Courses

ARAB B003 Second Year Modern Standard Arabic

Fall 2022

Combines intensive oral practice with writing and reading in the modern language. The course aims to increase students' expressive ability through the introduction of more advanced grammatical patterns and idiomatic expressions. Introduces students to authentic written texts and examples of Arabic expression through several media. Prerequisite: ARAB H002 or placement by instructor.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARAB B004 Second-Year Modern Standard Arabic

Spring 2023

Combines intensive oral practice with writing and reading in the modern language. The course aims to increase students' expressive ability through the introduction of more advanced grammatical patterns and idiomatic expressions. Introduces students to authentic written texts and examples of Arabic expression through several media. Prerequisite: ARAB B003 or placement.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B101 Introduction to Egyptian and Near Eastern Archaeology

Fall 2022

A historical survey of the archaeology and art of the ancient Near East and Egypt.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Africana Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

Counts Toward Museum Studies

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ARCH B104 Archaeology of Agricultural and Urban Revolutions

Not offered 2022-23

This course examines the archaeology of the two most fundamental changes that have occurred in human society in the last 12,000 years, agriculture and urbanism, and we explore these in Egypt and the Near East as far as India. We also explore those societies that did not experience these changes.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Geoarchaeology

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B212 Visual Culture of the Ancient Mediterranean

Spring 2023

This course explores the visual culture of the ancient Mediterranean world from the second millennium BCE to early Roman times. Drawing from an extensive variety of extant evidence that includes monuments, sculpture, paintings, mosaics, and artifacts deriving from culturally and geographically distinct areas, such as the Minoan world, Egypt, Turkey, Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Greece, Macedonia, Italy, Tunisia, and Spain, the course explores how such evidence may have been viewed and experienced and how it may have, in turn, shaped the visual culture of the well-interconnected ancient Mediterranean world. Focusing on selected examples of evidence, including its materials, style, and methods of production, the course will also consider how past and current scholarly attitudes, approaches, and terminology have affected the understanding and interpretation of this evidence.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B214 The Archaeology of Agricultural Revolutions in Western Asia

Not offered 2022-23

This course examines the archaeology of one of the most fundamental shifts to have occurred in human society in the last 12,000 years, the origins of agriculture. Via assigned readings, class work and lectures we will consider the varied factors which led (or did not lead) to the adoption of agriculture, questioning what the core building blocks of agricultural life were across Western Asia and exploring societies that did not experience these changes. We will also discuss the impacts these developments have had, and continue to have, on modern society and culture in the Middle East, North Africa and beyond. Themes covered will include societal organization, identity (gender, ethnicity, culture, personhood etc.), communication, and the relationships between humans, animals, and the environment. The class will also begin to address the relationships between colonialism and archaeology in Western Asia and explore what the future of a post-colonial and anti-racist archaeology looks like in this region.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B224 Women in the Ancient Near East

Not offered 2022-23

A survey of the social position of women in the ancient Near East, from sedentary villages to empires of the first millennium B.C.E. Topics include critiques of traditional concepts of gender in archaeology and theories of matriarchy. Case studies illustrate the historicity of gender concepts: women's work in early village societies; the meanings of Neolithic female figurines; the representation of gender in the Gilgamesh epic; the institution of the "Tawananna" (queen) in the Hittite empire; the indirect power of women such as Semiramis in the Neo-Assyrian palaces. Reliefs, statues, texts and more indirect archaeological evidence are the basis for discussion.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Gender and Sexuality Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B227 The Archaeology of Syria

Not offered 2022-23

Home to a wealth of archaeological sites and cultures, Syria is perhaps now more widely known for its almost decade long conflict that has seen the displacement of millions of people and the damage to and destruction of hundreds of archaeological sites. The loss of cultural heritage is just one, very small, part of the human tragedies that have unfolded in Syria. Knowledge of the deep and recent past of this region, however, is integral for understanding its present, and its future. This course will explore human settlement and interaction within Syria over the longue durée. Using a selection of key sites, inhabited for thousands of years, we will explore several major themes including, the archaeology of inequality, the role of urban life and the importance of ritual and religion. The course will also consider the complex relationships that have always existed between Syria and its neighboring countries. Finally, we will turn to the role of archaeology, its future and potential within a post-conflict Syria.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B229 Visual Culture of the Ancient Near East

