Persian

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 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.

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.

What is so fascinating about outlaws and tricksters? They can be alluring and terrifying, creative and destructive. They wear disguises, upend the plans of their fellow humans, and bend societies to their will. They are unsettled and unsettling. But this course suggests that there is no single figure of the trickster. Rather, the significance of writing about tricksters and outlaws varies from text to text and from place to place. In this course, we will explore texts, mostly from the pre-modern period, written in Arabic (and sometimes Persian and Sanskrit) that depict outlaws and tricksters. We will ask after what texts are doing in the world when they tell stories that seem to celebrate and delight in the subversive, the strange, and the sinister. To help us think through these questions, we will also read divergent theories about outlaws, tricksters, and other subversives. At the end of the course, we will read the award-winning Iraqi novel Frankenstein in Baghdad.

The purpose of this course is to introduce advanced undergraduate and graduate students to a significant body of philosophical literature produced in Persian over the last millennium, with deep rooted origins extended even deeper into pre-Islamic and non-Islamic history.  Ordinarily understood in the context of “Islamic philosophy” and given secondary status to works produced in Arabic, this body of philosophical literature that expands from the works of Avicenna in the 11th to those of Muhammad Iqbal in the 20th century and after, this body of philosophical literature demands and in this seminar receive an exclusive attention primarily based on the language in which it has been produced and thereafter posited a number of crucial epistemic and philosophical questions of its own. 

Required discussion for History of South Asia II lecture (S ASIA II:EMPIRE/ITS AFTR HSME UN2811). Discussion section day & times to be determined.

“Pan Africanist” ideologies were very diverse from Garveyism, Negritude to the various African America, Caribbean and African discourses of “neo-pharaohnism” and “Ethiopianism.” This seminar explores how Black leaders, intellectuals, and artists chose to imagine Black (Africans and people of African descent) as a global community from the late 19th century to the present. It examines their attempts to chart a course of race, modernity, and emancipation in unstable and changing geographies of empire, nation, and state. Particular attention will be given to manifestations identified as their common history and destiny and how such a distinctive historical experience has created a unique body of reflections on and cultural productions about modernity, religion, class, gender, and sexuality, in a context of domination and oppression.

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.

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.

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.

Prerequisites: MDES UN1501, or the equivalent, based on performance on the placement test. Continued introduction to Hebrew, with equal emphasis on all languages skills. (See MDES UN1501.) No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: MDES UN1501, or the equivalent, based on performance on the placement test. Continued introduction to Hebrew, with equal emphasis on all languages skills. (See MDES UN1501.) No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisite: one semester of prior coursework in Urdu for Heritage Speakers I (UN1615) in the Fall semester, or the instructor’s permission. This is an accelerated course for students of South Asian origin who already possess a knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in Urdu. For instance, they should be able to converse, comprehend, read and write on familiar topics in Urdu 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. 

Prerequisites: MDES UN1901 An introduction to the written and spoken language of Turkey. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This seminar investigates the concepts of ethnicity, race, and identity, in both theory and practice,
through a comparative survey of several case studies from the Pre-Modern history of the Middle East.
The course focuses on symbols of identity and difference, interpreting them through a variety of
analytical tools, and evaluating the utility of each as part of an ongoing exploration of the subject. The
survey considers theories of ethnicity and race, as well as their critics, and includes cases from the
Ancient World (c. 1000 BCE) through the Old Regime (c. 1800 CE).

Students in this course will gain a familiarity with major theories of social difference and alterity, and
utilize them to interpret and analyze controversial debates about social politics and identity from the
history of the Middle East, including ancient ethnicity, historical racism, Arab identity, pluralism in the
Islamic Empire, and slavery, among others. In addition, students will spend much of the semester
developing a specialized case study of their own on a historical community of interest. All of the case
studies will be presented in a showcase at the end of the semester.

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

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.

Prerequisites: Second Year Hebrew: Intermediate I or instructor permission. Equal emphasis is given to all language skills. Irregular categories of the Hebrew verb, prepositions and syntax are taught systematically. Vocabulary building. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, short answers, reading, or writing short compositions. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes. (Students completing this course fulfill Columbia College and Barnard language requirement.) No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

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.

