38 courses with the subject MDES UN, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
MDES UN1001CRITICAL THEORY: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE4.00
The purpose of this foundational course is to introduce Columbia undergraduate students, in the context of their Global Core curriculum, to the seminal field of critical theory. The historical domain of this course is within the last century and its geographical spectrum is global. European critical thinkers are included in this course but not privileged. Thinkers from Asia, Africa, Europe, North, South, and Latin America, are examined here in chronological order and in equal democratic footing with each other. This course as a result is decidedly cross-cultural, one step forward towards de-alienating critical thinkers from around the globe and the issues they address without pigeonholing them as something “other” or “different.” The course is designed and offered in the true spirit of the “Global Core.” The purpose of the course is to reach for the common denominator of serious critical thinking about the fate of our humanity and the health of our social relations in an increasingly fragile world—where the false binaries of “the West” and “the Rest” no longer hold. The roster of critical thinkers we will examine is by no means exhaustive but representative. Any number of other critical thinkers can be added to this roster but none of those we will examine can be excluded from them. The course is divided into thirteen successive weeks and for each week a number of seminal, original, and groundbreaking texts are identified. Each week we will examine selected passages from these texts. The course is designed as a lecture course, and my lectures are based on the totality of these texts but students will be assigned specific shorter passages to read
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
MDES UN1030“Game of Thrones”: On Epics and Empires4.00
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
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
MDES UN2000ETHNICITY, RACE, IDENTITY IN THE PRE-MODERN MIDDLE EAST4.00
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
Prior to “conflict resolution,” there is conflict. But what is conflict and how do we understand it? This introductory lecture course proposes to explore established objects in their presumed ties to the fact and concept of “conflict.” We will inquire into the nature of conflict as well as into the kinds of conflicts that operate, or seem to operate, perhaps even to structure, the understanding of race, of region, and of religion. We will attend to the solidity and fragility of geographic divisions (regional and trans regional conflicts), their history (modern / premodern, colonial / pre- and post-colonial), the emergence of race (racial and ethnic conflicts), the pertinence of religions (religious strife and violence), their relation to political associations (religion and politics, religion and nationalism) and to other social and/or economic divisions (class, gender). We will interrogate the analytic and descriptive value of keywords like war, enmity, dispute, division, partition. We will also reflect on disciplinary tensions and divisions toward an understanding and perpetuation of conflict. Finally, we will think about the possibility and impossibility of “speaking with the enemy.”
One in four people in the world is a Muslim. Yet, here in the Western hemisphere, we mostly know next to nothing about Islam and its followers. Whatever is spread around as knowledge of this culture and religion is the work of a media that is highly politicized and biased, often perpetuating negative and even racist images of Muslims and their ways of life. This picture becomes even more complicated and complex in academia, in the West in particular but in Islamic countries as well. The story of “What is Islam?” begins in the 19th century, when the bulk of the Muslim world fell under European control, be it direct colonialism or (remote-control) coloniality. Almost everywhere, so-called reform was undertaken, with the view of modernizing institutions and subjectivities along Western lines. With secularization and unprecedented forms of politics and political organization, Islamic cultures all over the world began to undergo epistemic transformations, leading to a wholesale revaluation of the Islamic traditions themselves, and their meaning in late modernity. Various groups would attempt to redefine Islam in fundamentalist terms – in unconscious emulation of American Fundamentalist movements – while others took it in different directions, not excluding Marxism, socialism, and nationalism. But the hegemonic and almost “natural” force driving the Islamic world over the last half century has been liberalism, a powerful way of seeing and evaluating the world that deeply affected even the Islamist movements. Islam for modern Muslims has become many disparate things, often if not always incompatible with each other
MDES UN2042South Asia at the Crossroads of Empires3.00
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
MDES UN2044Religion and Politics in South Asia3.00
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
MDES UN2046Slavery, Race, Racism: Global South Experiences and Debates3.00
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 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
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 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
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
The History of the Jewish Enlightenment (Haskala) in 19th century Europe and the development of Zionism through the current peace process between the state of Israel and the Arab states and the Palestinian national movement. Provides a historical overview of the Zionist-Palestinian conflict to familiarize undergraduates with the background of the current situation. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class
MDES UN3046The Intersectional Politics of Religion3
The Islamic veil controversy in France, the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, the Kashmir lockdown, the lynching of Dalits in India – all seem to be connected through the ideas of ‘religion’, and certain religious identities as the basis for violence. What is the understanding of the religious that seems to be the operative factor in these events? Is it a singular concept of religion or are there different connotations of this category? For instance, how do we understand religion when it bifurcates the women’s movement between Western ‘secular’ women and non-Western ‘Muslim’ women? Is it the same concept when we identify ‘religion’ as the basis for the harmonious coexistence of Hindus and Muslims among certain non-elite communities in India? In this course, we ask if it even possible to understand, ‘religious’ events in the modern political world, without asking what other categories implicitly inform our notion of the religious – such as, gender, caste, culture, race and historiography. We move beyond the strict dichotomy, of religion and secularism, as something given and unproblematic. Drawing from examples and events in modern South Asia as well as other postcolonial contexts, we attempt to respond to the concepts, contradictions, and dilemmas that accompany the question of when and how the religious becomes the political in the modern world. Our weekly sessions will be devoted to reading texts from various disciplines and analyzing how the main argument is formulated and how that relates to a critique of the concept of religion in modern South Asia. Some weeks the scholarly texts will be supplemented by primary texts/case studies that will serve as direct demonstration of the problems that will be explored in the course. The engagement with sources from various disciplines will expose us to interdisciplinary content as well as diverse methods of critical analysis and argumentation. It will also help acquire the practice of identifying the central argument of the text, understand how the broad argument is actually formulated through smaller steps, and achieve the analytic skill to critically locate that single argument within a larger body of scholarship.
