Columbia University in the City of New York · Courses
MDES GU
33 courses with the subject MDES GU, 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 GU4049Climate and Empire4.00
Climate change destabilizes the ontic certainty of this world, time, and history. This course in MESAAS will introduce students to the literature on climate change and its relationship to ontology, religion, violence, politics, and gender. We will explore the resilience and limitations of various theoretical approaches as they relate to empirical cases. Students will become familiarized with important arguments that have been advanced to explain climate change in its more recent incarnations in the Middle East and Asia. How have different trajectories of understanding climate change led to different kinds of political cultures and governing institutions? Have some qualities of the “environment” or “climate” remained the same throughout history and across the globe? What is the role of colonialism in modern understandings of climate change? The core of this course will seek to develop a mode of conceptualizing the present by rendering relevant geological time in addition to historical time, earth’s history in addition to world’s history. The course begins with the question of how the “climate” has been historically and ethnographically conceptualized in various intellectual trajectories of human sciences. We consider how religion is connected to environmental change, how the “human” and “non human” are conceptualized in various ontologies, and how religious norms and ethics enact environmental practices. We interrogate the everyday sociality of climate adaption and how climate conflict informs social, political, and environmental citizenship. The course concludes by contemplating the creative ways of being in this new world. We study the innovative forms of cosmopolitan neo-humanism (post- humanism) that emerge from the specter of environmental change
The main task of this course will be to read novels by African writers. But the novel in Africa also involves connections between the literary genre of the novel and the historical processes of colonialism, decolonization, and globalization in Africa. One important question we'll consider is how African novels depict those historical experiences in their themes and plots—we'll read novels that are about colonialism, etc. A more complex question is how these historical processes relate to the emergence of the novel as an important genre for African writers. Edward Said went so far as to say that without imperialism, there would be no European novel as we know it. How can we understand the novel in Africa (whether read or written) as a product of the colonial encounter? How did it shape the process of decolonization? What contribution to history, whether literary or political, does the novel in Africa make? We'll undertake a historical survey of African novels from the 1930s to the present, with attention to various subgenres (village novel, war novel, urbanization novel, novel of postcolonial disillusion, Bildungsroman). We'll attend to how African novelists blend literate and oral storytelling traditions, how they address their work to local and global audiences, and how they use scenes of characters reading novels (whether African or European) in order to position their writing within national, continental, and world literary space
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
This course will focus on key debates that have shaped the study of Africa in the post-colonial African academy. We will cover six key debates: Historiography; Slavery: Premodern and Modern; State Formation; Colonialism and Difference; Nationalism; Political Identity and Political Violence The approach will be multi-disciplinary. To the extent possible, readings will be illustrative of different sides in the debate.
CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement 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 seminar is geared toward advanced undergraduate students. Arguably, Ṣūfism and Sharīʿa constituted the two central domains of premodern Islamic cultures. A central domain is recognized as one that defines other domains. If a domain becomes central, “then the problems of other domains are solved in terms of the central domain—they are considered secondary problems, whose solution follows as a matter of course only if the problems of the central domain are solved” (C. Schmitt). Within this understanding, the seminar aims to introduce the fundamental concepts and (briefly) histories of both Ṣūfism and Sharīʿa, with a focus on how the former overlapped with and was often integral to the latter; how Ṣūfism produced traditions and institutions; and the role it played in the political landscapes of Islam. By necessity, then, the seminar moves from a coverage of Ṣūfī thought and praxis, to community and institution building, to political activism (or inactivism, which is seen here as a move toward the political or ethical). The coverage, deliberately tilted toward Ṣūfism,1 aims to be historical and considerably chronological, moving from the earliest Islamic period to late modernity, including the migration of Ṣūfī entities to the West. In keeping with the claim of Ṣūfism as a central domain, we will examine how this phenomenon, together with the Sharīʿa, rendered the other domains subsidiary to their imperatives. The subordinate idea here is also to try to map out the strongly symbiotic relationship of the two domains, and isolate for analysis contestations and antagonisms. Although the sources – especially the Orientalist – are underdeveloped theoretically, class discussions will call upon the help of various relevant theories in philosophy, intellectual history, politics, and anthropology
