Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies

MDES UN1001 CRITICAL THEORY: A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

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

MDES UN1030 “Game of Thrones”: On Epics and Empires. 4.00 points.

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

AHUM UN1399 COLLOQUIUM ON MAJOR TEXTS: MIDDLE EAST/INDIA. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

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

ASCM UN2003 INTRO TO ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Lecture and recitation. Islamic civilization and its characteristic intellectual, political, social, and cultural traditions up through 1800. Note: Students must register for a discussion section, ASCM UN2113

MDES UN2004 Conflicts: Race, Region, Religion. 4.00 points.

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.”

ASCM UN2008 CONTEMP ISLAMIC CIVILIZATION. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Lecture and recitation. No previous study of Islam is required. The early modern, colonial, and post-colonial Islamic world studied through historical case studies, translated texts, and recent anthropological research. Topics include Sufism and society, political ideologies, colonialism, religious transformations, poetry, literature, gender, and sexuality

MDES UN2012 Finding Happiness: Readings in Arab-Islamic Texts. 4.00 points.

The quest for happiness predates writing itself. In this course, we read together some of the monumental and foundational texts that questioned, interrogated, but also defined and redefined happiness from the premodern Arab-Islamic tradition. Is happiness an absence of something or the presence of something? Is it found or actively pursued? Is one happy being alone or in a society? Are friends necessary to our happiness? Is the perfection of the self, morals, and character happiness? Emphasis lies on the exploration of the themes of the assigned works through close reading and discussion. The course will pay additional attention to the contextualization of the texts. Emphasis lies on the active study of the assigned works through close reading, discussion, and creative assignments

MDES UN2042 South Asia at the Crossroads of Empires. 3.00 points.

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 UN1003 Premodern Islamic Worlds. 4.00 points.

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 UN2641 CINEMAS OF INDIA. 3.00 points.

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

MDES UN2650 GANDHI ＆ HIS INTERLOCUTORS. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

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

HSME UN2915 AFRICA BEFORE COLONIALISM. 3.00 points.

This course is an interdisciplinary exploration of the precolonial history of the African continent. It investigates in-depth the political, social, cultural and economic developments of different Africa communities, covering various regions and periods, from prehistory to the formation of the Indian Ocean and Atlantic worlds. Its focus is the intersection of politics, economics, culture and society. Using world history and Africa’s location in the production of history as key analytical frames, it pays special attention to social, political and cultural changes that shaped the various individual and collective experiences of African peoples and states and the historical discourses associated to them

MDES UN3000 THEORY AND CULTURE. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

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

MDES UN3042 PALESTINIAN-ISRAELI POLIT/SOC. 4.00 points.

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 UN3048 Pandemics: A Global History. 3.00 points.

With an interdisciplinary perspective, this course seeks to expand the understanding of past pandemic crises and recent, lived pandemics such as COVID-19. COVID-19 has brought up urgent questions about how we can understand and historicize pandemics and trace the changing relationship between disease and its vectors, humans and their environments. This course seeks to expand the understanding of past and recent pandemics through a historical lens that traces the deep seated racial and class disparities, social and cultural stigma, and political responses and control that they were expressed and deployed during these historical crises. It seeks to understand and analyze pandemics as representing complex, disruptive and devastating crises that effect profound transformations in ideas, social and economic relations and challenge interdependent networks and cultures. Pandemics are balanced in a global-local flux between dramaturgic, proliferating, contagious outbreaks; and endemic, chronic infections that have prolonged periods of latency before again remerging through new transmissions. They also serve as a crucial lens to analyze a range of historical connections, ensions and movements ranging from colonialism and the politics of borders, global capitalism and labor, migration and mobility, decolonization and development, and neoliberalism and global health politics

MDES UN3121 Literature and Cultures of Struggle in South Africa. 3 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

