Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies

BENG W1101x-W1102y Elementary Bengali, I and II 4 pts. An introduction to Bengali, a major language of northeast India and Bangladesh.

MDES W1101x-W1102y Elementary Tamil, I and II 4 pts. 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.

PUNJ W1101x-W1102y Elementary Punjabi, I and II 4 pts. An introduction to Punjabi, a major language of northern India and Pakistan. Beginning with the study of the Gurmukhi script, the course offers an intensive study of the speaking, reading, and writing of the language.

BENG W1201x-W1202y Intermediate Bengali, I and II 4 pts. Prerequisite: BENG W1101-W1102 or the instructor's permission.

MDES W1201x-W1202y Intermediate Tamil, I and II 4 pts. Prerequisites: TAML 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.

PUNJ W1201x-W1202y Intermediate Punjabi, I and II 4 pts. Prerequisites: PUNJ W1101-W1102 or the instructor's permission. Further develops a student's writing, reading, and oral skills in Punjabi, a major language of northern India and Pakistan.

MDES W1208x-W1209y Arabic For Heritage Speakers, I and II 5 pts.

MDES W1210x-W1211y First Year Arabic, I and II 5 pts. An introduction to the language of classical and modern Arabic literature.

MDES W1214x-W1215y Second Year Arabic, I and II 5 pts. Prerequisite: MDES W1210-W1211 or the equivalent. A continuation of the study of the language of contemporary writing.

MDES W1309y Intensive Armenian for Heritage Speakers 4 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Intensive Armenian for Heritage Speakers is an accelerated course for students of Armenian origin who already have basic knowledge of the spoken language and are able to converse on familiar topics relating to themselves and their immediate surroundings. The course will focus on developing their skills in reading, writing, and speaking and Armenian grammar and vocabulary. By the end of the course, students will be able to read, write and discuss simple texts. Placement will be based on an interview and questionnaire about their background.

MDES W1310x-W1311y Elementary Armenian I and II 4 pts.

MDES W1312x-W1313y Intermediate Armenian, I and II 4 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W1310-W1311 or the equivalent. A continuation of the study of reading, writing and speaking of Armenian.

MDES W1401x-W1402y Elementary Sanskrit, I and II 4 pts. An introduction to classical Sanskrit. Grammar and reading of texts.

MDES W1404x-W1405y Intermediate Sanskrit, I and II 4 pts. Reading and grammatical analysis of a literary text, chosen from the dramatic and narrative tradition.

MDES W1510x First Year Modern Hebrew: Elementary I 5 pts. This is an introductory course for which no prior knowledge is required. Equal emphasis is given to listening, speaking, reading, writing and grammar. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, short answers, reading, or paragraph writing. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes.

MDES W1511y First Year Modern Hebrew: Elementary II 5 pts. Prerequisite: MDES W1510, or the equivalent, based on performance on the placement test. Continued introduction to Hebrew, with equal emphasis on all languages skills. (See MDES W1510.)

MDES W1512x Second Year Modern Hebrew: Intermediate I 5 pts. Prerequisites: Prerequisite: MDES W1511 or the equivalent. Equal emphasis is given to listening, speaking, reading and writing. Regular categories of the Hebrew verb, prepositions, and basic syntax are taught systematically. Vocabulary building. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, short answers, reading, or short compositions. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes.

MDES W1513y Second Year Hebrew: Intermediate II 5 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W1512 Equal emphasis is given to all language skills. Irregular categories of the Hebrew verb, prepositions and syntax are taught systematically. Vocabulary building. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, short answers, reading, or writing short compositions. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes. (Students completing this course fulfill Columbia College and Barnard language requirement.)

MDES W1514x Second Year Modern Hebrew: Upper Intermediate I 4 pts. Prerequisites: For students who acquired basic knowledge of the language in Hebrew School, and received appropriate scores on the placement test. Equal emphasis is given to listening, speaking, reading and writing. Regular Hebrew verbs, prepositions, and syntax are taught systematically. Vocabulary building. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, short answers, reading, listening to web-casts, or short compositions. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes.

MDES W1515y Second Year Hebrew: Upper Intermediate II 4 pts. Prerequisites: W1514 Equal emphasis is given to all languages skills. Irregular Hebrew verbs, prepositions and syntax are taught systematically. Vocabulary building. Daily homework includes grammar exercises, reading, short answers, short compositions or listening to web-casts. Frequent vocabulary and grammar quizzes. (Students completing this course fulfill Columbia College and Barnard language requirement.)

