Middle Eastern, South Asian and African Studies

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 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.

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.

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.

Introduction to Indian civilization with attention to both its unity and its diversity across the Indian subcontinent. Consideration of its origins, formative development, fundamental social institutions, religious thought and practice (Vedic, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh), literary and artistic achievements, and modern challenges.

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the precolonial history of the African continent. It investigates in-depth the political, social, cultural and economic developments of different Africa communities, covering various regions and periods, from prehistory to the formation of the Indian Ocean and Atlantic worlds. Its focus is the intersection of politics, economics, culture and society. Using world history and Africa’s location in the production of history as key analytical frames, it pays special attention to social, political and cultural changes that shaped the various individual and collective experiences of African peoples and states and the historical discourses associated to them.

This course introduces the Islamic world from the lifetime of the Prophet Muhammad (d. 632) to 1500 CE. The Islamic world stretches across a remarkable geographical expanse from modern Spain and Senegal in the west to the north of modern India in the east. Telling one cohesive story out of many histories is therefore challenging, even if we had a full lifetime to devote to it. We cannot include everything and, as with every complicated story worth knowing, what we choose to exclude is important. This semester, we bypass some of the traditional narratives of political and military history, which privilege the rise and fall of dynasties, the rule of great men, and the clashes of armies. We will still organize along political lines, but the focus of our conversations will be the incredible diversity of the various communities in the Islamic world. We approach these histories through primary sources— poems, coins, buildings, etc.—that we will read together in every class meeting. Our goal will be to situate each source in the political, cultural, and religious contexts of its production. This approach will allow us to appreciate premodern Islamic worlds through the centuries.

Through the assignments and conversations in class and section, students will

• Explore the diversity of premodern Islam;
• Analyze primary sources produced in the Islamic world before 1500, both individually and as a class;
• Engage with modern scholarship about Islam in India and Central Asia; the Middle East; North, West, and East Africa; and Southern Europe;
• Construct a source-based argument about the Islamic world before 1500.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1003 Premodern Islamic Worlds.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1003 Premodern Islamic Worlds.

This undergraduate course offered in the context of the Global Core component of the Core Curriculum is an examination of the globally popular HBO series “Game of Thrones” as a prototype for a comparative understanding of the larger question of epics and empires.  In this course we expand the domains of our interests and inquiries far wider and divide our syllabus into four parts: (1) Westeros: The Mythic Empire; (2) Persia:  The First Empire, (3) America: The Last Empire; and (4) On Epics and Empires.  Our objective will be to examine the main themes and overall arch of “Game of Thrones” into wider mythic, heroic, and transhistorical dimensions of our contemporary history.  

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

Discussion section to accompany the course, "Game of Thrones": On Epics and Empires.

This course constitutes the first half of a year-long introduction to Tamil, the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu as well as an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore. In addition to being spoken by almost 80 million people worldwide, Tamil also has an impressive classical past, having served as a language of religious, intellectual, and literary life in South India for nearly two millennia. Assuming no prior experience with the language, this introductory sequence provides students with the grammar, language skills, and cultural context necessary for achieving their individual Tamil language goals, whether they be conducting fieldwork or scholarly research, chatting with relatives back home, or simply waxing poetic over an artful dosai. In order to cultivate students’ reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension skills, this course draws upon a wide variety of teaching materials, including the core textbook, oral drills, audio recordings, short films, music videos, memes, and more. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

An introduction to the language of classical and modern Arabic literature. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

An introduction to the language of classical and modern Arabic literature. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

An introduction to the language of classical and modern Arabic literature. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

An introduction to the language of classical and modern Arabic literature. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: First Year Arabic I or instructor permission. An introduction to the language of classical and modern Arabic literature. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

In Elementary Armenian I, students learn the Armenian script and the basic grammar that will enable them to communicate about topics relating to themselves and their immediate surroundings: family, school, daily occupations, describing people, expressing likes and dislikes, requesting and giving information about themselves and others, proper forms of greetings, etc. They also begin to read signs, advertisements, and develop the skills to read texts like short stories and Armenian fables. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This is an introductory course for which no prior knowledge is required. Equal emphasis is given to listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, short answers, reading, or paragraph writing. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This is an introductory course for which no prior knowledge is required. Equal emphasis is given to listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, short answers, reading, or paragraph writing. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: a knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking and listening skills in Urdu. This is an accelerated course for students of South Asian origin who already possess a knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking and listening skills in Urdu. They are not expected to know how to read and write in Urdu but are able to converse on familiar topics such as self, family, likes, dislikes and immediate surroundings. This course will focus on developing knowledge of the basic grammar of Urdu and vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural and social topics related to aspects of daily life; and formal and informal registers. Students will be able to read and discuss simple Urdu texts and write about a variety of everyday topics by the end of the semester. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

