Arabic

Readings in translation and discussion of texts of Middle Eastern and Indian origin. Readings may include the Quran, Islamic philosophy, Sufi poetry, the Upanishads, Buddhist sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, Indian epics and drama, and Gandhis Autobiography.

Readings in translation and discussion of texts of Middle Eastern and Indian origin. Readings may include the Quran, Islamic philosophy, Sufi poetry, the Upanishads, Buddhist sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, Indian epics and drama, and Gandhis Autobiography.

Readings in translation and discussion of texts of Middle Eastern and Indian origin. Readings may include the Quran, Islamic philosophy, Sufi poetry, the Upanishads, Buddhist sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, Indian epics and drama, and Gandhis Autobiography.

This seminar is an exploration of some "great books" from the Middle East and South Asia. We will read books, plays, stories, and poems in English translation that were originally written in Arabic, Persian, Bangla, Sanskrit. From the Thousand and One Nights to an Arabic epic about a warrior princess to the Bhagavad Gita, we will examine themes of storytelling, gender, politics, and the nature of divinity. With the exception of one Sudanese novel, we will be focusing on texts from the premodern period, and our focus will be on how to interpret texts, develop arguments about those texts, and learning about cultures of reading and writing in the past.

This course explores the core classical literature in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Humanities. The main objective of the course is to discover the meanings that these literature offer, not just for the original audience or for the respective cultures, but for us. As such, it is not a survey or a lecture-based course. Rather than being taught what meanings are to be derived from the texts, we explore meanings together, informed by in-depth reading and thorough ongoing discussion.

This course explores the core classical literature in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Humanities. The main objective of the course is to discover the meanings that these literature offer, not just for the original audience or for the respective cultures, but for us. As such, it is not a survey or a lecture-based course. Rather than being taught what meanings are to be derived from the texts, we explore meanings together, informed by in-depth reading and thorough ongoing discussion.

This course explores the core classical literature in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Humanities. The main objective of the course is to discover the meanings that these literature offer, not just for the original audience or for the respective cultures, but for us. As such, it is not a survey or a lecture-based course. Rather than being taught what meanings are to be derived from the texts, we explore meanings together, informed by in-depth reading and thorough ongoing discussion.

This course explores the core classical literature in Chinese, Japanese and Korean Humanities. The main objective of the course is to discover the meanings that these literature offer, not just for the original audience or for the respective cultures, but for us. As such, it is not a survey or a lecture-based course. Rather than being taught what meanings are to be derived from the texts, we explore meanings together, informed by in-depth reading and thorough ongoing discussion.

Introduces distinctive aesthetic traditions of China, Japan, and Korea--their similarities and differences--through an examination of the visual significance of selected works of painting, sculpture, architecture, and other arts in relation to the history, culture, and religions of East Asia.

This course offers an introduction to the intellectual, social, political, and cultural formations resulting from the revelation of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th century until around 1800 CE. It is a “civilization” course and is introductory in nature. It is not a course in Islamic history, religion, philosophy, art, science, or literature, although all of these will be considered in various ways throughout the semester. The intent of the course is to survey the structures, themes, keywords, and subjects that are of interest for the study of Islamic societies, and to encounter a sampling of the historical sources that inform such surveys. Whether through documents, letters, sermons, explanations, publications, songs, or literature, the intention is to use historical sources in order to illuminate our understanding of the events of the past, and in particular, to help the student evaluate narratives about the past for themselves.
The course consists of a lecture and a recitation. All students must be registered for and attend both. The lectures will contextualize the required readings and primary sources, and students will participate in discussions about them in recitation. In addition to weekly readings, assignments include a weekly response post (~1 page), a midterm exam and a final exam. All of the course materials are presented in English

Lecture and recitation. No previous study of Islam is required. The early modern, colonial, and post-colonial Islamic world studied through historical case studies, translated texts, and recent anthropological research. Topics include Sufism and society, political ideologies, colonialism, religious transformations, poetry, literature, gender, and sexuality.

Teaching and learning in the premodern Islamic world centered around the person, rather than the
space. Entries in medieval biographical dictionaries tend to emphasize a scholar’s teachers, not the
institutions they studied at. Nonetheless knowledge had a geography: it was embodied and situated.
Where people studied, discussed, and taught determined how and what knowledge was gained and
transmitted, and to whom. At the same time, different practices and values of knowledge transmission
shaped spaces of scholarship.
This class will question the interplay between knowledge and space. We will focus on social and material
dimensions of spaces, revealing connections and separations between scholars and disciplines as we
attempt to materialize intellectual history. We will interrogate the boundaries between the informal and
formal, personal and institutional, public and private, and use these categories to analyze the teaching
and transmission of various kinds of knowledge, such as Islamic and Ancient sciences. Drawing from
biographical dictionaries, literary works, documentary and archeological evidence, we will explore the
importance of religious endowments and patronage, and examine access to scholarly spaces for the elite,
the ‘sub-elite’ and the ‘common’ people. Finally, this class will confront enduring myths, such as those
surrounding Baghdad’s Bayt al-Hikma, and the Jundishāpūr hospital, and narratives surrounding the
place of the natural sciences within the Islamic world.

Prerequisites: Advanced Swahili I or the instructor's permission. An introduction to the advanced syntactical, morphological, and grammatical structures of Swahili grammar; detailed analysis of Swahili texts; practice in conversation. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.