One year of prior coursework in Elementary Hindi-Urdu I&II or the instructor’s permission. The course aims to continue consolidating and building upon the existing listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural skills and will help students acquire higher level proficiency in Hindi language. Students will be introduced to new grammatical structures and a broad range of vocabulary through exposure to a variety of authentic materials including Hindi literature, newspapers, folk tales, films, songs, and other kinds of written and audio-visual materials and through these materials. Students will expand their knowledge base of the society and culture of the target languages in this course. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This course offers an expansive journey through the forms, pleasures, and meanings of Indian cinema. It explores the plural beginnings of popular film; the many competing cinemas produced across India; the diverse protagonists (from vamps to vigilantes) that populate the imagined entity named ‘national cinema’; and the varied audiences addressed by these cinemas. Over the course of the semester, we will watch 15 of the most iconic narrative films produced in India, including Diamond Queen (1940), Awara (1951), Deewar (1975), Roja (1992), Mahanagar (1963), and Bandit Queen (1994). As we voyage with the dynamic, shifting codes and priorities of India’s fiction filmmaking, we also shadow the emergence of the Indian nation and contestations of its coherence.

Gandhi is in two senses an extraordinary figure: he was the most important leader of anti-imperialist movements in the twentieth century; yet, his ideas about modernity, the state, the industrial economy, technology, humanity’s place in nature, the presence of God - were all highly idiosyncratic, sometimes at odds with the main trends of modern civilization. How did a man with such views come to have such an immense effect on history? In some ways, Gandhi is an excellent entry into the complex history of modern India - its contradictions, achievements, failures, possibilities. This course will be primarily a course on social theory, focusing on texts and discursive exchanges between various perceptions of modernity in India. It will have two parts: the first part will be based on reading Gandhi’s own writings; the second, on the writings of his main interlocutors. It is hoped that through these exchanges students will get a vivid picture of the intellectual ferment in modern India, and the main lines of social and political thought that define its intellectual culture. The study in this course can be followed up by taking related courses in Indian political thought, or Indian politics or modern history. This course may not be taken as Pass/D/Fail.

This seminar investigates the metropolitan site of Babylon-Baghdad as the focal center and built
environment at the center of 4000 years of social history. Through a consideration of the historical and
archaeological sources available, the course proceeds chronologically and surveys the urban history of
the site from its ancient origins, c. 2000 BCE, all the way to the present day. The survey explores how
the communities residing in the city shaped, and were shaped by, the city.

Students in this course will gain a familiarity with the major periods of Middle Eastern History — Ancient, Islamic, and Modern — and a detailed awareness of the metropolitan region of Babylon-
Baghdad. In addition to the historical survey and engagement with primary sources and theoretical works, students will develop a research paper on a specialized topic of interest associated with the city.
This investigation requires a synthesis of the ideas discussed in class, and presents an opportunity to
investigate a specific feature or characteristic of the city in detail.

All assigned readings for the course will be in English. Primary sources will be provided in translation.
The course assumes that you have taken at least one introductory course on either the Ancient Near
East or the Islamic Middle East to use as a foundation for further development. Students without a
background in the Middle East may take the course if they are willing to do a little preparatory reading.
The course meets once a week and sessions are two hours long.

*This course provides an introduction to the social and cultural history of the Swahili coast and an overview of some of the major debates that have dominated this historiography.*

This course explores how civil war, revolution, militarization, mass violence, refugee crises, and terrorism impact urban spaces, and how city dwellers engage in urban resilience, negotiate and attempt to reclaim their right to the city. Through case studies of Beirut (1975-present), Baghdad (2003-present), Cairo (2011-present), Diyarbakir (1914-present), Aleppo (1914-present), and Jerusalem (1914-present), this course traces how urban life adjusted to destruction (and post-conflict reconstruction), violence, and anarchy; how neighborhoods were reshaped; and how local ethnic, religious, and political dynamics played out in these cities and metropolises. Relying on multi-disciplinary and post-disciplinary scholarship, and employing a wealth of audiovisual material, literary works, and interviews conducted by the instructor, the course scrutinizes how conflicts have impacted urban life in the Middle East, and how civilians react to, confront, and resist militarization in urban spaces.

This class introduces students to the living epics that form core literary, religious, and cultural traditions within South Asia: the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. “Epic Epics” will begin by examining the earliest narration of the Ramayana (in its modern Amar Chitra Katha comic redaction) and then will proceed to investigate how these stories of tragedy, valor, and divinity were and are adapted by different communities as they became an intrinsic part of almost every area of this region. As the heroes (and heroines) of these epics are often linked with the people producing and/or narrating them, the manner in which these epics are articulated reveals the priorities of its authors. Drawing on literature, film, graphic novels, journalism, podcasts, art, and performance, this class will explore the continuous reworking of these epics from their inception to the present day. Special attention will be payed to the controversies surrounding politics, caste, and gender that arise in the texts.