In this course we will study the late colonial and early post-colonial periods of South Asian history together. Some of the events we will cover include: the climax of anti-colonial movements in South Asia, WWII as it developed in South and Southeast Asia, the partition of British India, the two Indo-Pakistan wars, and the 1971 Bangladesh War. While we will read selected secondary literature, we will focus on a range of primary sources, including original radio broadcasts and oral history interviews. We will also study artistic interpretations of historical developments, including short stories and films. In this course, we will strive to remain attentive to the important changes engendered by colonialism, while simultaneously recognizing the agency of South Asians in formulating their own modernities during this critical period. We will also seek to develop a narrative of modern South Asian history, which is attentive to parallel and/or connected events in other regions.

This module is designed to provide students with a thorough understanding of conceptual and empirical debates about religion and politics in South Asia. The rise in public manifestations of religions in the last two decades in almost all parts of the world has led to much rethinking and reconsideration of the relationship of religious thought and practice to political structures and dynamics. We will take a theoretically informed and empirically grounded look at the imbrication of religion and politics in the wider South Asia region, including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The course allows an insight into the diversity of religious ideas and practices in the region, historical variations, influence of colonialism and the relationship with globalization. We will engage with scholarship on these themes from the disciplines of history, anthropology and political science.

Prior familiarity with the region is not required.

By the end of this course, students should be able to:

-understand recent debates social sciences regarding conceptualizing and defining religion

-understand the limitations of previous frameworks for assessing the role of religion in political processes across South Asia

-recognize key transformations in different religious traditions across South Asia.

-develop a nuanced and critical approach to analysing religion and politics more generally

Prerequisites: MDES W1210-W1211 or the equivalent. A continuation of the study of the language of contemporary writing. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: MDES W1210-W1211 or the equivalent. A continuation of the study of the language of contemporary writing. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: MDES W1210-W1211 or the equivalent. A continuation of the study of the language of contemporary writing. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: MDES W1210-W1211 or the equivalent. A continuation of the study of the language of contemporary writing. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This colloquium is a course on many influential texts of literature from Ancient Near Eastern cultures, including Sumerian, Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Hittite, Canaanite, and others. The emphasis is on investigating the literary traditions of each culture – the subject matter, form, methods, and symbolism– that distinguish them from one another and from later traditions of the Middle East. The course is not
a “civilization” course, nor is it a history class, although elements of culture and history will be mentioned as necessary. The course is intended to provide a facility with, and an awareness of, the content and context of ancient works of literature in translation from the Ancient Middle East.

Students in this course will gain a familiarity with the major cultures of the Ancient Middle East, the best known and most remarked upon stories, and the legacy of those works on some later traditions. The course is organized thematically in order to facilitate comparison to the materials in similar courses at Barnard and Columbia. The approach will be immediately familiar to students who have previously taken Asian Humanities (AMEC) or Literature-Humanities (Core), but the course does not require any previous experience with literature or the Ancient Near East and is open to everyone.

All assigned readings for the course will be in English. The course meets once a week and sessions are two hours long.

This course focuses on Modern Hebrew grammar, and verb conjugation in particular. It is designed for students with substantial knowledge of Modern Hebrew. Over the semester, students will systematically review the grammatical patterns of regular verbs (shlemim), and learn the grammatical patterns of the irregular verbs (gzarot), as well as several other grammatical topics. After successful completion of this course, the foreign language requirement will be fulfilled (for students of Columbia College and other academic units that require a 4th-semester proficiency). Successful completion of this course also allows students to register in third-year Modern Hebrew.