MDES W1516y Second Year Hebrew: Intensive Grammar Review 4 pts. Prerequisites: For students who acquired knowledge of the language in Hebrew school, and who received appropriate scores on the placement test. This course offers an intensive review of the Hebrew verb system in one semester. (Students completing this course fulfill Columbia College and Barnard language requirement.)

MDES W1517x (Section 001) Hebrew for Heritage Speakers I 3 pts. Hebrew for Heritage Speakers I forms part of a year-long sequence with Hebrew for Heritage Speakers II. The course is intended for those who have developed basic speaking and listening skills through exposure to Hebrew at home or in day-school programs but do not use Hebrew as their dominant language and have not reached the level required for exemption from the Columbia language requirement. Heritage speakers differ in the degree of their fluency, but their vocabulary is often limited to topics in daily life and many lack skills in reading and writing to match their ability to converse. The course focuses on grammar and vocabulary enrichment, exposing students to a variety of cultural and social topics in daily life and beyond. By the end of the semester students are able to read and discuss simple texts and write about a variety of topics. Successful completion of the year-long sequence prepares students to enroll in third-year modern Hebrew.

MDES W1608x-W1609y Hindi for Heritage Speakers I and II 5 pts. 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.

MDES W1610x-W1611y Elementary Hindi-Urdu, I and II 5 pts. 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.

MDES W1612x-W1613y Intermediate Hindi-Urdu, I and II 5 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W1610-W1611 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.

MDES W1614x-W1615y Urdu for Heritage Speakers 5 pts. Prerequisites: A knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking and listening skills in Urdu. 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.

MDES W1710x-W1711y Elementary Persian, I and II 4 pts. An introduction to the spoken and written language of contemporary Iran.

MDES W1712x-W1713y Intermediate Persian, I and II 4 pts. Prerequisite: MDES W1710-W1711 or the equivalent. A general review of the essentials of grammar; practice in spoken and written Persian; Arabic elements in Persian; selected readings emphasizing Iranian life and culture; materials from Tajikistan and Afghanistan, Indari.

MDES W1910x-W1911y Elementary Modern Turkish, I and II 5 pts.

MDES W1912x-W1913y Intermediate Modern Turkish, I and II 5 pts.

Required of all majors.

ASCM V2001x Introduction to Major Topics in the Civilizations of the Middle East and India 4 pts. A general introduction to major cultures in the Middle East and South Asia. The range of cultural issues, institutional forces, textual sources, and figures of authority who have historically defined and symbolically distinguished Asian and Middle Eastern cultures, from their earliest origins to our own time. A representative sample of sacred and secular sources is closely examined in order to guide the students toward a comprehensive conception of what constitutes these distinct cultures and how they have been redefined in the process of their contemporary adaptations.

ASCM V2003x Introduction to Islamic Civilization 4 pts. Lecture and recitation. Islamic civilization and its characteristic political, social, and religious institutions and intellectual traditions.

ASCM V2008y Contemporary Islamic Civilization 4 pts. Lecture and recitation. No previous study of Islam is required. The contemporary Islamic world studied through freshly translated texts; recorded interviews with religious, political, and intellectual leaders; and films highlighting the main artistic and cultural currents. Topics include religion and society, religion and politics, issues of development, theories of government, gender issues, East-West confrontation, theatre, arts, films, poetry, music, and the short novel.

ASCM V2357x Introduction to the Civilization of India 3 pts. Introduction to Indian civilization with attention to both its unity and its diversity across the Indian subcontinent. Consideration of its origins, formative development, fundamental social institutions, religious thought and practice (Vedic, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh), literary and artistic achievements, and modern challenges.

MDES W2640y Modern South Asia: Intro to Bollywood 3 pts. India is the world's largest film-producing nation, releasing over 900 films every year. Indian film industry remains an exceptional industry, holding its own against Hollywood's expansion into markets like India. This course provides a historical and thematic introduction to different forms of Indian cinema, with a particular focus on Bombay cinema or Hindi language popular Indian cinema. Starting with late colonization in the 1940s, and moving chronologically through the decades to the present, we will explore various genres within Indian cinema, and examine the way in which Indian cinema addresses the socio-political issues of caste, class, religion, and gender, as it engages with the events and experiences that shape the cultural, social, and political realities of modern South Asia.