Generations of resistance have shaped contemporary life in South Africa -- in struggles against colonialism, segregation, the legislated racism known as apartheid, and the entrenched inequalities of the post-apartheid era. Two constants in this history of struggle have been youth as a vanguard of liberation movements and culture as a "weapon of struggle." As new generation of South African youth -- the "born frees" -- has now taken to the streets and social media to "decolonize" the university and claim their education as a meaningful right, this course traces the ways that generations of writers, artists, and activists have faced censorship, exile, and repression in an ongoing struggle to dismantle apartheid and to free the mind, "the most powerful weapon in the hands of the oppressor" according to Black Consciousness activist Steve Biko. This course traces the profoundly important roles that literature and other cultural production (music, photography, film, comics, Twitter hashtags like #rhodesmustfall and #feesmustfall) have played in struggle against apartheid and its lingering afterlife. Although many of our texts were originally written in English, we will also discuss the historical forces, including nineteenth-century Christian missions and Bantu Education, as well as South Africa's post-1994 commitment to being a multilingual democracy, that have shaped the linguistic texture of South African cultural life.

CLME UN3221 ARABIC LITERATURE AS WORLD LITERATURE. 4.00 points.

This seminar focuses on Arabic literature in the world, as World Literature. The focus will be on pre-modern and modern Arabic literary works that traveled and circulated and were adapted to and acquired individual meanings in different cultures. We will look at literary works that achieved ‘worldliness’ through either writing back to the center or through international literary prizes. We will consider how literary works travel and circulate through their fusion with regional concepts, or even take on new meanings at different times and places. Admittedly, also, we will look into the strengths, weaknesses, and criticism surrounding World Literature

MDES UN3260 RETHINKING MIDDLE EAST POLITCS. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

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 UN3331 URBAN SPACE ＆ CONFLICT IN MIDDLE EAST. 3.00 points.

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

MDES UN3421 Islamic Central Asia. 3 points.

Explores the cultural landscapes of Islamic Central Asia up to the 18th c. Russian conquests, introducing the wide and changing array of meanings that both Islam and Central Asia could take on in this context. Against the association of Central Asia with a periphery, this course restores the centrality of Central Asia to the spheres of exchange that held together a broader Islamic imaginary, including Persian literatures, Sufism, political thought, and the visual arts. Focuses on the empires of the Ghaznavids (977-1186), Mongols (1206-1370), Timurids (1370-1507), and early Mughals. Readings are English translations of primary sources, and modern scholarship to contextualize and theorize these sources. Central questions include: how these texts reflect and shape community, how they mark and make sense of difference, the ways in which they understand and relate to their past(s), and the values that they hold to be most central. No prerequisites.

MDES UN3445 SOCIETIES/CULTRS: INDIAN OCEAN. 3.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

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 UN3644 Visual Cultures of Modern South Asia. 3 points.

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.

MDES UN3915 A HISTORY OF AFRICAN CITIES. 3.00 points.

This seminar offers an interdisciplinary approach to the study of the history of African cities. It cuts across disciplinary boundaries of history, geography, anthropology, political and cultural sociology, literature and cultural studies, to explore the vaious trajectories of urbanization on the continent.

MDES UN3920 CONTEMP CULTURE IN ARAB WORLD. 3.00 points.

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

MDES UN3923 CNTRL QUESTIONS IN ISLAMIC LAW. 3.00 points.

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

CLME UN3928 ARABIC PRISON WRITING. 3.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This course studies the genealogy of the prison in Arab culture as manifested in memoirs, narratives, and poems. These cut across a vast temporal and spatial swathe, covering selections from the Quran, Sufi narratives from al-Halllaj oeuvre, poetry by prisoners of war: classical, medieval, and modern. It also studies modern narratives by women prisoners and political prisoners, and narratives that engage with these issues. Arabic prison writing is studied against other genealogies of this prism, especially in the West, to map out the birth of prison, its institutionalization, mechanism, and role. All readings for the course are in English translations

MDES UN3960 HONORS THESIS SEMINAR PART 1. 1.00 point.

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

MDES UN3961 Honors Thesis Seminar Part 2. 3.00 points.

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

MDES GU4049 Climate and Empire. 4.00 points.

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

MDES GU4122 THE NOVEL IN AFRICA. 4.00 points.

