ELEMENTARY TAMIL II
Introduces students to the basic grammatical and syntactical skills required to function adequately in a Tamil-speaking environment. Of particular interest to students planning to conduct scholarly research or fieldwork in that region of the world. Introduces students to the rich culture of the Indian subcontinent where Tamil is spoken. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
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Instructor:
Jay Ramesh
Info - 4 points
ELEMENTARY SWAHILI II
Essentials of grammar, basic vocabulary, practice in speaking and reading Swahili the most widely used indigenous language of East Africa. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
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Instructor:
Abdul Nanji
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
ELEMENTARY WOLOF II
Introduction to the basic grammatical structures of Wolof, a major language of West Africa spoken in Senegal and Gambia. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
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Instructor:
Mariame S Sy
Info - 4 points
FIRST YEAR ARABIC I
An introduction to the language of classical and modern Arabic literature. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 11:40 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Ouijdane Absi
CULPA: 6
Info
- 5 points
FIRST YEAR ARABIC II
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.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
- MTWR 11:40 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
- MTWR 2:40 p.m.-3:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Nasr Abdo
Info -
Instructor:
Rym Bettaieb
CULPA: 7
Info
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Instructor:
May Ahmar
CULPA: 9
Info
- 5 points
ELEMENTARY ARMENIAN II
In Elementary Armenian II, students learn the Armenian script and the basic grammar that will enable them to communicate about topics relating to themselves and their immediate surroundings: family, school, daily occupations, describing people, expressing likes and dislikes, requesting and giving information about themselves and others, proper forms of greetings, etc. They also begin to read signs, advertisements, and develop the skills to read texts like short stories and Armenian fables. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MW 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
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Instructor:
Charry Karamanoukian
Info - 4 points
INTEN ARMENIAN/HERITAGE SPKRS
Intensive Armenian for Heritage Speakers is an accelerated course for students of Armenian origin who already have basic knowledge of the spoken language and are able to converse on familiar topics relating to themselves and their immediate surroundings. The course will focus on developing their skills in reading, writing, and speaking and Armenian grammar and vocabulary. By the end of the course, students will be able to read, write and discuss simple texts. Placement will be based on an interview and questionnaire about their background. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MW 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Charry Karamanoukian
Info - 4 points
COLLOQUIUM ON MAJOR TEXTS
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.
- T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
- M 10:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Wael Hallaq
CULPA: 9
Wikipedia
Info
-
Instructor:
Sarah Bin Tyeer
CULPA: 1 h-index: 1 Info - 4 points
ELEMENTARY SANSKRIT II
An introduction to classical Sanskrit. Grammar, and reading of texts. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 9:10 a.m.-10 a.m.
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Instructor:
Jay Ramesh
Info - 4 points
1ST YR MOD HEBREW:ELEM II
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.
- MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
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Instructor:
Illan Gonen
CULPA: 3 Info - 5 points
ELEMENTARY HINDI-URDU II
An introduction to the most widely spoken language of South Asia. Along with an understanding of the grammar, the course offers practice in listening and speaking. The Hindi (Devanagari) script is used for reading and writing. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 4:10 p.m.-5:15 p.m.
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Instructor:
Aftab Ahmad
CULPA: 12
Info
- 5 points
HINDI FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS II
This is an accelerated course for students of South Asian origin who already possess a knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking and listening skills in Hindi. They may not have sufficient skills in reading and writing but are able to converse on familiar topics such as: self, family, likes, dislikes and immediate surroundings. This course will focus on developing knowledge of the basic grammar of Hindi 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 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.
- MTWR 2:40 p.m.-3:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Rakesh Ranjan
CULPA: 6
Info
- 5 points
URDU FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS II
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.
- MTWR 2:40 p.m.-3:45 p.m.
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Instructor:
Aftab Ahmad
CULPA: 12
Info
- 5 points
Introduction to South Asia
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.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Jonathan Peterson
Info - 4 points
Introduction to South Asia-Discussion Se
Intro to S Asia-Disc Sect
Discussion section to accompany the course, MDES UN1630 Introduction to South Asia.
- W 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
- W 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
- R 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- R 11:10 a.m.-noon
- F 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- F 11:10 a.m.-noon
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Instructor:
Jonathan Peterson
Info - 0 points
ELEMENTARY PERSIAN II
An introduction to the spoken and written language of contemporary Iran. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 3:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Saeed Honarmand
Info - 4 points
ELEMENTARY MODERN TURKISH II
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.
- MW 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
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Instructor:
Zuleyha Colak
CULPA: 2 h-index: 0 Info - 4 points
Slavery, Race, Racism: Global South Expe
Slavery, Race, Racism: De
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.