Prerequisites: Elementary Persian II or the equivalent. This course involves reading, writing, translating, conversation and grammatical foundations for Persian Language (PL). The materials are selected from two books: Āmuzesh-e Fārsi: Intermediate Level (required) and English-Persian Dictionary, plus verb system and charts (recommended). These books are assigned and have to be available to every student. There are also handouts, which will be provided throughout the course. This course serves as intermediate and makes students able to read and compose proper Persian language as well as the colloquial one. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

What is imperialism? Why does it happen? What different forms did it take over time? And why is addressing imperialism essential in understanding histories of the Global South, and its contemporary social, political, economic, and cultural realities? How did the economic exploitation of societies by this system affect their socio-economic structures? Is imperialism responsible for the persistent and growing global inequalities? In this course, we will approach these questions and more from a South-centered perspective introducing students to some of the histories, debates, and questions on the subject. 

This course surveys histories of Imperialism in South Asia, the Middle East, and Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries. The course is divided into three units reflecting cases from the three regions while focusing on different historical periods. First, we will study British imperialism in India in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. For the second unit, we will focus on the case of Egypt and its occupation in the late 19th century. Third, we will examine the British Empire in West Africa and East Africa at the turn of the century. 

Each unit will touch on three themes with various degrees of focus. First, we will ask why imperialism? explaining the different reasons and dynamics for imperialist expansion in the three regions. In the second theme, we will examine the political economy of colonial rule and how it manifested differently over time and space. In the third theme, we will explore social change, resistance, and questions of labor in colonial settings. 

The course will also serve to introduce students to using primary materials in their studies, using documents varying from contracts, laws, newspaper articles, reports, and correspondences. In some weeks we will explore some basics on how to find primary sources, the different types of sources, and how to use them in your research. 

Writers have long considered laughter subversive, shocking, undermining, disturbing, agitating, and even demonic. While Henri Bergson considered laughter to emanate from the sight of a falling man, Baudelaire regarded laughter as a sign of the perpetually fallen state of humankind. Laughter’s medium of expression navigates the verbal, visual, literary, performative, and theatrical. Humans have invoked it for the purposes of entertainment, critique, social bonding, therapy, protest, and navigating repressive regimes. Laughter, therefore, assumes a communal quality whereby it connects an individual to a group, an audience, and a crowd. Bergson famously declared: “Our laughter is always the laughter of a group.” In this course, we will take an interdisciplinary approach to the phenomenon and affect of laughter. We will examine laughter’s history and historicity and the genres it has produced through its incorporation into the public sphere, thus shaping the history of the modern world. The course covers the ribaldry of the Fool’s Literature during the Protestant Reformation, the zaniness of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night, Gaganendranath Tagore’s political cartoons, the films of Charlie Chaplin and Marx Brothers, writings of Sigmund Freud, Henri Bergson, Mikhail Bakhtin, and John Morreall, Larry David’s television sitcom, Curb Your Enthusiasm leading up to contemporary internet memes. Course assignments will focus on developing writing skills through weekly blog posts on the class Instagram page, two short close-reading assignments, a midterm essay, and a final paper.

This seminar, designed for seniors, aims to acquaint students with the notion and theoretical understanding of culture and to introduce them to a critical method by which they can study and appreciate contemporary culture in the Arab World. The seminar will survey examples of written and cinematic culture (fiction and autobiography), as well as music, dance, and literary criticism in the contemporary Arab world. Students will be reading novels, autobioghraphies and literary criticism, as well as watch films and listen to music as part of the syllabus. All material will be in translation. Films will be subtitled. Songs will be in Arabic.

Prerequisites: minimum GPA of 3.5 in MESAAS courses. The MESAAS honors seminar offers students the opportunity to undertake a sustained research project under close faculty supervision. The DUS advises on general issues of project design, format, approach, general research methodologies, and timetable. In addition, students work with an individual advisor who has expertise in the area of the thesis and can advise on the specifics of method and content. The thesis will be jointly evaluated by the adviser, the DUS, and the honors thesis TA. The DUS will lead students through a variety of exercises that are directly geared to facilitating the thesis. Students build their research, interpretive, and writing skills; discuss methodological approaches; write an annotated bibliography; learn to give constructive feedback to peers and respond to feedback effectively. The final product is a polished research paper in the range of 40-60 pages. Please note: This is a one-year course that begins in the fall semester (1 point) and continues through the spring semester (3 points). Only students who have completed both semesters will receive the full 4 points of credit.

