on the Jewish Karaite sect and how their movement and language functioned within the medieval Near Eastern context. Armand also completed and submitted his master's thesis, "Digital Tools for the Study of Judeo-Arabic and Cairo Genizah Manuscripts," which examines the scholarly landscape of projects focused on the digital processing and publication of Jewish texts in Judeo-Arabic and Genizah manuscripts. Alongside his thesis work, he contributed digital publications to The Ohio State University's Digital Editions of Aramaic and Phoenician Sources website. Finally, drawing on his technical skills and research interests, Armand developed and made publicly available a computer application capable of reading and transcribing manuscripts written in medieval Hebrew script, designed to advance research in Judeo-Arabic literature. Armand graduated from The Ohio State University in spring 2026 with an M.A. in Near Eastern Languages and Cultures. He will be taking the upcoming year to dive into focused study of primary sources such as Mishnah, Talmud, and Maimonides before applying to PhD programs.