MDES W3000x Theory and Culture 4 pts. Required of all majors. Introduces theories of culture particularly related to the Middle East and South Asia. Theoretical debates on the nature and function of culture as a symbolic reading of human collectivities. Examines critical cultural studies of the Middle East and South Asia. Enables students to articulate their emerging knowledge of Middle East and Asian cultures in a theoretically informed language. Discussion Section Required.

MDES W3001x-W3002y Supervised Readings 1-3 pts. Sign up for section in the department

MDES W3001x Supervised Readings 1-6 pts. Sign up for sections in the Department.

MDES W3004y Islam In South Asia Not offered in 2013-2014. Assumes no previous background in Islam and South Asian studies. Explores the coming of Islam to South Asia, its growth over time, and the development of S. Asian Muslims' cultural, social, religious, and political life from the 11th through the 21st century.

CLME W3032x Colonialism: Film, Fiction, History & Theory 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course is intended as a Global Core Requirement, introducing Columbia College students to the global phenomenon of colonialism in a broadly introductory, interdisciplinary, and temporally and spatially expansive way. As all other courses in the Global Core, this introductory course to the global phenomenon of Colonialism is organized around a set of primary texts - in film, fiction, history, autobiography, and theory - produced in or about the regions of the world in which colonialism has had an impact. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a wide range of cinematic, fictional, historical, autobiographical, and theoretical sources on the global and cross-cultural phenomenon of colonialism.

MDES W3042y Palestinian and Israeli Politics and Society 3 pts. 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.

MDES W3260x Rethinking Middle East Politics 3 pts. This course examines a set of questions that have shaped the study of the politics of the modern Middle East. It looks at the main ways those questions have been answered, exploring debates both in Western academic scholarship and among scholars and intellectuals in the region itself. For each question, the course offers new ways of thinking about the issue or ways of framing it in different terms. The topics covered in the course include: the kinds of modern state that emerged in the Middle East and the ways its forms of power and authority were shaped; the birth of economic development as a way of describing the function and measuring the success of the state, and the changing metrics of this success; the influence of oil on the politics of the region; the nature and role of Islamic political movements; the transformation of the countryside and the city and the role of rural populations and of urban protest in modern politics; and the politics of armed force and political violence in the region, and the ways in which this has been understood. The focus of the course will be on the politics of the twentieth century, but many topics will be traced back into developments that occurred in earlier periods, and several will be explored up to the present. The course is divided into four parts, each ending with a paper or exam in which participants are asked to analyze the material covered. Each part of the course has a geographical focus on a country or group of countries and a thematic focus on a particular set of questions of historical and political analysis. Discussion Section Required.

AHUM V3342x or y Masterpieces of Indian art and architecture 3 pts.

AHUM V3343x or y Masterpieces of Islamic Art and Architecture 3 pts.

AHUM V3399x Colloquium on Major Texts: Middle East and South Asia 3 pts. Readings in translation and discussion of texts of Middle Eastern and Indian origin. The Qur'an, Islamic philosophy, Sufi poetry, the Upanishads, Buddhist sutras, the Bhagavad Gita, Indian epics and drama, and Gandhi's Autobiography.

MDES W3445x Societies & Cultures Across the Indian Ocean 3 pts. The course is designed to introduce the Indian ocean as a region linking the Middle East, East Africa, South and Southeast Asia. With a focus on both continuities and rupture, we study select cultures and societies brought into contact through interregional migration and travel across the Indian Ocean over a broad arc of history. 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 cooperation, accommodation or conflict did different Indian Ocean encounters engender? Using an array of different primary sources, we look at particular case studies and their broader social and cultural contexts.

MDES W3529x (Section 001) Variants of the Israeli Novel 3 pts. This course is arranged in a manner which allows both for a historical view of the Israeli novel throughout its sixty years of existence, and, at the same time, for thematic focusing on the main issues Israeli fiction grappled with. Thus it starts with the reading of texts which offer a critical hindsight view of the development of the Zionist project throughout the first half of the twentieth century both in pre-mandatory and in mandatory Palestine; then it turns to Israel itself and its ambience during its early days (the 1950s), and to the conflicts and dichotomies which eventually changed its character, such as the emerging awareness of the devastating and lingering impact of the Holocaust, the unrelenting and seemingly unsolvable Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and the coarsening of the fiber of Israeli society once it forfeited the idealistic halo of its years of nascence.