In a unique revival of interest, the Arabian Nights has made its way to the academy as the handiest and most approachable cultural commodity. Courses are given on its history, translation, media reproduction, Walt Disney’s appropriation, and, occasionally, narratology. By the end of the 19th century, it was available in translation or abridgement in every written language. This course resituates its advent and vogue in specific cultural contexts that closely relate to the rise of the bourgeoisie and the colonial enterprise. It also explores popular and intellectual or critical responses in terms of the rise of literary theory and modes of literary production. Its massive presence gives way in time to pantomime, parody, and pastiche, before engaging again the attention of prominent writers and theorists of ‘prose poetics’ and the fantastic. Its referential popular presence undergoes fluctuations to fit media stereotypes and hegemonic regimes of thought. This course attempts to dislodge originals from adaptations, highlight the nature of entry in terms of a commoditizing enterprise that reproduces the Arabian Nights as a ‘western text’, a point that in turn incites a counter search for manuscripts, and ‘authentication’ processes. Originals and translations will be compared and cinematic or theater productions will be studied, along with paintings, covers, and tourist guides that present the Nights as a commodity in a post-industrial society
MDES GU4349Concentration Camps from Cuba to East Asia3
Forcibly moving civilians to designated areas as a wartime measure has constituted a widely practiced military strategy for centuries. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, colonial powers increasingly provided more structure and organization to these policies of relocation and internment in the Americas, Africa, and East Asia. This course provides a social history of civilian internment and mass murder from late-19th century colonial cases to World War II. Through case studies of the Spanish-Cuban war, the South African War, the Philippines-American War, the genocide of the Herrero and Nama in Southwest Africa, the Armenian Genocide, and the Holocaust, the course traces the evolution of the concentration camp from a counter-insurgency strategy in wartime to a weapon of mass murder. The course also examines the internment of Japanese Americans, and the Japanese “comfort stations” in comparative perspective.
This 4000-level course examines how societies grapple with the legacy of mass violence, through an exploration of historical texts, memoirs, textbooks, litigation, and media reports and debates on confronting the past. Focusing on case studies of the Herero Genocide, the Armenian genocide during WWI, and the Holocaust and the Comfort Women during WWII, students investigate the crime and its sequelae, looking at how societies deal with skeletons in their closets ( engaging in silence, trivialization, rationalization, and denial to acknowledgment, apology, and repair); surveying responses of survivors and their descendants (with particular attention to intergeneration transmission of trauma, forgiveness, resentment, and the pursuit of redress); and dissecting public debates on modern day issues that harken back to past atrocities
MDES GU4399Literature of the Great War in the Middle East3.00
Some of the best-known literary texts of the previous century harken back to the Great War. And while works of fiction and non-fiction such as Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, and Woolf’s Mrs Dalloway have become twentieth-century classics; and the poetry of Brooke, Graves, Gurney, Owen, and Sassoon widely celebrated; the Middle East’s contribution to the literature of the Great War is little explored. This course takes us on a literary journey from the trenches of Gallipoli and Mesopotamia, to famine-struck towns of Mount Lebanon, to orphanages in Syria. We will examine poetry (including zajal—colloquial poetry), and memoirs and diaries by the women and men who withstood the ravages of war and helped shape the modern Middle East. Through close reading and content analysis of a diverse constellation of published and unpublished texts, and using secondary sources as guideposts, we will explore “post-Ottoman memoirs” and verse, including translations from the Arabic and Armenian by the instructor
Prerequisites: (MDES GU4510) and (MDES GU4511) MDES W4510, MDES W4511, or the instructor's permission. Prerequisites: (MDES GU4510) and (MDES GU4511) 3RD Year Modern Hebrew or the instructor's permission. This course focuses on central identities shaping Israeli society and is designed to give students extensive experience in reading Hebrew. Through selected readings of contemporary literary works and media texts, students will increase their proficiency in Hebrew and enhance their understanding of Israeli culture and society. All readings, written assignments, and class discussions are in Hebrew. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class
Prerequisites: MDES W4501 or the instructor's permission. Students must have a good familiarity with the Hebrew verb system, and the ability to read a text without vowels. Prerequisites: MDES W4501 or the instructors permission. Students must have a good familiarity with the Hebrew verb system, and the ability to read a text without vowels. This course focuses on central identities shaping Israeli society and is designed to give students extensive experience in reading Hebrew. Through selected readings of contemporary literary works and media texts, students will increase their proficiency in Hebrew and enhance their understanding of Israeli culture and society. All readings, written assignments, and class discussions are in Hebrew. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class