Not offered 2022-23

This course examines the visual culture of the Ancient Near East based on an extensive body of architectural, sculptural, and pictorial evidence dating from prehistoric times through the fifth century BCE. We will explore how a variety of surviving art, artifacts, sculpture, monuments, and architecture deriving from geographically distinct areas of the ancient Near East, such as Mesopotamia, the Eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia, and Iran, may have been viewed and experienced in their historical contexts, including the contribution of ancient materials and technologies of production in shaping this viewing and experience. By focusing on selected examples of diverse evidence, we will also consider how past and current scholarly methods and approaches, many of them art-historical, archaeological, and architectural in aim, have affected the understanding and interpretation of this evidence. In doing so, we will pay special attention to critical terms such as aesthetics, style, narrative, representation, and agency.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

Counts Toward Museum Studies

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ARCH B235 Death and Burial in the Ancient Near East

Fall 2022

Death is a shared human experience; however, it provokes a huge variety of responses; from the ad hoc and hasty burial of the deceased through to elaborate and lengthy funerary rituals. One of the most direct forms of evidence we have as archaeologists for the people who lived thousands of years ago are burials. The Ancient Near East also offers a rich corpus of textual and visual material, which can be used to explore the ways in which ancient societies conceptualized and thought about death, from the nature of the afterlife to the role of malevolent or helpful ghosts.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B244 Great Empires of the Ancient Near East

Fall 2022

A survey of the history, material culture, political and religious ideologies of, and interactions among, the five great empires of the ancient Near East of the second and first millennia B.C.E.: New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, the Assyrian and Babylonian Empires in Mesopotamia, and the Persian Empire in Iran.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B312 Bronze Age Internationalism

Not offered 2022-23

This course explores the rise and fall of the first international age in the eastern mediterranean. We will focus on the cultural and diplomatic connections between Egypt, Syria, Anatolia and the Aegean during the Bronze Age, c. 2000-1200BCE.. Prerequisites: ARCH B101 or B104 or B216 or B226 or B230 or B240 or B244.

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ARCH B317 Cultural Heritage and Endangered Archaeology

Spring 2023

This course will examine how and why archaeological sites are 'endangered'. Primarily focusing on the Near East and North Africa (the MENA region), we will examine the different types of archaeological and heritage sites found across this broad region, and some of the threats and disturbances affecting them. We will consider how different interest groups and stakeholders view, value and present historical and archaeological sites to the general public, as well as the success of modern initiatives and projects to safeguard the heritage of the MENA region. Our research will consider the ethics of cultural preservation, as well as the issues and problems encountered by heritage specialists working in areas of modern conflict. Whilst not all damage can be prevented, the course will consider how different threats and disturbances might be mitigated. Prerequisite: Upper level 300-level course. Students should have completed at least two 100 level/200 level courses in either classical or near eastern archaeology.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

Counts Toward Museum Studies

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CSTS B221 Women of Roman Egypt

Not offered 2022-23

This course aims to be an introduction to the history of female persons in the ancient world. It focuses particularly on Roman Egypt, but covers a broad range of material spanning the period of 300 BCE - 476 CE. Students engage with a number of historical issues, such as legal personhood, access to education, political protest, economic freedom, religious practice, etc.. Students will acquire familiarity with a) Egypt as a part of the Greco-Roman world; b) the role of women in both Egyptian society and Rome more generally; and c) the written sources available for the study of female experience in the ancient world. Because the course focuses on the social, cultural, and institutional environments in which women operated, the topic offers itself as a useful study of the ancient world as a whole, as well as to particular issues of representation and authority. By the end of the course, students will have general understanding of Egypt as a part of the Graeco-Roman world, a keen understanding of how women operated in the society of Ancient Egypt (ca. 300 BCE - 450 CE), and the ability to form arguments about the historical relevance of our sources.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward Gender and Sexuality Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ENGL B294 Iranian Cinema: Before and After the Revolution