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

MDES GU4151 DEBATES ON CAPITALISM. 4.00 points.

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

HSME GU4154 PAN AFRICANISM. 4.00 points.

“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

MDES GU4160 Major Debates in the Study of Africa. 4 points.

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.

CLME GU4221 Literary Encounters and Reading across the Wor(l)ds. 4.00 points.

The focus of this seminar will be exploring the conception of encounters, and contact zones, throughout a selection of Arabic literary works. The course will explore the history of translation in Arabic literary history, the introduction of prose and its development; the Arabic readerly culture; the colonial encounter and its effect on language and form of literature. We will not read encounter as one-way traffc only, but we will also read it as a two-way process. We will read non-Arabic works that were influenced by the texts we are reading and their literary reception in other literary traditions. We will also consider the institution of literary prizes as a form of encounter and analyze the power of celebrity culture on the readership of the contemporary Arabic novel

CLME GU4231 COLD WAR ARAB CULTURE. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This course studies the effects and strategies of the cold war on Arab writing, education, arts and translation, and the counter movement in Arab culture to have its own identities. As the cold war functioned and still functions on a global scale, thematic and methodological comparisons are drawn with Latin America, India and Africa

CLME GU4241 SUFISM: PRIMARY TEXTS/CONTEXTS. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

This course studies Sufism as it has emerged, developed, and assumed its presence in Sufi autobiographies and religious and literary writings. The Sufi Path is traced in these writings that include poems like ibn al-Farid’s Poem of the Way. Sufi States and Stations are analyzed to understand this Path that reaches its culmination in an ecstatic sense of Oneness. Sufism is also a social and political phenomenon that unsettles formal theologies and involves Sufis in controversies that often end with their imprisonment and death

MDES GU4259 War Narrative: The Arab World. 4 points.

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.

CLME GU4262 THEMES IN THE ARABIC NOVEL. 4.00 points.

CC/GS/SEAS: Partial Fulfillment of Global Core Requirement

The focus of this seminar will be novels by Arab writers. The course will explore the history of the Arabic novel: its rise, development, and evolution. We will read and analyze novels belonging to various periods in Arab history and representing diverse points of views, including gender, identities, and different sub-cultures and sub-genres. We will look into the connections therein between the novel and the historical backdrops of colonialism, decolonization, globalization, war, rights and personal independence from several perspectives and writers across the Arab world. We will also consider the modern Arabic novel’s engagement with the global, glocal, and local as well as its nod to the Arabic literary tradition; its engagement with technology, scientific progress, absurdity, loss, trauma, the human condition, as well as dystopic themes. No knowledge of Arabic is required

MDES GU4265 Sufism, Sharia, and Politics. 4.00 points.

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

MDES GU4266 Decolonizing the Arabian Nights. 4.00 points.

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 GU4349 Concentration Camps from Cuba to East Asia. 3 points.

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.

 

MDES GU4357 WAR,GENOCIDE,＆ AFTERMATH COMP PERSPECTIV. 4.00 points.

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 GU4399 Literature of the Great War in the Middle East. 3.00 points.

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

MDES GU4601 Politics in India. 4 points.

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.

MDES GU4629 Transregional. 4.00 points.

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)

MDES GU4637 Cinema and Colonialism in South Asia. 4 points.

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.

MDES GU4721 Epics and Empires: Shahnameh. 4 points.

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.

MDES GU4718 Persian Poetry (In Translation). 4 points.

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.

MDES GU4726 READINGS IN PERSIAN TEXTS. 4.00 points.

May be repeated for credit; content varies.

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

MDES GU4733 IRAN:FILM,FICT,POETRY,HIS. 4 points.

Not offered during 2023-2024 academic year.

This is a general introduction to modern Iranian history with a particular emphasis on film, fiction, and poetry. Through varied exposure to Iranian film and fiction, and Persian poetry, this course is designed to introduce students to critical themes and creative effervescence of modern Iranian culture. The course will concentrate on Iranian cultural history of the last two centuries, with particular emphasis on contemporary issues. But a broader historical context of the last 1400 years will always inform our discussions.