MDES W3541y Zionism: A Cultural Perspective 3 pts. The course, based on Zionist texts of various kinds, will offer a view of Zionism as a cultural revolution aimed at redefining Judaism and the Jewish Identity.

MDES W3542x Introduction to Israeli Literature 3 pts. The course traces the development of Israeli literature since its inception in the 1940s to the end of the twentieth century. It ponders the why and the how of its separation from the earlier Hebrew literature, focuses the new issues it tackled and the new themes and forms in which these issues were expressed. Both major poets (Alterman, Amicahi, Zach, Ravikovich et al.), and major novelists (Yizhar, Shamir, Oz, Yehoshua, Shabtai, et al.) will be discussed. Texts can be read in the original Hebrew or in English translations.

MDES W3542x Introduction to Israeli Literature 3 pts. The course traces the development of Israeli literature since its inception in the 1940s to the end of the twentieth century. It ponders the why and the how of its separation from the earlier Hebrew literature, focuses the new issues it tackled and the new themes and forms in which these issues were expressed. Both major poets (Alterman, Amicahi, Zach, Ravikovich et al.), and major novelists (Yizhar, Shamir, Oz, Yehoshua, Shabtai, et al.) will be discussed. Texts can be read in the original Hebrew or in English translations.

CLME W3546x Intro to Hebrew Literature 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014.

HSME W3916y Africa, Empire and the 20th Century World 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This seminar explores the role of Africa and Africans in imperial and international history during the first half of the twentieth century. It examines African political thought and activities for the ways that Africans contributed to imperial and international discussions, engaged concepts of political modernity, and responded to and participated in world events. It explores African involvement in international movements for racial equality and world peace, proposals for imperial reform, responses to the Italian invasion of Ethiopia, and debates and controversies among African intellectuals. Drawing from new imperial and transnational history and studies of the African diaspora, it explores new frameworks for understanding modern African history.

CLME W3922x or y Text and Territory 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. The concept of "nation" and ongoing "national" struggles still remain potent, despite or perhaps because of unbound globalization. We will consider "nation" in relation to "state" and "diaspora," weighing its implications for literary nation-formation with readings in Armenian Diaspora literature. Theoretical readings from Renan, Bhabha, Anderson, Chatterjee, Tölölyan among others. Primary texts from Shahnour, Vorpuni, V. Oshagan and Beledian in translation.

MDES W3923x Central Questions in Islamic Law 3 pts. 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.

CLME W3924x Landmarks of Modern and Contemporary Arabic Literature 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course introduces students to major prose and poetic works from the Arabic literary tradition of approximately the last hundred years. Participants are encouraged to consider texts through the prisms of their multiple contexts - the historical, social and cultural, as well as gender and class - while attending to them, in contrapuntal fashion, as works of art.

MDES W3925x Introduction to Western Armenian Literature 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. A broad introduction to the major stages, movements and works of Western Armenian literature from its "inception" in the Ottoman Empire to its contemporary Diasporic variations. Using translations of Harutyun Kurkjyan's comprehensive textbook Hay Kyank' yev Grakanut'yun[Armenian Life and Literature] alongside translations from Heritage of Armenian Literature III and various readings in history and criticism, this course will offer a broad introduction to the major stages, movements and works of Western Armenian literature from its "literary inception" in the 1850's Ottoman Empire until its current trends in the Diaspora. The course, which will also touch on major developments in theatre, cinema, and music will also offer an opportunity for comparative study. Since the trajectory of Western Armenian literature is inextricably bound with major historical events, the course will naturally take an interdisciplinary approach as it brings significant historical developments into discussions of the literature's trajectory. All readings will be in English and English translation.

MDES W3926y Early Armenian Literature: The Fifth Century 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Using scholarly translations of the major texts of the Armenian Golden Age alongside secondary theoretical and critical works, this course will offer a focused introduction to the origins of the Armenian literary tradition emerging in the fifth century. In addition to familiarizing students with these foundation texts' contextual origins, methodologies and historical content, the course will also invite them to assess their significance in broader conceptual terms, considering the national, cultural and historical elements concerning their reception throughout the ages. All readings will be in English and English translation.

