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Instruction in Near Eastern studies began at U-M in 1889, with an emphasis on biblical and ancient languages. After World War II, appointments in contemporary Near Eastern studies began with the newly-founded Department of Near Eastern Studies with a new chairman, George Cameron, who wanted to add a strong presence in the social sciences, increase the staff in Islamic studies and expand coverage of languages. Cameron brought in outside visitors and hired social scientists, of whom the most energetic was William Schorger, an anthropologist who had worked in Morocco.

From 1948 to 1958, the Department acted as a clearing house for Near Eastern and North African matters. Funding came from U-M and also some Ford Foundation and oil company support. Sputnik accelerated this development. Within a year there was strong interest, expressed by the federal government and foundations, in increasing the numbers of graduates able to work with "strategic" languages and in developing a reservoir of area expertise. The University began an expansion in foreign studies. The social scientists soon came to feel that the coordinating authority should reflect the changing mix of disciplines attending to area studies.

In 1961-62 a number of area studies centers arose, with Schorger heading a Center for Near and Middle East Studies (soon renamed Center for Near East and North African Studies). The area centers as a whole, led by Schorger, were awarded a Ford Foundation grant for research and training of almost a million dollars. In addition, the National Defense Education Act produced funds for curriculum development and graduate student support.

The Center's priorities, until the expiration of the Ford grants in 1972, were research, training, and expansion of the library collection. Faculty research trips to the Middle East; projects for the preparation of language textbooks in Arabic, Persian, Turkish and Kurdish; and projects in social science methodology were all well funded.

The phasing out of the Ford grant and retreat of foundations from the funding of area research, in addition to the movement of federal funding away from area studies during the final years of the Vietnam conflict, led to changes in the Center's operations and priorities. Due to declining state funding in the 1970s and 1980s, the College reduced area studies positions and some fields were lost. The Center's efforts then focused on retaining graduate fellowships and support of language instruction.

In the early 1990's, the Center was renamed as the Center for Middle Eastern and North African Studies and in 1993 came under the umbrella of the new International Institute, which sought to foster links with professional schools and seek alternative perspectives to the old "westernization" models. A new millennium brought in two historians, two Islamic specialists, a political scientist, an anthropologist, two professors of Arabic literature, and a new Turcologist, all accomplished at a pace similar to that of the earlier expansion under Cameron and Schorger. The curriculum evolved to meet disciplinary needs in women's studies, public health, topical rather than chronologically organized seminars, and changing standards and methods in language instruction.