MDES GU4760 SHI'ITES AND SHI'ISM. 4 points.

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.

CLME GU4764 Modern and Medieval Islamic Political Thought. 4 points.

This course is a comparative examination of modern and medieval Islamic political thoughts. The seminar begins with the roots of Islamic political thoughts in the early Islamic history, as well as Qur'anic revelations and Prophetic Hadith traditions. We will then divide the course into two major components: medieval and modern, with the rise of European colonialism in the late 18th century and early 19th century as the principal catalyst of groundbreaking changes in Islamic political thoughts.

MDES UN1601 ELEMENTARY HINDI-URDU I. 5.00 points.

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

MDES UN1608 HINDI FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS I. 5.00 points.

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

MDES UN1614 URDU FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS I. 5.00 points.

Prerequisites: a knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking and listening skills in Urdu. 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 Urdu. They are not expected to know how to read and write in Urdu 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 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

MDES UN1615 URDU FOR HERITAGE SPEAKERS II. 5.00 points.

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

MDES UN2601 INTERMEDIATE HINDI-URDU I. 5.00 points.

Prerequisites: (MDES UN1601) and (MDES UN1602) MDES W1610-W1611 or the instructor's permission.
Prerequisites: (MDES UN1601) and (MDES UN1602) MDES UN1601-UN1602 or the instructor's permission. Continuing practice in listening, speaking, and grammatical understanding. Along with the Hindi (Devanagari) script, the Urdu (Perso-Arabic) script is taught in the class; both scripts are used for reading and writing. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class

MDES UN2602 INTERMEDIATE HINDI-URDU II. 5.00 points.

Prerequisites: MDES W1610-W1611 or the instructor's permission.
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

MDES GU4611 Readings In Hindi Literature II. 4 points.

May be repeated for credit; content varies.

Prerequisites: MDES W1613 or the instructor's permission.

This course introduces students to the riches of the classical Hindi Tradition. We read Bhakti and Sufi Literature in tandem , with a special interest in Tulsidas and the Indo-Islamic Romance.

Eligibility: The class is open to undergraduate and graduate students with two or more years of Hindi- Urdu (or permission of the instructor).

MDES GU4624 ADVANCED HINDI I. 5.00 points.

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

MDES GU4625 ADVANCED HINDI II. 5.00 points.

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

MDES GU4635 Readings In Urdu Literature I. 4 points.

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.

This course is a a literary course, with in-depth exposure to some of the finest works of classical and modern Urdu prose and poetry. In the fall semester, our focus will be on some of the most famous Urdu short stories while, in the spring semester, we will focus on various genres of Urdu poetry. The content may change each semester. This course is open to both undergraduates and graduates. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

MDES GU4636 READINGS IN URDU LIT. 4.00 points.

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

MDES GU4640 Advanced Urdu. 4.00 points.

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 UN1401 ELEMENTARY SANSKRIT I. 4.00 points.

This course constitutes the first half of a year-long introduction to Classical Sanskrit, the translocal language of religious, intellectual, and literary life in South Asia for nearly two millennia. Assuming no prior experience with the language, this introductory sequence provides students with the grammar, reading strategies, and cultural context necessary to begin accessing the language’s many rich textual traditions, including scripture (sruti), epic (itihasa), poetry (kavya), drama (na?aka), systematic thought (sastra), and more

MDES UN2401 Intermediate Sanskrit I. 4 points.

Fee: Language Resource Center Fee - 15.00

This course constitutes the first half of a year-long reading course designed to give students the tools necessary for advanced study in Classical Sanskrit. Readings in epic (itihāsa), poetry (kāvya), systematic thought (śāstra), and commentary (vyākhyāna) will introduce students to a variety of important genres and their distinctive conventions. A focus upon the Sanskrit tradition’s own categories of analysis—grammatical, commentarial, and prosodic—will enable students to begin to make sense of original Sanskrit texts as generations of the tradition’s own readers have. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

MDES GU4810 ADVANCED SANSKRIT I. 4.00 points.