Prerequisites: Hebrew W1513 or W1515 or the instructor's permission. Students are expected to have basic familiarity with regular and irregular verbs in five categories of the Hebrew verb system: Pa'al, Pi'el, Hif'il, Hitpa'el and Nif'al. Prerequisites: 2nd Year Modern Hebrew II, Hebrew for Heritage Speakers II, or the instructor's permission. This course is designed to take students from the intermediate to advanced level. Students will further develop their reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills in Hebrew through an examination of a wide range of sources, including short stories, poems, visual arts, popular music, television shows and films. All readings, written assignments, and class discussions are in Hebrew. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class
Prerequisites: MDES W4510 or MDES W1515 or the instructor's permission. Prerequisites: Third Year Modern Hebrew I or Hebrew for Heritage Speakers II Focus on transition from basic language towards authentic Hebrew, through reading of un-adapted literary and journalistic texts without vowels. Vocabulary building. Grammar is reviewed in context. A weekly hour is devoted to practice in conversation. Daily homework includes reading, short answers, short compositions, listening to web-casts, or giving short oral presentations via voice e-mail. Frequent vocabulary quizzes. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class
MDES GU4532Beyond Human in Modern Hebrew Literature4.00
“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 course will combine study of long-term historical sociology with more short term understanding of policies and their possible effects. Though its main purpose will be to provide students with an understanding of politics after independence, it will argue, methodologically, that this understanding should be based on a study of historical sociology – plotting long-terms shifts in the structure of social power. The course will start with analyses of the structures of power and ideas about political legitimacy in pre-modern India, and the transformations brought by colonialism into that order. After a brief study of the nature of political order under the colonial state, the courses will focus primarily on the history of the democratic state after independence. Fall 2026: MDES GU4601 Course Number Section/Call Number Times/Location Instructor Points Enrollment MDES 4601 001/10786 T 2:10pm - 4:00pm C01 Knox Hall Sudipta Kaviraj 4 10/20
This third year (or fifth semester) course in the Hindi-Urdu program aims to continue building upon the existing listening, speaking, reading, writing, and cultural skills in Hindi.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 enthusiastic participation in classroom activities and immersion in the speech community outside. The objective of the course is to promote meaningful interaction with literary texts and 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. This course will prepare students for “Advanced Hindi-II.”
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
What is the relationship between homoeroticism and homosociality? How does this relationship form conceptions of gender and sexuality in ways that might be historically unfamiliar and culturally or regionally specific? We pursue these questions through the lens of friendship and its relationship to ideas and expressions of desire, love, and loyalty in pre-modern times. We begin by considering the intellectual basis of the modern idea of friendship as a private, personal relationship, and trace it back to earlier times when it was often a public relationship of social and political significance. Some of these relationships were between social equals, while many were unequal forms (like patronage) that could bridge social, political or parochial differences. Thinking through the relationships and possible distinctions between erotic love, romantic love and amity (love between friends), we will draw on scholarly works from a variety of disciplinary perspectives, particularly philosophy, sociology, political theory, literature, history, and art history. We will attend to friendship’s work in constituting, maintaining and challenging various social and political orders in a variety of Asian contexts (West, Central, South and East Asian), with comparative reference to scholarship on European and East Asian contexts. Primary source materials will include philosophy, religious manuals, autobiographies, popular love stories, heroic epics, mystical poetry, mirror for princes, paintings, material objects of exchange, and architectural monuments, largely from Islamic and Asian contexts
History, Politics, Literature, Society -- all these are studied as within national, or, at best, regional frames. What other scales and approaches might be appropriate to the study of particular phenomena or categories in the past, as well as some of the challenges of the present? This course introduces advanced undergraduates and graduate students to transregional studies. We explore topics, approaches, methods, problems, and disciplines through which we can cross the regions, particularly the regions of MESAAS. Case studies will consider thinking through and with oceanic studies, circulation, diaspora, shared hermeneutical traditions, lingua francas and their stories (world literatures?), and connected histories to rethink concepts of societies, collective affiliations, cosmopolitanism, and world history. Undergraduates must have taken at least one of the following: Intro to Islamic Civ (UN 2003), Intro to Indian Civ (UN 2357), African Before Colonialism (UN 2915), Societies and Cultures across the Indian Ocean (UN 3445), or some equivalent (check with me)
Prerequisites: two years of prior coursework in Hindi-Urdu (MDES W1612 & MDES W1613), one year of Urdu for Heritage Speakers (MDES W1614 & MDES W1615), or the instructor's permission.