MDES W3942x Introduction to Modern African History 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This seminar is an interdisciplinary exploration of the history of the African continent, examining very closely the colonial and postcolonial periods. Its focus is the intersection of politics, economics, culture and society. Using colonialism, empire, and globalization as key analytical frames, it pays special attention to social, political and cultural changes that shaped the various African individual and collective experiences.

MDES W3943x or y (Section 001) Turkish Cinema: Contemporary Turkey Through a Constructed Lens 3 pts. Turkey today is a nation of seventy three million people occupying a space on the globe that is squarely in the middle of East and West. The Turkish economy has been one of the world's top performers during the past five years and contemporary Turks are increasingly connected to their peers and the outside world. The result has been an explosion of creative energy in art, music and especially in Turkish film which is in the vanguard of the many societal debates, including the role of Islam, women's rights, economic and social justice, and the question of whether or not Turkey is of the East or the West, to name a few. This course will examine a series of Turkish films in an effort to explore the many issues and debates in Turkish society. It will aim to strip away the constructed artifice of the directors and examine the social and political debates that underlie these works. To do so the course will also involve a series of readings that will examine film and film criticism as well as those that will supply a contemporary and historical background of Turkey. Discussion Section Required.

MDES W3951y Postcolonial African Cities: Development & Citizenship in the Era of Globalization 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This seminar considers postcolonial African cities in historical and geographical perspective. Drawing from diverse literatures, including geography, history, anthropology, cultural studies, and development studies, it offers an interdisciplinary approach to reflect on experiences of urbanization on the continent and the socio-economic, cultural, and political aspects of contemporary African urban life.

MDES W3960xy (Section 001) MESAAS Honors Thesis Seminar 4 pts. For seniors who have declared MESAAS as their major only. 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.

CLME W4024x Themes in the Novels of the Middle East, Africa and South Asia: Fiction of Post-Colonialism 3 pts. This course offers a reading of a selection of novels from the Middle East, India and Africa that represent, interrogate and challenge the colonialist and post-independence history of their nations and regions. It has long been understood that colonial domination was achieved through the deployment of more than brute force. It was not only power, but also colonialist knowledge that became the foundations of European hegemony over the colonial world. It has also become a matter of little debate that post-colonial societies are still, to varying degrees, subject to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination. The course examines the complex processes by which the writers of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa suffer, resist and ultimately try to extricate their cultures and societies from the legacy of colonialism. Novels in both English and English translations will constitute the primary reading material for this course. They will be supplemented by a selection of theoretical and critical readings

CLME W4031y Cinema and Society In Asia and Africa 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Introduction to Middle Eastern cinema as a unique cultural product in which artistic sensibilities are mobilized to address, and thus reflect, significant aspects of contemporary society, Arab, Israeli, Turkish, and Iranian cinema. Cultural and collective expressions of some enduring concerns in modern Middle Eastern societies.

CLME W4033 Cinema and Revolution in Cuba and Iran 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course will look at the role of cultural production within post-1959 Cuba and post-1979 Iran, focusing on their respective cinemas but with the complementary explorations of other literary, visual, and performing arts. Discussion Section Required.

MDES W4041 (Section 001) Reform and Revolution: Middle East History 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course approaches some of the most influential social-scientific work on social movements; the movements are evaluated in light of the theoretical notions such as irrational crowds, rational calculators, hidden and public transcripts, moral economy, habitus, waves, repertoires, and global and local ideological frames of collective action.

MDES G4052x Locating Africa in the Early 20th Century World 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. During the early twentieth century the meaning of Africa and its location within the "universal" historical narrative was a source of discussion and debate among western and African elites. In this seminar, we will study the ways that African and people of African descent participated in this discussion. Through primary and secondary readings, we will learn about how African, African American and European writers, artists and activists engaged and (re) interpreted imperial and international resources (including the insights of the new sciences of Man) to (re)imagine their political and social situations, and to participate in various political expressions , including surrealism, pan-Africanism, communism, feminism, black internationalism, and anti-imperialism. We will also engage critically debates (e.g., Egyptianisms and Ethiopianisms) and theoretical developments in African, imperial, transnational, international and global scholarship that seeks to understand the complex traffic of people and ideas across national and imperial boundaries.