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

MDES GU4812 ADVANCED SANSKRIT II. 4.00 points.

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

MDES UN1101 ELEMENTARY TAMIL I. 4.00 points.

This course constitutes the first half of a year-long introduction to Tamil, the official language of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu as well as an official language of Sri Lanka and Singapore. In addition to being spoken by almost 80 million people worldwide, Tamil also has an impressive classical past, having served as a language of religious, intellectual, and literary life in South India for nearly two millennia. Assuming no prior experience with the language, this introductory sequence provides students with the grammar, language skills, and cultural context necessary for achieving their individual Tamil language goals, whether they be conducting fieldwork or scholarly research, chatting with relatives back home, or simply waxing poetic over an artful dosai. In order to cultivate students’ reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension skills, this course draws upon a wide variety of teaching materials, including the core textbook, oral drills, audio recordings, short films, music videos, memes, and more. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class

MDES UN1102 ELEMENTARY TAMIL II. 4.00 points.

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

MDES UN2101 Intermediate Tamil I. 4 points.

Prerequisites: MDES W1101-W1102 or the instructor's permission.

Further develops students' written and oral proficiency in order to allow them to function adequately in a Tamil-speaking environment. Of particular interest to students planning to conduct scholarly research or fieldwork in a Tamil-speaking context. Develops the students' appreciation for the rich culture of the Indian subcontinent where Tamil is spoken. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

MDES UN2102 INTERMEDIATE TAMIL II. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: MDES W1101-W1102 or the instructor's permission.
Prerequisites: MDES W1101-W1102 or the instructor's permission. Further develops students' written and oral proficiency in order to allow them to function adequately in a Tamil-speaking environment. Of particular interest to students planning to conduct scholarly research or fieldwork in a Tamil-speaking context. Develops the students' appreciation for the rich culture of the Indian subcontinent where Tamil is spoken. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class

MDES UN3301 Advanced Tamil I. 3 points.

This course aims at students improving further their language proficiency. It aims at students getting introduced to the long and continuous literary history of Tamil by reading non-contemporary Tamil writings, sometimes the ancient Tamil literary works.

MDES UN3302 Advanced Tamil II. 3 points.

This course aims at students improving further their language proficiency. It aims at students getting introduced to the long and continuous literary history of Tamil by reading non-contemporary Tamil writings, sometimes the ancient Tamil literary works.  

PULA UN1101 Elementary Pulaar I. 4 points.

This course offers students an introduction to the basic structures of Pulaar, a major language of West Africa. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

PULA UN1102 Elementary Pulaar II. 4 points.

This course offers students an introduction to the basic structures of Pulaar, a major language of West Africa. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

PULA UN2101 Intermediate Pulaar I. 3 points.

This course further develops a student's knowledge of Pulaar, a major language of West Africa. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

PULA UN2102 Intermediate Pulaar II. 4 points.

This course further develops a student's knowledge of Pulaar, a major language of West Africa. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class.

SWHL UN1101 ELEMENTARY SWAHILI I. 4.00 points.

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

SWHL UN1102 ELEMENTARY SWAHILI II. 4.00 points.

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

SWHL UN2101 INTERMEDIATE SWAHILI I. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: SWHL W1101-W1102 or the instructor's 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

SWHL UN3301 ADVANCED SWAHILI I. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: SWHL UN2101-UN2102 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

SWHL UN3302 ADVANCED SWAHILI II. 4.00 points.

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

WLOF UN1101 ELEMENTARY WOLOF I. 4.00 points.

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

WLOF UN2101 INTERMEDIATE WOLOF I. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: WLOF W1101-W1102 or the instructor's permission.
Prerequisites: WLOF W1101-W1102 or the instructor's permission. Further develops a student's 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

WLOF UN3301 ADVANCED WOLOF I. 4.00 points.

Prerequisites: Two years of Wolof or instructor permission. No P/D/F or R credit is allowed for this class

WLOF UN3302 ADVANCED WOLOF II. 4.00 points.

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