- TR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Humeira Iqtidar
Info - 3 points
INTERMEDIATE SWAHILI II
Prerequisites: SWHL W1101-W1102 or the instructors permission. A review of the essentials of Swahili grammar; detailed analysis of Swahili texts; practice in conversation. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Abdul Nanji
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
INTERMEDIATE WOLOF II
Prerequisites: WLOF W1101-W1102 or the instructors permission. Further develops a students knowledge of Wolof, a major language of West Africa spoken primarily in Senegal and Gambia. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MW 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mariame S Sy
Info - 4 points
SECOND YEAR ARABIC I
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.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Ouijdane Absi
CULPA: 6
Info
- 5 points
SECOND YEAR ARABIC II
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.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
- MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
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Instructor:
Rym Bettaieb
CULPA: 7
Info
-
Instructor:
Nasr Abdo
Info - 5 points
ARABIC HERITAGE SPEAKERS II
Prerequisites: Instructor permission. This is an intensive course that combines the curriculum of both First and Second Year Arabic in two semesters instead of four, and focuses on the productive skills (speaking and writing) in Modern Standard Arabic (Fusha). Students are exposed intensively to grammar and vocabulary of a high register. After successful completion of this course, students will be able to move on to Third Year Arabic. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 10:10 a.m.-11:15 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Youssef Nouhi
CULPA: 7
Info
- 5 points
INTERMEDIATE ARMENIAN II
Prerequisites: MDES W1310-W1311 or the equivalent. A continuation of the study of reading, writing and speaking of Armenian. In Intermediate Armenian II, students learn to communicate about a wide range of topics. Such topics include biographical narration, cooking and recipes, health and well-being, holidays and celebrations, travel and geography, etc. At this level, students continue to develop their skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening while perfecting the grammatical concepts to which they were introduced in the first year. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- TR 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Charry Karamanoukian
Info - 4 points
INTERMEDIATE SANSKRIT II
Reading and grammatical analysis of a literary text, chosen from the dramatic and narrative tradition. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- TR 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Jay Ramesh
Info - 4 points
2ND YR MODERN HEBREW II
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.
- MTWR 11:40 a.m.-12:45 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Danielle Katz-Shenhar
Info - 5 points
HEBREW FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS
Prerequisites: Hebrew for Heritage Speakers I Hebrew for Heritage Speakers II forms the second part of a year-long sequence with Hebrew for Heritage Speakers I. The course is intended for those who have developed basic speaking and listening skills through exposure to Hebrew at home or in day-school programs but do not use Hebrew as their dominant language and have not reached the level required for exemption from the Columbia language requirement. Heritage speakers differ in the degree of their fluency, but their vocabulary is often limited to topics in daily life and many lack skills in reading and writing to match their ability to converse. The course focuses on grammar and vocabulary enrichment, exposing students to a variety of cultural and social topics in daily life and beyond. By the end of the semester students are able to read and discuss simple texts and write about a variety of topics. Successful completion of the year-long sequence prepares students to enroll in third-year modern Hebrew. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MWR 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Danielle Katz-Shenhar
Info - 4 points
INTERMEDIATE HINDI-URDU II
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.
- MTWR 1:10 p.m.-2:15 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Rakesh Ranjan
CULPA: 6
Info
- 5 points
GANDHI & HIS INTERLOCUTORS
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.
- TR 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Sourav Chatterjee
Info - 4 points
GANDHI & HIS INTERLOCUTORS-DIS
- W 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- W 11:10 a.m.-noon
- W 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
- W 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Sourav Chatterjee
Info - 0 points
INTERMEDIATE PERSIAN II
Prerequisites: MDES W1701-MDES W1702 or the equivalent. A general review of the essentials of grammar; practice in spoken and written Persian; Arabic elements in Persian; selected readings emphasizing Iranian life and culture; materials from Tajikistan and Afghanistan, Indari. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MW 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Saeed Honarmand
Info - 4 points
INTERMEDIATE MODERN TURKISH II
A continuation of the study of the written and spoken language of Turkey, with readings of literary, historical, and other texts. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MW 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Zuleyha Colak
CULPA: 2 h-index: 0 Info - 4 points
PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI POLIT/SOC
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.
- TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Joseph A Massad
CULPA: 23 Wikipedia Info - 4 points
PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI POL/SOC DS
Required discussion section for MDES UN3042: Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Society
- W 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- W 11:10 a.m.-noon
- W 5:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
- W 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Joseph A Massad
CULPA: 23 Wikipedia Info - 0 points
RETHINKING MIDDLE EAST POLITCS
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.
- MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Timothy Mitchell
Wikipedia h-index: 34 Info - 4 points
RETHINKING MIDDLE EAST POL-DIS
Required discussion section for MDES UN3260 Rethinking Middle East Politics
- R 10:10 a.m.-11 a.m.
- R 11:10 a.m.-noon
- W 6:10 p.m.-7 p.m.
- W 7:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
- R 12:10 p.m.-1 p.m.
- R 1:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Timothy Mitchell
Wikipedia h-index: 34 Info - 0 points
ADVANCED SWAHILI II
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.
- MW 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Abdul Nanji
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
ADVANCED WOLOF II
Prerequisites: Advanced Wolof I or instructor permission. This course will further your awareness and understanding of the Wolof language and culture, as well as improve your mastery of grammar, writing skills, and oral expression. Course materials will incorporate various types of text including tales, poetry, literature as well as multimedia such as films, and videos, television and radio programs.
- TR 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mariame S Sy
Info - 4 points
URBAN SPACE & CONFLICT IN MIDDLE EAST
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.
- M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Khatchig Mouradian
Wikipedia Info - 3 points
Introduction to Twentieth-Century South
Intro 20th C South Asian
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.
- R 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Sourav Chatterjee
Info - 3 points
A HISTORY OF AFRICAN CITIES
- MW 11:40 a.m.-12:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mamadou Diouf
CULPA: 2 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
Iraq: War, Love, and Exile
Iraq: War, Love and, Exil
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.
- W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Muhsin Al-Musawi
CULPA: 8
Info
- 3 points
Honors Thesis Seminar Part 2
Honors Thesis Sem Pt. 2
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.
- M 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Hamid Dabashi
CULPA: 30 Wikipedia Info - 3 points
THE NOVEL IN AFRICA
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.
- M 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Jennifer Wenzel
CULPA: 3 h-index: 15 Info - 4 points
PAN AFRICANISM
“Pan Africanist” ideologies were very diverse from Garveyism, Negritude to the various African America, Caribbean and African discourses of “neo-pharaohnism” and “Ethiopianism.” This seminar explores how Black leaders, intellectuals, and artists chose to imagine Black (Africans and people of African descent) as a global community from the late 19th century to the present. It examines their attempts to chart a course of race, modernity, and emancipation in unstable and changing geographies of empire, nation, and state. Particular attention will be given to manifestations identified as their common history and destiny and how such a distinctive historical experience has created a unique body of reflections on and cultural productions about modernity, religion, class, gender, and sexuality, in a context of domination and oppression.
- R 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mamadou Diouf
CULPA: 2 Wikipedia Info - 4 points
THIRD YEAR ARABIC II
Students in the regular third-year Arabic track improve reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills through close reading, compositions, class discussions, and presentations in Arabic on topics such as cultures of the Arab world, classical and modern Arabic literature, and contemporary Arabic media. Review of grammatical and syntactic rules as needed. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MTWR 8:50 a.m.-9:55 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Youssef Nouhi
CULPA: 7
Info
- 5 points
FOURTH YEAR MODERN ARABIC II
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.
- MW 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Taoufik Ben-Amor
CULPA: 11
Info
- 4 points
ADVANCED ARABIC GRAMMAR REVIEW
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.
- MW 1:10 p.m.-2:25 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Taoufik Ben-Amor
CULPA: 11
Info
- 3 points
SPOKEN ARABIC II
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.
- TR 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Reem Faraj
CULPA: 4
Info
- 4 points
The Arabic Linguistic Tradition
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.
War Narrative: The Arab World
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.
- T 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Muhsin Al-Musawi
CULPA: 8
Info
- 4 points
RETHINKING MIDDLE EAST POLITCS
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. Discussion Section Required.
- MW 10:10 a.m.-11:25 a.m.
-
Instructor:
Timothy Mitchell
Wikipedia h-index: 34 Info - 4 points
READINGS IN HEBREW TEXTS I
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.
- MW 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Naama Harel
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
3RD YR MODERN HEBREW II
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.
- MW 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Danielle Katz-Shenhar
Info - 4 points
Beyond Human in Modern Hebrew Literature
Beyond Human in Mod Hebre
“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.
- W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Naama Harel
CULPA: 1 Info - 4 points
POLITICS IN INDIA
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.