Not offered 2022-23

One of the most celebrated global cinemas to date, Iranian cinema has been recognized in film festivals around the world for its unique aesthetic vision, political complexities, and social import. This course will expose students to major masterpieces of Iranian cinema both prior to and after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Along the way, students will learn to meaningfully engage topics such as film form, colonialism, imperialism, labor migration, realism, expressionism, and issues concerning the politics of gender, race, ethnicity, and religion.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Film Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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ENGL B391 Literary Approaches to the Quran

Not offered 2022-23

The Qur'an, the central holy scripture of Islam, has a long history of being studied as much for its literary and broadly aesthetic qualities as for its divine guidance. This course will engage in a sustained analysis of the history of the study of the Quran as literature, including the recitational practices associated with it, practices that have historically been considered antithetical to the project of modern literature, since they challenge the hegemony of literacy and written textuality. Students will also learn about the Quran and the Quranic interpretive tradition in relation to key fields within literary studies, such as postcolonial theory, African American studies, and American studies. In doing so, this course will also open up space to examine and interrogate the secular basis of the modern humanities. Readings will include work by Nasr Hamid Abu Zayd, Malcolm X, Edward Said, and others.

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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HART B201 Medieval/Modern

Section 001 (Fall 2023): Byzantine Icons, Then and Now

Not offered 2022-23

This is a topics course. Course content varies. This course is writing intensive. This course examines intersections between the medieval and modern worlds through art and architecture. Students study medieval works of art and/or architecutre as well as their afterlives in the modern era, realized through revivals of style and form, museum exhibition, archaeologicaly excavation, alteration and adaptation for reuse, etc. Prerequisite: one course in History of Art at the 100-level or an introductory course in any field of Medieval Studies (e.g., History, Literature, etc.) or permission of the instructor. Enrollment preference given to majors and minors in History of Art.

Current topic description: This course examines the devotional painting tradition of Byzantium (fourth to fifteenth centuries) and explores its impact on subsequent traditions of early modern, modern, and contemporary art. Students consider icons from the perspectives of iconography, style, function, and materiality. Focus then shifts to how Byzantine painting inspired subsequent artists, who often reworked and updated the conceptual frameworks informing the medieval icon tradition.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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HEBR B001 Elementary Hebrew

Fall 2022

This year-long course is designed to teach beginners the skills of reading, writing, and conversing in Modern Hebrew. It will provide students with knowledge of the Hebrew writing system - its alphabet (Square letters for reading, cursive for writing) and vocalization - as well as core aspects of grammar and syntax. Diverse means will be utilized: Textbook, supplementary printed material, class conversations, presentations by students of dialogues or skits that they prepare in advance, and written compositions. This course, followed by Semesters 3 and 4 taken elsewhere, lays a foundation for reading of Modern Hebrew literary works.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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HEBR B002 Elementary Hebrew

Spring 2023

This is a continuation of HEBR B001, year-long course is designed to teach beginners the skills of reading, writing, and conversing in Modern Hebrew. It will provide students with knowledge of the Hebrew writing system - its alphabet (Square letters for reading, cursive for writing) and vocalization - as well as core aspects of grammar and syntax. Diverse means will be utilized: Textbook, supplementary printed material, class conversations, presentations by students of dialogues or skits that they prepare in advance, and written compositions. This course, followed by Semesters 3 and 4 taken elsewhere, lays a foundation for reading of Modern Hebrew literary works.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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HIST B234 An Introduction to Middle Eastern History

Fall 2022

This course serves as an introduction to the history of the modern Middle East. We will also explore the narratives and debates that have shaped the field of Middle East history. Topics include orientalism, colonialism, political reform, social, cultural, and intellectual movements, nationalism, and the Cold War. Readings will be drawn from the fields of history, anthropology, politics, and literature.