MDES UN3131Crisis and War in the Horn of Africa3.00
The Horn of Africa is often described as a disaster story, a land of terror, crisis and failure. But is it really a place in crisis? In what ways and for whom? For the people of the region, what constitutes meaningful social and political life? Is it possible to approach politics in the Horn of Africa through lenses other than those of violence and disaster? Are there other methods of understanding the experiences of crisis and recovery? In addition to examining emerging research trends in the region the course examines various approaches to the questions of war, humanitarian intervention, peace building, democratization, and economic reform. It considers how the study of popular culture, religious change, and social movements provide other ways to think about collective life. The seminar is intended for those interested in the study of Africa and the Middle East, and other regions that may seem bleak to outsiders but can provide new ways of understanding politics
MDES UN3251The Ancient Sciences in Medieval Islamic World3
“ʿUlūm al-awāʾil”, or the “Science of the Ancients” was one of the many names given to the body of knowledge that the Islamic civilization inherited from the Ancient Greek nature-knowledge system. By the end of the 10th century CE the Islamic civilization had appropriated many branches of the Greek knowledge, including cosmological philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, alchemy, music, and medicine among other disciplines. While some of these disciplines, such as cosmological philosophy, were heavily opposed by proponents of traditional sciences (Qur’anic exegesis, Hadith scholarship, Arabic grammar, etc.), many of them became legitimate fields of knowledge for Muslim intellectuals and scholars for many centuries until the dawn of modern science. With the advent of modern science, some of these disciplines, such as mathematics and astronomy, were absorbed in the new scientific paradigm as “exact sciences”; many others were relegated to the domain of “occult sciences”. This course aims at surveying the “Ancient sciences” in medieval Islam by studying several of these disciplines, both “exact” and “occult”.
MDES UN3252Rethinking Imperialism in the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa (MESAA)3.00
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
MDES UN3254Colonial Fascism ＆ Revolutionary Violence in the Mediterranean3.00
In this course, we will approach Fanon’s question through our understanding of violence as it was invented and deployed from the heart of empire into the colonies. What is fascism and how was it linked to colonialism, if at all? In what ways were they dependent on each other to conceive a certain world order, particularly between World War I and II? In other words, how did fascist visions and colonial practices from the imperial core import repressive structures of violence into the colonies, and then export those methods of control back into the metropole as a perpetual renewable source of power? This course examines the Mediterranean as a site of violence and a theater of “fire and blood,” in which the inextricable and dialogical bond between colonialism and fascism are tied through mythologies, discourses, institutions, and of course, revolution. In so doing, we interrogate Tunisian writer Albert Memmi’s critical intervention of “colonial fascism” that shapes the confrontations between metropole and colony as an intricate network shaping the contours of the Mediterranean and renewing itself through violence. It also focuses on the rhetoric undergirding colonial and fascist discourses, and the counterinsurgent and resistance strategies that, in turn, challenge these hegemonies. By situating this particular Mediterranean narrative within the broader colonial discourse, the course encourages critical reflection on the enduring legacies of imperial power that informs the region’s historical trajectories
This course examines a set of questions that have shaped the study of the politics of the modern Middle East. It looks at the main ways those questions have been answered, exploring debates both in Western academic scholarship and among scholars and intellectuals in the region itself. For each question, the course offers new ways of thinking about the issue or ways of framing it in different terms. The topics covered in the course include: the kinds of modern state that emerged in the Middle East and the ways its forms of power and authority were shaped; the birth of economic development as a way of describing the function and measuring the success of the state, and the changing metrics of this success; the influence of oil on the politics of the region; the nature and role of Islamic political movements; the transformation of the countryside and the city and the role of rural populations and of urban protest in modern politics; and the politics of armed force and political violence in the region, and the ways in which this has been understood. The focus of the course will be on the politics of the twentieth century, but many topics will be traced back into developments that occurred in earlier periods, and several will be explored up to the present. The course is divided into four parts, each ending with a paper or exam in which participants are asked to analyze the material covered. Each part of the course has a geographical focus on a country or group of countries and a thematic focus on a particular set of questions of historical and political analysis
MDES UN3331URBAN SPACE ＆ CONFLICT IN MIDDLE EAST3.00
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
Historians frequently situate Armenia between two powers: between Rome and Persia, then Byzantium and Islam. This class will shake up the usual “between-two-worlds” paradigm, which places Armenia and Armenians in the crosshairs of world powers. Instead, we will study Armenians as active participants in world dramas, at the center of global developments. Our main goal will be to draw upon a variety of sources to tell the story of Armenia and Armenians: histories, poems, art, coins, buildings, etc. Goals Critically assess what it means to study history. [Why are we learning this?] Analyze primary sources, whether written or material. [How can we study this?] Engage with modern scholarship on Armenian experiences. [How have other people studied this?]