Climate change destabilizes the ontic certainty of this world, time, and history. This course in MESAAS will introduce students to the literature on climate change and its relationship to ontology, religion, violence, politics, and gender. We will explore the resilience and limitations of various theoretical approaches as they relate to empirical cases. Students will become familiarized with important arguments that have been advanced to explain climate change in its more recent incarnations in the Middle East and Asia. How have different trajectories of understanding climate change led to different kinds of political cultures and governing institutions? Have some qualities of the “environment” or “climate” remained the same throughout history and across the globe? What is the role of colonialism in modern understandings of climate change?  The core of this course will seek to develop a mode of conceptualizing the present by rendering relevant geological time in addition to historical time, earth’s history in addition to world’s history.

The course begins with the question of how the “climate” has been historically and ethnographically conceptualized in various intellectual trajectories of human sciences. We consider how religion is connected to environmental change, how the “human” and “non human” are conceptualized in various ontologies, and how religious norms and ethics enact environmental practices. We interrogate the everyday sociality of climate adaption and how climate conflict informs social, political, and environmental citizenship. The course concludes by contemplating the creative ways of being in this new world. We study the innovative forms of cosmopolitan neo-humanism (post- humanism) that emerge from the specter of environmental change.

Contemporary discussions about racism have tended to focus on the experience of North Atlantic slave trade and theoretical debates tend to rely upon American experiences of racialization. However, there is substantial variation in the contours of racism across time and space. Relatedly, strategies for resistance to racism also vary significantly. It is important to think through the political and theoretical implications of potential differences in experiences and forms of racism in the global south. To this end, this course attempts to provide an insight into both historical and ideational variation. We will engage with historical research as well as the political ideas of particular thinkers grappling with the challenge of modern racism. At the same time as exploring the variation in historical, regional and ideational debates we will pay considerable attention to the arguments proposed by many global south thinkers about homogenization under global capitalism. The mutual imbrication of modern racism and capitalism has been an important concern for many 20th century Global South thinkers and it is useful to think through their arguments regarding simultaneous homogenization and differentiation built into capitalism. While ‘non-Western’ or Global South thinkers have been addressed questions of race and racism in important ways, some have also voiced racist views of their own. The course draws upon scholarship in Postcolonial Theory, Black Marxist and Radical thought, and Comparative Political Theory, as well recent comparative historical research on questions of slavery and racialization. Please note that you will find this module easier if you have studied some political theory at university.

The historical significance of Marx lies not only in his reception in Germany or Europe, but across the world. But Marx’s thought emerged from a highly specific intellectual context of European thought. Therefore, reading Marx must have a contextual, German and European side, and, equally, a global reception side. The purpose of this course will be to read Marx’s texts closely, and to follow the trajectory of his ideas historically and therefore globally. In one sense, we understand what ‘doing’ political theory means more clearly in studying the struggles of Marx’s readers in addressing the question: how can reading Marx illuminate the historical analysis of very different societies – societies which were not in Europe, societies which were not based on a capitalist economy, societies that were not yet ‘modern’ in their economy, politics and culture. A part of the course will be about the Marxism of the ‘others’: American Black thinkers, and thinkers in China, India, Africa, the Middle East. To follow Marx’s thought historically is to read his thought globally.

The course will be in three parts. The first part will read some texts of Western social theory from which the central questions of Marx’s theoretical reflections were drawn. Following a method of Indian philosophy in which philosophic arguments are always read in relation to its purvapaksha (arguments in response to which the philosophical doctrine was conceived and elaborated), we shall start with questions first introduced in Hobbes (individual) Locke (property and its relation to government) and Adam Smith (capitalism) in the British tradition, and Hegel (on history and capitalism) and Feuerbach (religion and estrangement) in the German tradition. We shall explore the central arguments from these thinkers which Marx contends with – at times accepting and elaborating them, or modifying them, or directly questioning and rejecting them.

In the second part of the course, we shall closely read some texts from Marx, but also pair them with some of the major readings of their meanings from the Marxist tradition. Texts read will include the early journalistic writings, Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, Communist Manifesto, the Grundrisse, political writings, Capital and Theories of Surplus Value, reflections on non-European history on the basis of his notes on ‘pre-capitalist formations’ and ethnological manuscripts.