This course studies and  explores a  number of Iraqi narratives that have appeared since 2003 and that have a distinctive stylistic and thematic richness with great bearing on social, economic, cultural, and political life in Iraq. Seen against a history of the country and the region, and in conversation with some Afro-Asian and Latin American narratives of war and displacement, these writings assume  global  significance in our reading of  such thematic issues  like war, love, exile, and loss. While always using the past as a background, a source and repository of recollections, the challenge of the 2003 Anglo-America invasion and its institutionalization of segregation and   rupture to keep Iraq in perpetual chaos, is present in the texts. Every narrative sheds light on a number of issues, especially war, horror, loss, trauma, passion and dislocation. This richness in detail is brought up through a number of stylistic innovations that put this writing at the forefront of world cultures and human concerns. An introductory lecture builds up a genealogy for trauma since the Epic of Gilgamesh (2700 BC.) and the lamentations of Astarte. 

This course explores the relationship between Islam and politics from in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Muslim and Middle Eastern intellectuals have long grappled with the role of Islam in the modern polity. Their often-contested engagements with this question have deeply shaped the political life of the region. In this course, you will explore the genealogy of these debates by analyzing the issues they brought to the fore: the nature of the modern Islamic community, Islam’s relationship to Western imperialism, the challenges posed by the postcolonial nation-state, as well as the various political theologies at play in Islamist movements, in “liberal” conceptions of Islamic doctrines, and in Muslim states’ interpretations of religion.

The class follows the intellectual history of the “Islam and Politics” dyad. Students will mostly read primary sources produced by individuals who lived in the Middle East in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries: political essays, theological writings, legal texts, constitutions, parliamentary debates, autobiographies. The aim of the course is to examine the thought of Muslim intellectuals who have written about the role of religion in politics and society. Students will learn about the politics of the Middle East by understanding the views, claims, and textual productions of Middle Easterners themselves. This exposure to primary texts will give them a deep understanding of the issues related to religion and politics in the Middle East today.

Please note that this course is for students who are interested in critically and academically engaging with the issue of Islam and politics. Discussions will be firmly rooted in history, the humanities and the social sciences. This is neither a course on Political Islam (Islamism) nor a survey of the history of religion and politics throughout the entire Middle East.

Secondary literature in English will be assigned, as well as primary sources in English translation. There will be opportunities to read and comment on Arabic primary sources as well, depending on students’ reading abilities.

The MESAAS honors seminar offers the opportunity to undertake a sustained research project working closely with an individual faculty adviser. It also enables you, as part of a small group of MESAAS students working with the seminar instructor, to develop the skills of academic research and writing and learn how to collaborate with peers and create an engaged intellectual community. This 3-point seminar continues the work begun in the Fall semester of the senior year in MDES 3960 Honors Thesis Seminar Part 1.

Prerequisites: MDES W4212. Through reading articles and essays by Arab thinkers and intellectuals of the Twentieth century, starting from the period called Nahda (Renaissance), such as Taha Hussein, Qasim Amin, Abdallah Laroui, Abed Al-Jabiri, Tahar Haddad, Fatima Mernissi and others, 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 Arab thought. 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.

