Turkish

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.

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

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

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

Required discussion section for ASCM UN2008: Contemporary Islamic Civilization

Required discussion section for ASCM UN2008: Contemporary Islamic Civilization

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.

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.

This is a fast-paced course that compresses two years of Hindi into one year. It is for students of South Asian background who already possess limited speaking and listening skills in Hindi or Urdu. Non-heritage students who have some exposure to Hindi or Urdu and South Asian cultures may also take this course.

It begins with an introduction to the Devanagari Script, which enables students to acquire basic reading and writing skills. They then build on their listening and speaking skills. To achieve these goals, students are introduced to a variety of materials, including literature, newspapers, folk tales, jokes, magazine articles, films, songs, commercials, and other kinds of audiovisual materials. These texts are related to language functions in daily personal and social life situations.

It focuses on vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural topics and developing knowledge of basic Hindi grammar. By the end of the semester, students will develop productive skills in reading, writing, and speaking and will be able to:

• speak about themselves and their environment, and initiate conversations on topics of general interest.

• Understand most of the basic sentence structures of Hindi in formal and informal registers.

• Write correspondence related to daily life, letters, short essays, and compositions on various topics.

• Learn some basic vocabulary related to aspects of Indian life, such as family life, social traditions, and education.

• Initiate and sustain conversations on a range of topics related to different aspects of Indian culture, social, and family life.

On the first day of classes, there will be an interview/placemat test to establish the proficiency level. Please come directly to class. If accepted, the department will register you internally.  

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. 

This course introduces students to South Asia through
an analysis of the heterogeneity, richness, and
complexity of the region’s conflicted pasts. Our
historical scope is vast and ambitious, starting with the
earliest urban settlements in about 2000BCE and
ending in the present. Though focused on “South
Asia,” the course problematizes the bounded areal
model by emphasizing the region’s enduring
connections to Eurasia, Africa, Southeast Asia, and
the broader Indian Ocean world. With connected
history as our method, the course asks students to
grapple with South Asia’s literary, religious, and
political histories as kinetic processes. This allows us to
ask probing questions about issues that have had, and
continue to have, major implications for the region––
and the world––today: sovereignty, power, gender,
community, devotion, piety, secularism, democracy,
violence, and the nation itself.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.

Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Required of all majors. Introduces theories of culture particularly related to the Middle East, South Asia. and Africa. Theoretical debates on the nature and function of culture as a symbolic reading of human collectivities. Examines critical cultural studies of the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. Enables students to articulate their emerging knowledge of Middle East, South Asian, and African cultures in a theoretically informed language.

Sign up for section in the department.

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 course is about space and power. If “geography” is literally “world-writing”, then who is doing the writing, how, and why? Where is the line (the border!) between neutral, descriptive writing about the world and agenda-driven, ascriptive writing upon the world? Moreover, who is the reader of the so-written world? How and why is it to be read? This course invites students to think more deeply about those questions, taking on concepts and categories from the literature of geography, political geography, and geographical imaginations, as well as classical geopolitics and critical geopolitics. Various cases will inform the material of this course – the United States, China, India, Serbia, Senegal, Kenya, and the Middle East more broadly, with some emphasis on Armenia and Azerbaijan and the conflict over Artsakh/Nagorno-Karabakh. This course is designed to be a highly interactive semester-long engagement, based partly on texts and partly on visual discourse, with significant student-designed components. By the end of this course, students will become familiar with a number of analytical thinking tools related to geography, space and place, and power dynamics alongside substantial information on the cases examined. There are no pre-requisites or co-requisites. All accommodations welcome.

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.

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.

Within the literature on the history of capitalism there is a lively debate that seeks to explain the world-historical transition from feudal and tributary modes of production to the capitalist mode of production. Substantial issues raised in this debate include the question of whether capitalism can be characterized as a mode of production dominated by the exploitation of free labour; the role of international trade in the origin and development of capitalism; and the role of agriculture in promoting a transition to capitalism. Through the publication of two key texts in the late 1970s Robert Brenner's proposition that capitalism had its origins in English agriculture came to dominate the transition debate. More recently, however, there have been a number of publications that seek to challenge the Anglo-centric and Eurocentric tendencies of the entire transition debate. This course begins with the Brenner debates and then takes up revisions, critiques and challenges to that debate. Ultimately, the aim of the course is to more clearly understand the place of non-European polities and peoples in the history and development of capitalism.

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.

The purpose of the Arabic Linguistic Tradition course is to introduce undergraduate and graduate
students to the Arabic Linguistic Tradition, starting before Islam and ending in current times. The
course maps out the context in which the Arabic language and its predecessors existed, the
history of the development of the language, its script, its geographical spread, its linguistic
influences on other languages and scripts throughout the world, as well as its own influences by
other languages. The course will also examine the importance of Arabic as a language of
religion, philosophy, sciences, and nationalism. Furthermore, the course will focus on the
classical Arabic linguistic categories and fields devised by Arab/Arabic grammarians, and how
we can situate them vis-à-vis modern western linguistic theories. The course will detail some of
the language linguistic issues, challenges and secrets, as the language stands on its own, as well
as within a euro-centric “modern” linguistic theories framework.

“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 is a third year (or sixth semester) course in the Hindi-Urdu program that aims to continue building upon the existing listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural skills in Hindi and Urdu. Students will be exposed to a variety of authentic materials, such as stories, plays, newspapers, magazines, videos and film clips. They will be expected to expand their vocabulary, enhance their grammatical accuracy and develop their cultural appropriateness through their enthusiastic participation in classroom activities and immersing themselves in the speech community outside.

The objective of the course is to promote meaningful interaction with literary texts and to strengthen students’ language skills to understand and describe situations and people in diverse academic settings of modern Hindi. Writing in the target language will be emphasized throughout the semester to enable students to use their diverse vocabulary and grammatical structures. The students will gain better understanding of the craft of creative writing in Hindi as the writers explore the innermost sentiments and compulsions of their characters to make us wonder about life, language and emotions, all in conjunction with each other.

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 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. 

May be repeated for credit; content varies.

Prerequisites: Must have completed MDES 2702, equivalent two years of Persian or the instructor's permission.

This course provides experience reading and analyzing Persian language texts, as well as translating them into English. We will also spend some time learning how to read different kinds of paleography, and about various manuscript and print conventions and practices. Supplementary scholarly readings in English will situate the Persian texts. There will be a translation workshop at the end of the semester with related texts of the students choosing, in preparation for a final translation project. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Advanced Turkish II is designed to use authentic Turkish materials around projects that are chosen by the student in a research seminar format where students conduct their own research and share it in class in a friendly atmosphere. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

Prerequisites: the instructors permission.

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.