- R 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Sudipta Kaviraj
Wikipedia Info - 4 points
ADVANCED HINDI II
Advanced Hindi I and II are third year courses in the Hindi-Urdu program that aim to continue building upon the existing four language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing) along with grammar and vocabulary in a communicative approach. The objective of these courses is to strengthen students’ language skills and to go beyond them to understand and describe situations and the speech community, understand and discuss Hindi literature and films, news items, T.V. shows and current events. Students will also be given opportunities to work on their areas of interest such as popular culture, professional and research goals in the target language. Students will be expected to expand their vocabulary, enhance grammatical accuracy and develop cultural appropriateness through an enthusiastic participation in classroom activities and immersing themselves in the speech community outside. This course will be taught in the target language. All kinds of conversations such as daily life, on social/public interests’ topics as well as on academic interests, will occur in the target language. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- TR 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Rakesh Ranjan
CULPA: 6
Info
- 5 points
READINGS IN URDU LIT
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.
- TR 6:10 p.m.-8 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Aftab Ahmad
CULPA: 12
Info
- 4 points
CINEMA&COLONIALISM IN SOUTH ASIA
- W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Debashree Mukherjee
CULPA: 2 h-index: 5 Info - 4 points
ADVANCED PERSIAN II
While helping students advance their levels of oral and written expression, this course focuses on literature of the modern and medieval periods, with particular emphasis on the development of the modern novella and traditional and new forms of poetry. In addition to literature, students are introduced to a wide variety of genres from political and cultural essays and blogs to newspaper translations of the early 20th century. They will be further exposed to ta?rof in reference to a wide variety of socio-cultural contexts and be expected to use ta?rof in class conversations. Students will be exposed to popular artists and their works and satirical websites for insight into contemporary Iranian culture and politics. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- MW 12:10 p.m.-2 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Saeed Honarmand
Info - 3 points
READINGS IN OTTOMAN TEXTS II
Prerequisites: Elementary Ottoman Turkish. This course deals with authentic Ottoman texts from the early 18th and 19th centuries. The class uses Turkish as the primary language for instruction, and students are expected to translate assigned texts into Turkish or English. A reading packet will include various authentic archival materials in rika, talik and divani styles. Whenever possible, students will be given texts that are related to their areas of interest. Various writing styles will be dealt with on Ottoman literature, history, and archival documents. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.
- TR 2:40 p.m.-3:55 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Dilek Oztoprak
Info - 3 points
Leaving the Ottoman Empire: Ottoman Amer
This course will examine the experience of Ottoman American communities before, during, and after their migration to the United States, with a particular focus on Ottoman Armenians pre- and post-genocide. Through close readings of the scholarship on Ottoman Armenian, Turkish, Jewish, Arab, and Greek immigration, we will ask: what global forces compelled Ottoman journeys to America (e.g. economic opportunity, Christian imperialism, state-sponsored violence, interethnic strife)? And what ideologies informed the way these migrants were received in a new country (e.g. nativism, nationalism, Orientalism, philhellenism)? In answering these questions and raising new ones, we will also aim to understand how Ottoman American immigration stories both fit into and challenge the existing scholarship on “American immigration” as well as race, whiteness, and citizenship studies. Throughout the course, we will pay special attention to the experience of Ottoman American immigrants in New York City through field trips, museums, and other primary and secondary source materials.
- T 10:10 a.m.-noon
-
Instructor:
Nora Lessersohn
Info - 4 points
THEORY AND METHODS I
This course will be the first part of a two part introduction to theoretical approaches to modern social science and cultural studies in Asian and African contexts. The first course will focus primarily on methodological and theoretical problems in the fields broadly described as historical social sciences - which study historical trends, and political, economic and social institutions and processes. The course will start with discussions regarding the origins of the modern social sciences and the disputes about the nature of social science knowledge. In the next section it will focus on definitions and debates about the concept of modernity. It will go on to analyses of some fundamental concepts used in modern social and historical analyses: concepts of social action, political concepts like state, power, hegemony, democracy, nationalism; economic concepts like the economy, labor, market, capitalism, and related concepts of secularity/secularism, representation, and identity. The teaching will be primarily through close reading of set texts, followed by a discussion. A primary concern of the course will be to think about problems specific to the societies studied by scholars of Asia and Africa: how to use a conceptual language originally stemming from reflection on European modernity in thinking about societies which have quite different historical and cultural characteristics.
- M 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Timothy Mitchell
Wikipedia h-index: 34 Info - 4 points
MESAAS RESEARCH COLLOQUIUM
This course provides a structured setting for stand-alone M.A. students in their final year and Ph.D. students in their second and third years to develop their research trajectories in a way that complements normal coursework. The seminar meets approximately biweekly and focuses on topics such as research methodology; project design; literature review, including bibliographies and citation practices; grant writing. Required for MESAAS graduate students in their second and third year.