MDES W4055x Crisis Works 3 pts. This class will critically explore contemporary questions and contexts of crisis. It will approach crisis in multiple ways: as a modern category of thought, as an emerging domain of global policy-making, as a techno-political problem to be governed and as an ethnographic challenge. In general, the class will address how crisis works: how has the concept been universalized and how it operates today in distinctive fields and global concerns, such a the economy, the state, violence and conflict, humanitarianism and security, but also in the case of upheavals such as the recent rebellions in the Arab World. It will further investigate how experts, institutions and governments mobilize the concept, what are the effects of its mobilization on populations and spaces, and to what extent it might enable or disable diverse forms of knowledge/power, inequality and critique.

MDES G4062x Global Political Thought: Gandhi, Iqbal, Nehru, Senghor 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course is intended to explore important themes in modern political thought from texts taken from traditions outside the modern West. It will not be devoted to textual exegesis, but use as sites of exploration central questions of modern politics. The attempt will be not merely to grasp what these thinkers thought, but to think more widely with and through their texts. The course will focus on the works of M K Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Iqbal, and Leopold Senghor. It will involve reading assigned texts and critical and comparative analysis of their theoretical ideas.

CLME G4106 Culture and Power in Iraqi Literature 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course attempts to meet the increasing need to know Iraqi culture. Through a number of typical Iraqi texts since the Epic of Gilgamesh, the question of power relations and cultural dynamics will be a way to map out an intellectual itinerary of the most ancient civilization and its subsequent histories until the modern period.

MDES G4206x Classical Arabic Critique 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Prerequisites: Proficiency in Arabic required. This course studies the production of Arab classicists from among noted grammarians, rhetoricians, poets, theologians, philosophers, historians, statesmen and scientists. It focuses on the cultural production that debates, questions, and interrogates authority and sites of power or legitimizes them. It brings together a number of discourses that cut across disciplines and fields from rhetoric, prose, poetry to theology and economic treatises. It tries to demonstrate how these make up not only the concerns of the state (the court), but also those of competing and conflicting interests and communities.

MDES W4210x-W4211y Third Year Arabic, I and II 5 pts.

MDES W4212x Fourth Year Arabic I: Readings in Modern Arabic Prose 4 pts.

MDES W4213y Fourth Year Arabic II: Modern Prose 4 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W4212 Through reading a full novel, Rachid Daif's Dear Mr Kawabata,students will be able to increase their fluency and accuracy in Arabic while working on reading and being exposed to the main themes in modern Arabic literature, acquiring a sense of literary style as well as literary analytical terminology and concepts. The novel will be divided into twelve parts that the students will read in detail, writing critical pieces, engaging in discussion, and having assignments which will expand their vocabulary, manipulation of advanced grammar concepts, and employment of stylistic devices in their writing. The course works with all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Arabic is the language of instruction.

MDES W4214y Fourth Year Arabic II: Readings in Classical Arabic Prose 4 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W4212 Through reading excerpts from thirteen essential works, starting with Jabarti's history of the French Campaign in Egypt to a chapter from al-Qur'an, students will be able to increase their fluency and accuracy in Arabic while working on reading text and being exposed to the main themes in Classical Arabic literature, acquire a sense of literary style over a period of fourteen centuries as well as literary analytical terminology and concepts. The texts are selections from essential works that the students will read in detail, write critical pieces, engage in discussion and have assignments which will expand their vocabulary, manipulation of advanced grammar concepts, and employing stylistic devices in their writing. This course will enable students to start doing research in classical Arabic sources and complements MEALAC's graduate seminar Readings in Classical Arabic. The course works with all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). Arabic is the language of instruction.

MDES W4216x Advanced Arabic Grammar Review 2 pts. Through reading and writing, students will review Arabic Grammar concepts within the context of linguistic functions such as narration, description, comparison, etc. For example, within the function of narration, students will focus on verb tenses, word order, and adverbials. Based on error analysis in the past twelve years that the Arabic Program has been using Al-Kitaab, emphasis will be placed on common and frequent grammatical errors. Within these linguistic functions and based on error analysis, the course will review the following main concepts: Types of sentence and sentence/clause structure.The Verb system, pattern meanings and verb complementation.Quadriliteral verb patterns and derivations.Weak Verbs derivations, conjugation, tense frames and negation.Case endings.Types of noun and participle: Noun of time, place, instance, stance, instrument, active and passive participles.Types of construct phrase: al-iDafa.Types of Adverbials and verb complements: Hal, Tamyiz, Maf'ul mutlaq, Maf'ul li'ajlihi, adverbs of time, frequency, place and manner.The number system and countable nouns.Types of maa.Diptotes, al-mamnu' min-aSSarf.