Through reading and writing, students will review Arabic Grammar concepts within the context of linguistic functions such as narration, description, comparison, etc. For example, within the function of narration, students will focus on verb tenses, word order, and adverbials. Based on error analysis in the past twelve years that the Arabic Program has been using Al-Kitaab, emphasis will be placed on common and frequent grammatical errors. Within these linguistic functions and based on error analysis, the course will review the following main concepts: Types of sentence and sentence/clause structure. The Verb system, pattern meanings and verb complementation. Quadriliteral verb patterns and derivations. Weak Verbs derivations, conjugation, tense frames and negation. Case endings. Types of noun and participle: Noun of time, place, instance, stance, instrument, active and passive participles. Types of construct phrase: al-iDafa. Types of Adverbials and verb complements: Hal, Tamyiz, Maf’ul mutlaq, Maf’ul li’ajlihi, adverbs of time, frequency, place and manner. The number system and countable nouns. Types of maa.Diptotes, al-mamnu’ min-aSSarf. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: MDES UN2202 This is an introductory course to Levantine Arabic for students who have completed two years of Standard Arabic studies, at the Intermediate level. The course is designed to further develop fluency in oral communication, through building students’ familiarity with a less formal register of Arabic, namely the Levantine dialect. The course will convert and recycle some of the previous Standard Arabic knowledge to the dialect, by comparing their prior knowledge to its dialectal counterpart; while at the same time developing students’ new communicative skills in a diverse range of contexts that are essential in any conversational interaction. The course will build students abilities to interact effectively in various areas where Levantine Arabic is spoken. In addition to varied thematic topics, the course exposes students to cultural aspects specific to the region. Additionally, the course will work on both constructing students’ knowledge of dialectal diction as well as other grammatical features of the dialects. Even though the course is designed for communication in the four skills (reading, writing, listening and speaking), the emphasis will be mostly on speaking and listening. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This course is designed to give students the tools necessary to conduct research that involves
Classical Arabic Texts. Students will translate selected passages from al-Jurjani's Dala'il al-I'jaz and
other texts on Arabic poetics. Each week, students will also complete a small research task, such as
locating a biographical entry, anecdote, or poem within the encyclopedic works of the medieval
period.

No prior knowledge of Arabic is required. Students with Arabic reading ability will be invited to an
optional weekly reading session focused on erotica, the maqāma, and mujūn.

This course works along a number of axial structures that   aim to let texts voice their informing theoretical, political, and poetic strategies. It draws on war narratives in other parts of the world, especially Vietnam, insofar as these find their way into Arabic writing. A poetics of prose gives these narratives the power of literary production that makes them more readable, appealing, and provocative than ordinary journalistic reporting.

Through close readings  of  a number of  Arabic war novels and  some long narrative poems, this course  proposes to  address war in its varieties  not only as liberation movements in  Algeria and Palestine,  but also  as an engagement with  invasions, as in  Iraqi narratives of war, or  as conflict as was the case between Iran and Iraq, 1980-1988,  as proxy wars in other parts of the region , or ‘civil’ wars generated and perpetuated by big powers. Although writers are no longer the leaders of thought as in the first half of the 20th century, they resume different roles of exposition, documentation, reinstatement of identities, and geographical and topographical orientation. Narrators and protagonists are not spectators but implicated individuals whose voices give vent to dreams, desires, intimations, and expectations. They are not utterly passive, however. Behind bewilderment and turbulence, there is a will to expose atrocity and brutality. Writing is an effort to regain humanity in an inhuman situation.

The course is planned under thematic and theoretical divisions: one  that takes  writing as a deliberate exposure  of the censored and repressed; another as  a counter shock and awe strategy [ implemented under this name in the wars on Iraq]   whereby brutalities are laid bare; and a third  that claims reporting  in order to explore its limits and complicity. On the geographical level, it takes Algeria, Palestine as locations for liberation movements; Iraq as a site of death; Egypt as the space for statist duplicity  and camouflage; and Lebanon as an initial stage for a deliberate exercise in a seemingly civil war.

A number of films will be shown as part of students’ presentations.

This course provides an introductory overview of modern Armenian history, spanning from the 19th century when Armenians lived across the Ottoman, Iranian, and Russian empires up to the present. It covers key historical events, including Ottoman reforms, Armenian revolutionary movements, the Armenian Genocide, periods of independence, Soviet rule, and the emergence of the Republic of Armenia in 1991. While the history of modern state in Armenian experience is a crucial aspect of the course, it also places a substantial focus on understanding Armenians as an intersectional community crossing imperial, national, and regional boundaries and belongings. The course employs innovative methods, primary sources, and digital materials to provide a comprehensive understanding of Armenian history and culture in a global context.

“The possibility of pogroms,” claims Theodor Adorno, “is decided in the moment when the gaze of a fatally-wounded animal falls on a human being. The defiance with which he repels this gaze—’after all it's only an animal’—reappears irresistibly in cruelties done to human beings.” This course traces the development of Modern Hebrew literature, from its fin-de-siècle revival to contemporary Israeli fiction, through the prism of animality and animalization. We will focus on human-animal relations and animalization/dehumanization of humans in literary works by prominent Hebrew authors, including M.Y. Berdichevsky, Devorah Baron, S.Y. Agnon, Amos Oz, David Grossman, Orly Castel-Bloom, Almog Behar, Etgar Keret, and Sayed Kashua. Employing posthumanist and ecofeminist theoretical lenses, we will analyze the bio-political intersections of species and gender, as well as animalization as a process of otherization of marginalized ethnic groups. Throughout the course, we will ask questions, such as: why animals abound in Modern Hebrew literature? Are they merely metaphors for intra-human issues, or rather count as subjects? What literary devices are used to portray animals? How has the depiction of human-animal relations changed in Hebrew over the last 150 years? How do cultural and political frameworks inform representations of human-animal relations? No prior knowledge of Hebrew is required; all readings and class discussions will be in English. Course participants with reading knowledge of Hebrew are encouraged to consult the original literary texts, provided by the instructor upon request.