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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MEST B100 Introduction to Middle Eastern, Central Asian and North African Studies

Spring 2023

This course introduces the interdisciplinary field of Middle Eastern Studies with a focus on analytical approaches, methods, and tools. Students consider the dynamics of the region in the premodern and modern periods and become familiar with the major issues and debates that dominate various disciplinary approaches to the Middle East. Readings include both important canonical and alternative scholarship in order to examine the limits and possibilities of the field.

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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MEST B201 Society and Culture of the Middle East Through Film

Spring 2023

This course is designed so that students begin to acquire a knowledge and understanding of the contemporary Arab world through film. A main focus would be society and the representation of family life with all its intricacies. Because the region is extremely diverse and the life of its people and their experiences are, especially in the present, complex, it is necessary to select only a few of the countries in the region and their cinemas to focus on. This should allow for deeper study and meaningful conclusions. The cinemas of several Arab countries will be examined. Egypt has always been and to a large extent remains the center of Arabic-language cinema; three quarters of all Arabic-language feature films having been produced there. Films by famous directors such as Youssef Chahine and Shadi Abdel Salam, among others, will be appropriate to consider. But films from other Arab countries, e.g., from North Africa and the Middle East, will also be included for comparison and a more comprehensive picture.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward Film Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

Counts Toward Visual Studies

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MEST B205 Topics: Ethics and Islam

Not offered 2022-23

This is a topics course. Course content varies. This course will provide a foundation in the study of Islam and introduce students to Islamic ethical thought

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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MEST B208 Introduction to the History of the Medieval Middle East

Not offered 2022-23

This course will provide an overview of the political and social history of the Middle East and North Africa from the sixth century C.E., in the Late Antique Period, with the tensions between the Byzantine and Sasanian empires and the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, to the fourteenth century C.E., with the Mongol invasions marking the end of the Abbasid caliphate in Baghdad. While students will be introduced to the political figures and frameworks of this period, there will also be a focus on social and cultural developments among the diverse populations that lived in the medieval Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa, their relationships with one another, and how they interacted with their neighbors. Issues of political and religious authority and legitimacy, the development of social and cultural institutions, the production of artistic and literary works will also be explored.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Inquiry into the Past (IP)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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MEST B210 The Art and Architecture of Islamic Spirituality

Not offered 2022-23

This course examines how Muslim societies across time and space have used art and architecture in different ways to express and understand inner dimensions of spirituality and mysticism. Topics to be studied include: the calligraphical remnants of the early Islamic period; inscriptions found on buildings and gravestones; the majestic architecture of mosques, shrines, seminaries, and Sufi lodges; the brilliant arts of the book; the commemorative iconography and passion plays of Ashura devotion; the souvenir culture of modern shrine visitation; and the modern art of twenty-first century Sufism. Readings include works from history, religious studies, anthropology, sociology, and the history of art and architecture.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Critical Interpretation (CI)

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

Counts Toward Visual Studies

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MEST B301 An Introduction to Middle East Media and Culture

Not offered 2022-23

This course explores contemporary culture in the Middle East. The course will introduce students to a wide array of relevant theory on modernity and modernization, home and diaspora, as well as social movements and democratization, all through the interrogation of a diverse set of media texts that highlight key issues facing communities across the Middle East. Each week we will focus on a vital social issue facing the communities in the Middle East and compare how it is presented in the media, as compared to the ideals of the society and local and regional collective imaginaries of identity. Students will gain competence at analyzing media texts, as we address these issues through a selection of television serials, films and music videos and other media sources. Students will be exposed to the complexity of daily life and culture across the Middle East, from the lifestyle of communities in affluent urban spaces, to the struggles of the urban poor living in informal settlements, and everyone in between. Prior courses in Middle East Studies or Film Studies encouraged.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

Counts Toward Visual Studies

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MEST B302 The Legacy of Genghis Khan: The Mongols & Their Successors

Fall 2022

This course examines the political, intellectual, and social history of Genghis Khan, the Ilkhanid Mongols, and their successors in the Middle East and Central Asia from the thirteenth century to the sixteenth century CE. We will consider the formation of new political norms, changing trends in trade, and an increasingly hybrid cultural and artistic production that characterize this period.