CLME G4224x Islam in Modern Arabic Literature Not offered in 2013-2014. The purpose of this course is to study the presence of Islam as theology and faith in modern Arabic literature. While modernity has imposed a secular line of thought in narrative, poetry, and drama, there is also the counter assumption that the writer as intellectual relies on structures of feeling and other dynamics. Regardless of the secular or religious affiliation of the writer, religion operates as culture. Even when there are negative portrayals of some jurists or Imams, there is a cultural formation of great bearing on the manner and matter of writing. The underlying assumption behind the course is the need to study these perspectives in order to understand literature as strongly involved in making up modern Arab consciousness. Texts are in English, and include novels by Mahfuz, Ghitani, Nawal Sadawi, drama by Izz al-Din al-Madani and Salah Abd al-Sabur, and poetry by Buland al-Haydari, Adunis, and al-Bayati.

CLME G4225y Reading Orientalism 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Edward Said's Orientalism has been transformative to academic discussions and practices, and beyond. It has generated a significant range of responses, commentaries and points of departures. Written from within the literary profession, the intricacies of its style and rhetorical gestures, complexities of its language, the possibility, in short, that Orientalism is a "difficult" book deserving of close reading - all this has perhaps not been sufficiently entertained. The purpose of this course will be to read with excruciating patience and discipline: to read Orientalism. However, we will also attend to the ways in which Orientalism has been read. Throughout, particular attention will be paid to the way the book itself deploys and enacts the figure of reading, the practice (or range of practices) of reading that Orientalism is, as well as the kind of reading Orientalism offers and advocates.

CLME G4226x Arabic Self-Narratives: Secular Autobiography and Its Writers' Predicament 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course studies a number of autobiographical works; memoirs and reminiscences that are meant to rationalize and sell a writer's experience. Although repressed accounts, these serve as trajectories for a secular journey rather than one from denial to affirmation. Staunchly established in modernity and its nahda paradigms, most of these writings are secular itineraries that rarely search for faith. They are the journeys of a generation of Arab intellectuals who are facing many crises, but not the crisis of faith. They provide another look at the making of the Arab intelligentsia since the early 20th century and help us discerning the pitfalls and failures, along with successes, that have been wrapping the nation state. PS. No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required.

CLME G4227y The Islamic Context of the Arabian Nights since the Establishment of Baghdad 3 pts. Prerequisites: No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required. This course questions the popular assumption that the tales of the Thousand and One Nights lack any Islamic content and that their fantastic or erotic dimensions are the only dynamic narrative components behind the vogue. This collection is read against a number of contemporaneous writings (in English translation), including al-Hamadan's Manama, to discuss issues that relate to market inspectorships, economy, social order, marginal groups like the mad, the use of public space including the hammed, and the position on fate, destiny, time, afterlife, sex and love. The course takes its starting point from classical Arabic narratives, poetry and epistolary art and follows up the growth of this repository as it conveys, reveals, or debates Islamic tenets and jurists' stand. The course aspires to provide students with a solid and wide range of information and knowledge on Islamic culture since the emergence of the Islamic center in Baghdad (b. 762). Students are expected to develop a critical method and insightful analysis in dealing with the text, its contemporaneous works from among the belletristic tradition and popular lore, its adaptations, and use and misuse in Arabic culture since the ninth century.

CLME G4228x The Arab Street: Politics and Poetics of Transformation 3 pts. This course responds to the sweeping winds of change in the Arab region, covering a great amount of archival and media material including documentaries, films, narratives, poetry and songs. It substantiates and synthesizes its analysis with a theoretical frame that makes use of Arab intellectual thought in translation, along with legacies of popular revolutions and liberation movements in the Arab region and in the three continents, along with readings of significance in the literature of World War I and II. The course initiates its discussion with experts' speculations on the difference between the deliberate 'creative chaos' as part of an imperial strategy, and popular revolutions that swept some autocratic and dictatorial regimes. To reach a better understanding of this difference, the course will explore the rites of passage through which these movements grow and authenticate their presence before finding the right medium or occasion to burst out in a volcanic fashion. The course explores: memory, the changing role of the elite, youth movements, people's leadership, the changing lexicon, conceptualization of nationhood, social media and solidarity, regional specifics and common concerns, and the rise of a new poetics as a confederation of semiotics, rhetoric and expressive devices. In their presentations and research students are encouraged to participate in archival material gathering, analysis of required texts and active participation in roundtable discussions.