- R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Mana Kia
CULPA: 2 h-index: 11 Info - 2 points
Major Debates in South Asia
This graduate seminar will expose students to major themes and issues in the study of South Asia. The course will provide a serious intellectual foundation for students wishing to pursue specialized, directed research in the region.
Broadly speaking, themes for consideration include: cultural history and early modernity; capitalism and political economy; genealogies of political thought; anticolonialism; caste and religion; and gender and feminist history.
The thematic focus of the seminar will change each time it is taught. However, the
pedagogical aims
of the seminar will remain constant. That is, to maintain a focus on discussions about the archive; conducting field research; framing a robust research question, and more.
- T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
- 4 points
Sharia Texts
This seminar aims to introduce graduate students to the major subfields making up the Sharīʿa system, both in its theoretical as well as practical and institutional manifestations. We will be dissecting representative texts from each genre, all in the Arabic original, ranging from works on the psychoepistemic foundations of the law, to legal theory, the judiciary and juridico-political practice, legal education, biographical constructions of authority, and economic and political management by the Sharīʿa. Theoretically, we will be drawing on historical and cultural anthropology, political theory, Critical Theory, the theories of the subject, and constitutional studies, among others. A reasonable success in this course will permit the student to comfortably specialize in any Sharīʿa subfield.
- W 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Wael Hallaq
CULPA: 9
Wikipedia
Info
- 4 points
Orientalism and PostcolonialTheory
Orientalism, Postcolonial
This course will seek to analyze some philosophical and interpretative problems raised by recent works in a field generally described as 'postcolonial theory'. At the center of the discussion would be the themes of Eurocentrism and Orientalism. While the questions associated with this field are highly significant, there is much that is indeterminate about this area of social theory. The course will start with an historical analysis of the original debates about 'Orientalism' and the nature of its arguments. It will start with a preliminary reading of Said’s Orientalism. It will then take up for a direct critical examination textual traditions that were the objects of the Orientalism debate – representative examples of European Orientalist literature – which claimed to produce, for the first time, 'scientific' studies of Oriental societies (work of linguists like William Jones, or historians like James Mill), studies of Middle Eastern Islamic societies analyzed by Said, segments of philosophies of history which dealt with non-European societies and found a place for them in a scheme of 'universal history' ( Hegel, Marx, Mill, Weber). We shall then turn to ask if social science knowledge about non-European societies still carry the methodological features of Orientalism. As Orientalism spread across different fields of modern culture – not just academic knowledge, but also art and aesthetic representations, the next two weeks fictional and visual representations will be taken up for critical analysis. This will be followed by a study of texts in which intellectuals from non-European societies from Asia and Africa responded to the cognitive and cultural claims of the European Orientalist literature. In the last section the course will focus on three aspects of the postcolonial critique:
the question of
representation
,
the question of the writing of history, and
the logic of basic concepts in social sciences.
- W 2:10 p.m.-4 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Sudipta Kaviraj
Wikipedia Info - 4 points
DISSERTATION COLLOQUIUM
The dissertation colloquium is a non-credit course open to MESAAS doctoral students who have completed the M.Phil. degree. It provides a forum in which the entire community of dissertation writers meets, bridging the departments different fields and regions of research. It complements workshops outside the department focused on one area or theme. Through an encounter with the diversity of research underway in MESAAS, participants learn to engage with work anchored in different regions and disciplines and discover or develop what is common in the departments post-disciplinary methods of inquiry. Since the community is relatively small, it is expected that all post-M.Phil. students in residence will join the colloquium. Post M.Phil. students from other departments may request permission to join the colloquium, but places for non-MESAAS students will be limited. The colloquium convenes every semester, meeting once every two weeks. Each meeting is devoted to the discussion of one or two pre-circulated pieces of work (a draft prospectus or dissertation chapter). Every participant contributes at least one piece of work each year.
- R 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Gil Hochberg
CULPA: 1 Wikipedia h-index: 14 Info - 0 points
PSYCHOANALYSIS, IDENTITY, CULT
This graduate seminar aims to introduce students to Freud and Freudian Psychoanalysis and the integration of both in critical theory. The main question the seminar aims to study is the formation of identity in psychoanalysis and how it relates to civilization and culture more generally, whether in its gender, sexual, or national configurations. The influence of Social Darwinism and Developmentalism more generally on Freudian psychoanalysis will be discussed as well as the importance of related temporal concepts deployed in psychoanalysis' insistence on the divide between primitivism and culture. We will discuss a number of major scholarly works engaging Freud's theories on all these questions and their relevance to social and cultural analysis.
- T 4:10 p.m.-6 p.m.
-
Instructor:
Joseph A Massad
CULPA: 23 Wikipedia Info - 4 points