In the final part of the course, we shall read major texts which show the different kinds of readings Marx’s work received in different parts of the world: Russian Communists, Asian Marxists from India and China, from the Middle east and Islamic societies, and from Africa. We shall end by readings of Marx from the West’s most intimate enemy: Black Marxists. Reading Marx historically is impossible without reading Marx globally. This section will also, necessarily, engage in more abstract questions about how we should read thought systems which originate in a particular thought ecology, but then circulates to entirely different settings of reading and political action.

The aims of this seminar are 1) to introduce students to the broad parameters of urban South African history 2) to familiarize students with the immense creativity and resilience of African peoples, even in the most difficult colonial contexts 3) to illustrate how race, class and gender were socially, historically and politically constructed in South Africa 4) to guide students in the completion of an original research paper on some aspect of black South African urban life 5) to enhance student appreciation for the ways in which a researcher's perspective and interests influences their interpretation of sources 6) to make visible the ways in which research outcomes are shaped by a researcher's choice of source material 7) to develop student research and writing skills.

            This course provides only a bare introduction to the history of South Africa.  The chief aim is to provide students with a hands-on opportunity to conduct original research and to help students develop skills in documenting African agency and resilience in the face of colonial oppression, often by ‘reading between the lines’ of state-produced documents.

Through reading excerpts from thirteen essential works, starting with Jabarti's history of the French Campaign in Egypt to a chapter from al-Qur'an, students will be able to increase their fluency and accuracy in Arabic while working on reading text and being exposed to the main themes in Classical Arabic literature, acquire a sense of literary style over a period of fourteen centuries as well as literary analytical terminology and concepts. The texts are selections from essential works that the students will read in detail, write critical pieces, engage in discussion and have assignments which will expand their vocabulary, manipulation of advanced grammar concepts, and employing stylistic devices in their writing. This course will enable students to start doing research in classical Arabic sources and complements MESAAS's graduate seminar Readings in Classical Arabic. The course works with all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Arabic is the language of instruction. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Advanced instruction in the Armenian dialect. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This 4000-level course examines how societies grapple with the legacy of mass violence, through an exploration of historical texts, memoirs, textbooks, litigation, and media reports and debates on confronting the past. Focusing on case studies of the Herero Genocide, the Armenian genocide during WWI, and the Holocaust and the Comfort Women during WWII, students investigate the crime and its sequelae, looking at how societies deal with skeletons in their closets ( engaging in silence, trivialization, rationalization, and denial to acknowledgment, apology, and repair); surveying responses of survivors and their descendants (with particular attention to intergeneration transmission of trauma, forgiveness, resentment, and the pursuit of redress); and dissecting public debates on modern day issues that harken back to past atrocities.

History, Politics, Literature, Society -- all these are studied as within national, or, at best, regional frames. What other scales and approaches might be appropriate to the study of particular phenomena or categories in the past, as well as some of the challenges of the present? This course introduces advanced undergraduates and graduate students to transregional studies. We explore topics, approaches, methods, problems, and disciplines through which we can cross the regions, particularly the regions of MESAAS. Case studies will consider thinking through and with oceanic studies, circulation, diaspora, shared hermeneutical traditions, lingua francas and their stories (world literatures?), and connected histories to rethink concepts of societies, collective affiliations, cosmopolitanism, and world history. Undergraduates must have taken at least one of the following: Intro to Islamic Civ (UN 2003), Intro to Indian Civ (UN 2357), African Before Colonialism (UN 2915), Societies and Cultures across the Indian Ocean (UN 3445), or some equivalent (check with me).

This course will explore recent histories of post-independence India, focusing on the first three decades of independence (1947-1977) following the end of British colonial rule. Until rather recently, most histories of South Asia concluded with independence, casting, perhaps unconsciously, the end of British rule as the end of history in the region. However, in recent years, we have witnessed a boom of historical writing on post-independence India.  In this class, we will analyze this emerging scholarship and focus on the themes of democracy and majoritarianism. We will read about the establishment of universal franchise in 1950s India, the writing and implementation of the constitution, and the country’s experiments with various economic plans. At the same time, we will study the Indian state’s often violent integration of regions originally outside Britain’s direct domain, including the princely states of Kashmir and Hyderabad, and the development of what scholars have described as new forms of colonialism in the region after 1947. Likewise, we will study the growth of majoritarian ideologies and the continued struggle against caste oppression, all while considering India’s place in the larger Cold War. Throughout the class, we will remain attendant to aesthetic developments in media and literature during this period. While the course focuses on India—or more specifically on various communities’ interactions with the Indian state—we will also study developments in Pakistan (and Bangladesh after 1971) and other neighboring states, recognizing that their shared histories did not end with Partition. 