This reading-intensive seminar course will examine the continuing impact, since 1492, of a (neo)colonial/(neo)imperial Euro-American informed modernity animated by (neo)liberal-Enlightenment values (free will/humanity, secularism, racial capitalism) and individualist identity politics on past and contemporary conceptualizations of family, kinship, and friendship in Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities within the context of settler-colonial societies (as the U.S./Canada) as well as in postcolonial nations and regions (as Southwest Asia, Africa, and the Middle East) that arguably never underwent adequate decolonization. The course will explore kinship, intimacy, and friendship ties in a dynamic age where sexual and gender diversity is a hallmark of neoliberal ‘secular’ modernity, whose advent historically exposed all non-Europeans, to a plethora of false competing dualisms, such as secular/religious and heterogeneity/homogeneity, as well as discourses such as homonationalism (al-qawmiyyat al-mīthlīyat) and pinkwashing (al-ghaseel al-banafsajiy). We will examine selected themes such as racialized gender (including masculinities), sexuality, intimacy, class, age, power relationships, and their intersections. By drawing on transnational feminist discourses, queer Black, and Indigenous studies as well as queer of color critiques we will explore different manifestations of intimacy, familial, marriage, and friendship ties. What can friendship patterns - intimate, trustful, as well as voluntarily chosen ties that people maintain - tell us about societies and communal solidarities at present amidst polarizing ‘woke cultural wars?’ What role do geopolitical and social institutions and agency beyond them play when thinking about the violence of global nation-statist and racial capitalist gendered/sexualized systematic and systemic structures and what they provoke of reactionary Orientalist/Conservative impulses? Using intersectional/assemblage-based theories, what decolonial, gender- based, readings and formulations of feminisms/queerness exist that evade the apparent tidiness of European feminist and narrow LGBTIQA categories that characterizes most (non)Euro-American political queer- feminist scholarship beyond the depiction of queer BIPOC as co-opted and duped, colonized pawns of ‘Gay Empire’ towards elucidating critical discussions on identity, agency, subjectivity, and dissidence?  In our durée together students will explore the significance of non-Euro-American ontologies/epistemologies and struggles around racialized sex, gender, spiritual and sexual practices while mapping the contemporary as well as foundational discussions from transnational perspectives informed by intrinsic geopolitical globalization and industrialization. 

This course will explore major themes in the growing field of Sound Studies with a focus on the rich history of sound and varied cultures of sound and listening in the Indian subcontinent. The main questions that we will address include: how have political, commercial, and cultural movements shaped what the diverse populations of South Asia listen to and how they listen?  How have different forms of media shaped/ informed listening experiences in South Asia? How do listening practices and cultures from the subcontinent differ from those in other regions?  In this class we will listen to the human voice, rumor/gossip, gramophone, loud speakers, radio, film, and mp3. We will discuss the role political speeches, film songs, and devotional songs in shaping South Asian politics and culture in the twentieth-century as the subcontinent transitioned from colonial rule to nation-states. Drawing on the interdisciplinary nature of Sound Studies, we will read works from across the disciplines—anthropology, ethnomusicology, Religious Studies, Media Studies, and history. Organized thematically, this course will focus on the twentieth century, but the readings will address earlier time periods.

This is an upper-level undergraduate and graduate (MA) seminar. Students are expected to have some background in South Asian studies/history or media/sounds studies. The class will meet once a week for discussion of readings. In addition to readings there will be a several required film screenings or listening activities.  