This course examines how societies grapple with the legacy of mass violence through an exploration of historical texts, memoirs, novels, films, textbooks, litigation, and media reports and debates. Focusing on case studies of the Herero Genocide, the Armenian genocide during WWI, and the Holocaust and “Comfort Women” during WWII, students will investigate the crime and its sequelae. We will explore how societies deal with skeletons in their closets (from engaging in a conspiracy of silence, trivialization, rationalization, and denial to acknowledgment and reparations); analyze texts of official apologies and non-apologies; survey responses of survivors and their descendants (with particular attention to post-memory, multidirectional memory, forgiveness, anger and resentment, and the pursuit of redress); and dissect public debates on modern day issues that recall past atrocities
MDES UN3422Infrastructures of Power: Development, Environment, Political Struggle3.00
Is infrastructure political? Can infrastructure colonise, dispossess, and cause environmental ruin? We tend to think of infrastructure as useful objects, but can we think of them as built ideologies? Historically, infrastructural projects have been regarded as necessary preconditions of modern and efficient states. So much so that malfunctioning sewers and perennial power cuts have come to invoke images of starved and underdeveloped countries. However, the question of whether infrastructure itself fuels human and environmental underdevelopment is rarely asked. This course proposes a new way of thinking about infrastructure. By studying the histories of various infrastructural projects in the Middle East, we will critically assess their role as sites of political contestation rather than as “neutral technologies”. Infrastructure has been used by colonial states to exploit the natural resources of colonised territories and to control the populations they ruled. At the same time, infrastructure is crucial in the formation of radical political identities and rich cultures and traditions of political struggle. Yet, not all infrastructure is the same. By paying attention to the material qualities and specific cultural and ideological history of each form of infrastructure we study, we will be able to understand how different forms of infrastructure create and foreclose different political possibilities
This course introduces the Indian Ocean as a region linking the Middle East, East Africa, South and Southeast Asia. With a focus on both continuities and rupture from the medieval to the modern period, we study select cultures and societies brought into contact through interregional migration and travel from the 10th to 20th centuries. Different types of people - nobles, merchants, soldiers, statesmen, sailors, scholars, slaves - experienced mobility in different ways. How did different groups of people represent such mobilities? What kinds of political, economic, and social cooperation, accommodation or conflict did different Indian Ocean encounters engender? We read some of the newest humanities and social science scholarship, as well as primary sources ranging from manuscript illustrations, sailor’s stories, merchant letters, travelogues, pilgrimage accounts, colonial documents, memoirs, and diplomatic accounts
MDES UN3632Introduction to Twentieth-Century South Asian Literature3.00
This class offers a survey of major works of twentieth-century South Asian literature. We will read Raja Rao, Rokeya Hossain, Ismat Chughtai, Viswanadha Satyanarayana, Amrita Pritam, and Romesh Gunesekera. Emphasis will be placed on studying the thematic, formal, and stylistic elements of works and developing critical skills necessary for literary analysis. Works will engage with questions of nation ＆ nationalism, gender ＆ sexuality, caste, environment, and literary history
This lecture course introduces students to the power and meaning of popular visual cultures of South Asia. Visual culture is a crucial arena for the enactment of social transformations and the creation of collective imaginaries. We will track such varied modern media types as calendar art, photography, film, architecture, clothing, and religious festivals, loosely following key chronological signposts in the shared histories of the subcontinent. Together, we will practice a new way of understanding history and society – a visual way that will make us aware of the diversity of hopes, fears, and dreams that comprise South Asia. Designed for students with a basic understanding of South Asian history, the course aims to familiarize you with key methodological approaches in visual culture studies and current debates in South Asian art history and media theory.
Prerequisites: the instructor's permission. 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
Through detailed discussions of certain landmarks in Islamic legal history (e.g. origins; early formation; sources of law; intellectual make-up; the workings of court; legal change; women in the law; legal effects of colonialism; modernity and legal reform, etc.), the course aims at providing an introductory but integrated view of Islamic law, a definition, so to speak, of what it was/is. Please note, this course must be taken for a letter grade
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
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