Prerequisites: two years of prior coursework in Hindi-Urdu (MDES W1612 & MDES W1613), one year of Urdu for Heritage Speakers (MDES W1614 & MDES W1615), or the instructor's permission. 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
What is the relation between cinema and colonialism? This seminar approaches cinema as a dynamic historical agent that aided, negotiated, refracted, and contested the mechanisms and meanings of colonialism in South Asia. We will study cinema as technology, as industry, and as cultural form, paying attention to questions of film finance, on-screen representation, production infrastructures, circuits of distribution, and sites of exhibition. We will watch films made by British ethnographers, Indian expats, Hollywood orientalists, and South Asian nationalists to study how film served as a key weapon of imperial propaganda as well as anticolonial resistance. From orientalist films that constructed the colony as exotic and dangerous, to the spatial uses of Indian films to reinforce race inequalities in the diaspora (eg. East Africa), cinema is deeply imbricated with colonial strategies of racial, gendered, and caste-based othering. This is a history of cinema as a history of empire; where cinema is not just a text to be read but a cultural, industrial, and social network of power relations.
Prerequisites: Two years of prior study in Urdu or one year of Urdu for Heritage Speakers I＆II courses at Columbia University, or approval of the professor. This is a one-semester course in advanced Urdu language. It will be taught in the fall semester. The goal of the course is to develop students’ linguistic skills i.e. listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural skills in Urdu, and give students in-depth exposure to some of the finest works of classical and modern Urdu prose. Special emphasis will be given to developing a high-register vocabulary. Necessary grammar points will also be explained for developing an accurate and nuanced understanding of the Urdu language. After completing this course, students will be able to read and enjoy Urdu classics and critical academic texts related to various disciplines i.e. old tales, short stories, essays, history, satire, criticism, politics, current issues etc. along with effective speaking skills suited to active interaction in the speech community and a more advanced academic discussion for undergraduate and graduate students. Students will develop an in-depth understanding of South Asian society and culture as well. This course will prepare students to take MDES GU4635 Readings in Urdu Literature I
MDES GU4655India after 1947: Democracy and Majoritarianism4.00
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
The purpose of this seminar is to introduce students to the long history and multiple genres of Persian poetry. The seminar will begin with the classical period and come down to the contemporary periods. The geographical span of the course extends from Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent to Iran.
The purpose of this course is an examination of the genre of epic and its narrative connection to empire-building. The primary text that will be used in this critical examination is the Persian epic poem Shahnameh, composed by Abolqasem Ferdowsi circa 1000 CE.
Prerequisites: Must have completed MDES 1713, equivalent two years of Persian or the instructor's permission. 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
This is a seminar devoted to a historical and comparative examination of the rise and spread of Shi’ism from its earliest stages in Islamic history to its contemporary conditions in various nation-states (in India, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon in particular). In this seminar we will cover a range of issues, extended from historical, doctrinal, intellectual, and spiritual roots of Shi’ism to its contemporary political manifestations. The course is intended as a seminar, and students will be expected to conduct guided research in an aspect of Shi’ism that interests them most. The course will be conducted in a combination of weekly lectures, semester-long research, and seminar conversations. Knowledge of Arabic and Persian is not required for this course but would be highly beneficial in conducting research for the final paper.
Prerequisites: Two years of Sanskrit or the instructor's permission. This course constitutes the first half of a year-long advanced reading course in Classical Sanskrit. In 2021-2022, the focus of Advanced Sanskrit will be the genres of literary theory (alaṅkāraśāstra) and belles-lettres (kāvya). Lending equal attention to literary theory and literary practice, this course will introduce students to iconic works of Sanskrit literature along with the interpretive frameworks whereby they were analyzed, relished, and appraised. Literary excerpts may be drawn from an array of subgenres, including courtly epic (mahākāvya), epic drama (nāṭaka), literary prose (gadya), and individual verses (muktaka). Rigorous analysis of primary texts will be supplemented by occasional discussions about what implications the disciplined reading of kāvya may hold for practices such as translation, comparative literature, and transdisciplinarity. Prerequisites: Intermediate Sanskrit II or instructor’s permission
Prerequisites: Two years of Sanskrit or the instructor's permission. Prerequisites: Two years of Sanskrit or the instructors permission. Prerequisites: Two years of Sanskrit or the instructors permission. The two levels of advanced Sanskrit are given in alternate years. In 2017-2018 court literature (fall) and literary criticism (spring) will be offered; in 2018-2019, philosophy. Close reading of major works, exploring both philological and literary-theoretical aspects of the texts. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class