While helping students advance their levels of oral and written expression, this course focuses on literature of the modern and medieval periods, with particular emphasis on the development of the modern novella and traditional and new forms of poetry. In addition to literature, students are introduced to a wide variety of genres from political and cultural essays and blogs to newspaper translations of the early 20th century. They will be further exposed to ta´rof in reference to a wide variety of socio-cultural contexts and be expected to use ta´rof in class conversations. Students will be exposed to popular artists and their works and satirical websites for insight into contemporary Iranian culture and politics. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This course constitutes the first half of a year-long advanced reading course in Classical Sanskrit. In 2021-2022, the focus of Advanced Sanskrit will be the genres of literary theory (alaṅkāraśāstra) and belles-lettres (kāvya). Lending equal attention to literary theory and literary practice, this course will introduce students to iconic works of Sanskrit literature along with the interpretive frameworks whereby they were analyzed, relished, and appraised. Literary excerpts may be drawn from an array of subgenres, including courtly epic (mahākāvya), epic drama (nāṭaka), literary prose (gadya), and individual verses (muktaka). Rigorous analysis of primary texts will be supplemented by occasional discussions about what implications the disciplined reading of kāvya may hold for practices such as translation, comparative literature, and transdisciplinarity. Prerequisites: Intermediate Sanskrit II or instructor’s permission. 

This course will focus on the Indo-Islamic literary traditions in South Asia, and particularly in what is now India and Pakistan, focusing on Urdu literature from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The course will emphasize the rhetorical and performative history of poetic forms in the subcontinent (including the forms of the Ghazal and Nauha, among others) and will consider how classical poetic tropes continue to inform contemporary mass culture in India and Pakistan—particularly in the song lyrics of Hindi/Bollywood cinema. The course will also consider more contemporary prose genres of Urdu-language writing (in English translation), including the literature of the Partition and the works of contemporary authors such as Naiyer Masud and Saima Iram.

Through a comparative study of texts in different genres and at different moments in history, students will consider questions such as: What aspects of contemporary literary culture in India and Pakistan can be traced to early establishment of Islamic culture in the region? How have the poetic conventions of Indo-Islamic poetry continued to resonate? How did the interaction of Hindu and Muslim literary, musical, visual, and religious cultures in the Mughal era help to generate the rich profusion of literature and music and cultural tolerance in this period?

Most of our readings in this course will Urdu literature in English translation. We will also, however, read some secondary sources in order to help us better understand the primary sources.

This graduate seminar examines the intersection of two MESAAS areas, South Asia and Africa, examining the long-term economic, social, cultural and political links between South Asia and East Africa, largely through the experience of South Asian immigrants to East Africa. Although connections between the regions have occurred for millennia, we will focus primarily on period after 1750.  In addition to providing a general introduction to some of the themes and issues in the historiography, the course requires students to substantially engage with a range of primary source materials over the course of the term, from colonial archival documents, to newspapers, autobiographies and literature. 

This seminar is conducted mainly in Arabic sources. The purpose is to explore legal and political theory and (when possible) practices of Islamic cultures prior to the 19th century with a view to mapping political structures and constitutional organization in Islamic history, and their relationship to the Shari`a. Among the themes of interest are: structure and rationalization of theories of governance; ethics of rule; use of history as authorizing discourse in the culture of political administration; the nature of “branches of power” and separation thereof; siyasa shar`iyya in “law” and “politics” (or the relationship between “law” and “politics”); and the very meaning of politics and sovereignty in Islam; the possibility of a state of exception; enemy-friend distinction; and related themes. Proficiency in Arabic is required. 

This course is designed to introduce the student to key debates in the study of societies marked by the centrality of settler-native relations: We shall focus on four key debates: (a) how to conceptualize extreme violence, as criminal or political; (b) the relationship of perpetrators to beneficiaries; (c) the significance of human rights institutions, from the Nuremberg Court to the International Criminal Court to the question of decolonization: and (d) the making of a political community of survivors after catastrophe. The class will be organized around several case studies: (a) Ireland; (b) the Americas; (c) Haiti; (d) Australia; (e) the Nuremberg Court; (f) South Africa; and (g) Israel / Palestine.