Counts Toward Middle Eastern & Islamic Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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MEST B305 Merchants, Pilgrims & Rogues: Travels through the Mid East

Not offered 2022-23

This course will critically approach the various ways that people have traveled to and within the Middle East, Central Asia, and North Africa in the medieval and modern periods. It will explore the many reasons that induced people to travel by looking at travelogues produced by these various travelers, the material culture of travel (e.g. pilgrimage scrolls, architecture and infrastructure that facilitated travel and lodging, movement of commodities, postcards, etc.), and scholarly work on travel, tourism, and migration more broadly. This course will include travels by merchants, pilgrims, adventurers, scholars, conquering armies, imperial powers, oil tycoons, and refugees.

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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POLS B283 Middle East Politics

Fall 2022

This course offers an overview on the contemporary politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the relevant social (mostly political) science work on it. It brings together empirical knowledge on domestic and transnational politics in different countries of the region and how empirical political science around the big questions is conducted. Each module of the course revolves around a central question that has been keeping social and political scientists busy in the last decades: What triggers risky protest movements in authoritarian settings? Why has the MENA region remained authoritarian despite successive global waves of democratization? Under which conditions do transitions to democracies succeed? Do monarchies in the Middle East have an advantage in ensuring political stability, and if so, why? Is it impossible to ensure good governance and peace at the same time in divided societies? What motivates people to take up arms in the name of religion and sect? What are the reasons behind the economic underdevelopment of the MENA region? Students are also invited to think about these "big questions" and take MENA countries as their case studies, while at the same significantly enhancing their contextual knowledge about the region. No prerequisites, but either some prior familiarity with the Middle East or a prior political science course encouraged.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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POLS B318 United States and the Middle East

Not offered 2022-23

American foreign policy is supposedly undergoing a reorientation away from the Middle East, sometimes described as a "pivot to Asia." To what extent is this pivot actually happening and why? What does it mean for the people and politics of the Middle East and for the future of US relations with allies and adversaries in the region? In this course we will study the history of US relations with state and non-state actors in the region to build historical perspective that will help us more effectively think about these contemporary questions. We will examine how debates over alternative futures are unfolding in Washington as well as how local actors in the Middle East are responding. Prerequisites: At least one of the following: POLS 283 Middle East Politics, Introduction to Comparative Politics or International Studies and at least one 200-level POLS course (i.e. two POLS courses), or permission of instructor.

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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POLS B360 Islam and Politics

Not offered 2022-23

This course locates and explores the politics of Islam in the politics of interpretation, taking into account texts both literal and social. More broadly, this course will consider evolving approaches to culture, religion, and ideology in political science, exploring not just the effect of Islam on politics but also the ways in which politics have shaped the Islamic tradition over time. This course is open to all students who have the prerequisites. It also serves as a thesis prep course for political science senior majors. Prerequisite: POLS B283 or instructor consent.

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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POLS B382 Comparative Political Parties

Spring 2023

Political parties are facing a crisis around the world. Trust in them as civic organizations plummets. Elite politicians do not invest in party organization-building and find other ways to build linkages with voters. Meanwhile, new forms of civic and political participation emerge, such as social media activism, boycotting and 'buy'cotting, and occupation of urban spaces, the implications of which cannot be very well understood by parties. The Middle East and North Africa region, with its history of personalistic and/or militaristic authoritarian regimes, weak party organizations and divided societies, is experiencing an acute form of this crisis. While there is a heightened sense of political participation in the region, as indicated by the repetitive waves of protests since the early 2010s, people debate whether democracy and/or good governance are attainable without political parties.

Counts Toward Middle Eastern/Central Asian/North African Studies

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