Two semesters of prior coursework in Urdu for Heritage Speakers (Urdu for Heritage Speakers I and II) or one semester of Advanced Urdu or the instructor’s permission. This course is a literary course, with in-depth exposure to some of the finest works of classical and modern Urdu poetry i.e. genres of ghazal and nazm. This course is open for both undergraduates and graduates. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

This course examines Indo-Islamic and Hindu cultures in South Asia up to the early colonial
period. We use a wide range of sources, including Sanskrit and Persian literature,
inscriptions, travel writing, court chronicles, translations, material culture, and more. This
material allows us to critically engage questions that shape both current academic
debates as well as popular and political discourse: How do contemporary historical
accounts project perceptions of insiders and outsiders back into South Asian pasts? What
was the role of power in both the rhetoric of conflict and examples of cultural borrowing
and influence? What can we learn from the representation of the other in Sanskrit,
Persian, and vernacular literature? What strategies were employed to understand and
overcome difference? How have the categories ‘Hindu’ and ‘Muslim’ been shaped historically,
and are they sensible to think with?

In the tenth century, the Jewish physician Hasdai b. Shaprut wrote a letter in Hebrew from his home in Islamic Spain. He asked about the veracity of the stories he had heard from Khorasani merchants: could it be true that a Jewish empire existed far afield that could hold its own against the Roman Empire and Islamic Caliphate alike? The response to Hasdai’s query was discovered in the geniza of the synagogue in Old Cairo, answering in the affirmative. Some modern scholars read the correspondence as evidence of the Jewish empire; others dismiss the correspondence as the same vein of the Prester John narratives among European Christians or, worse, an anti-Semitic theory about Jewish control over trade routes. For both medieval and modern observers, the line between fact and fiction in the history of this empire has never been particularly clear.

In the modern world, the ethnonym “Khazar” has been coopted into anti-Semitic discourse. While this course will trace the changing meaning of the term, we will focus mainly on the medieval Khazars themselves. The Khazar Khaganate—an empire that stretched over eastern Europe and the north Caucasus from the eighth to the tenth centuries—caught the imagination of historians, litterateurs, missionaries, and philosophers over the centuries. The extant evidence about the Khaganate is vast, but usually contradictory, frequently sensationalist, and invariably contested. Given the sheer quantity of information preserved about the Khazars, narrating their history becomes an exercise in imaginative reflection. As a result, this course offers a deep dive into the extant sources, asking what practical challenges emerge from reading the contested history of the Khaganate across the wide array of Greek, Arabic, Persian, Georgian, Armenian, and Hebrew sources. After engaging with the sources available for Khazar history, the last few meetings of the class will open the conversation to potential models for embracing medieval imagination and grappling with modern accretions to Khazar histories.

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.

This course will seek to analyze some philosophical and interpretative problems raised by recent works in a field generally described as 'postcolonial theory'. At the center of the discussion would be the themes of Eurocentrism and Orientalism. While the questions associated with this field are highly significant, there is much that is indeterminate about this area of social theory. The course will start with an historical analysis of the original debates about 'Orientalism' and the nature of its arguments. It will start with a preliminary reading of Said’s Orientalism. It will then take up for a direct critical examination textual traditions that were the objects of the Orientalism debate – representative examples of European Orientalist literature – which claimed to produce, for the first time, 'scientific' studies of Oriental societies (work of linguists like William Jones, or historians like James Mill), studies of Middle Eastern Islamic societies analyzed by Said, segments of philosophies of history which dealt with non-European societies and found a place for them in a scheme of 'universal history' ( Hegel, Marx, Mill, Weber). We shall then turn to ask if social science knowledge about non-European societies still carry the methodological features of Orientalism. As Orientalism spread across different fields of modern culture – not just academic knowledge, but also art and aesthetic representations,  the next two weeks fictional and visual representations will be taken up for critical analysis.  This will be followed by a study of texts in which intellectuals from non-European societies from Asia and Africa responded to the cognitive and cultural claims of the European Orientalist literature. In the last section the course will focus on three aspects of the postcolonial critique:

1. the question of representation ,
2. the question of the writing of history, and
3. the logic of basic concepts in social sciences.

Prerequisites: the instructors permission.

This course aims to familiarize graduate students with the different methods and approaches that US and European scholars have used to study gender and sexuality in other societies generally, and the way they study them in the context of the Arab World specifically. The course will also explore how Arab scholars have also studied their own societies. We will survey these different approaches, both theoretical and empirical, outlining their methodological difficulties and limitations. Readings will consist of theoretical elaborations of these difficulties and the methodological and empirical critiques that the field itself has generated in order to elaborate how gender and sexuality in the Arab World have been studied, or more accurately, not studied, and how many of these methodological pitfalls can be avoided.

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.