CLME G4228y The Arab Street: Politics and Poetics of Transference 3 pts.

MDES W4230x or y Media Arabic Not offered in 2013-2014.

MDES G4240y Survey of Islamic Science 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. No language requirements. A survey of the scientific tradition of Islam from its earliest times until the end of the Middle Ages.

MDES G4244y Arab Society and Culture 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course is intended for upper division undergraduate and graduate students. It introduces the student to the major social and cultural issues of the Arab world, as examined through various theoretical perspectives in the anthropological and sociological literature. It is hoped that the course will provide the student with the analytical tools s/he needs to take more specialized courses on the general topic.

MDES G4247x Islamicate Culture in its Islamic and Jewish Forms 3 pts. The historian Marshall Hodgson invented the term "Islamicate" to refer to cultural phenomena which do not pertain to the Islamic religion but which have been historically associated with places in which Muslims live. Thus a synagogue built in Egypt might exhibit Islamicate architecture but would have no formal association with Islam itself. In this course we will read some of the great works written by Muslims and Jews in the medieval Islamic world. We will examine what features of these works made them appealing across religious boundaries. We will explore what makes a work Islamicate and in what ways these features were considered by these authors to be separate from Islam itself. Thus, for example, we will investigate how the works of the Jewish philosopher Maimonides can be Islamicate, but not Islamic and how this made it possible for them to be read and enjoyed by Muslim audiences. All texts will be provided in English translation.

MDES G4247x (Section 001) Islamicate Culture: Muslim/Jewish Literature 3 pts.

MDES W4251x Introduction to Political Thought in the Modern Middle East 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This graduate/undergraduate course does not presuppose a background in Middle East studies or political science. This introductory course traces the intellectual history of contemporary Muslim politics, and political thinking in the Middle East/North Africa. It ends with a study of contemporary figures such as 'Abdolkarim Soroush of Iran and Hassan Hanafi of Egypt. It begins with Khayr al-Din, the prime minister of the Ottoman imperial regency of Tunis in the middle of the nineteenth century. The course proceeds in chronological order through such themes and epochs as: Islamic modernism, the controversy over the abolition/restoration of an Islamic Caliphate, feminism, Young Ottoman constitutionalism, Turkish and Arab nationalisms, social justice and the Muslim Brothers in Egypt, resistance to colonialism (in Algeria, inter al.), and revolutionary Shi'ism in Iran. The course explicates the historical milieux, explores the biographies, and engages with the writings, of Arab, Turkish and Iranian intellectuals likely to include Rifa'at al-Tahtawi, Jamal al-Din 'al-Afghani', Muhammad 'Abduh, Namik Kemal, Abdullah Cevdet, 'Abd al-Rahman al-Kawakibi, Qasim Amin, Rashid Ridda, 'Ali 'Abd al-Raziq, Ziya Gökalp, Sayyid Qutb, Frantz Fanon, and 'Ali Shariati. The requirements for the course are two exams and a paper on a topic of the student's design.

MDES G4253y Islamic Law: The Three Debates 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Prerequisites: ASCM V2003 or equivalent. This seminar deals with three paradigmatic sets of questions in the history of Islamic law, each set representing and encompassing key themes pertaining to three important historical phases. Long-standing debates on the "origins" of the Shari'a will be explored, as will the constitution of the formative period, which is variably claimed to stretch from two to four centuries. Scholarship on this period will be examined as ideology. In the second set of questions, squarely situated in the post-formative period (ca. 11th - 17th c.) we examine the relationship between and among social custom, juridical practice and formal legal doctrine, discussing in outline the structural mechanisms the Shari'a has developed to accommodate legal change. Scholarship on this period and on what the features of this period came to represent in the overall constructed history of the Shari'a will also be examined as ideology. In the third set of questions, we analyze so-called legal reform and the role of state in converting the Shari'a to a modern institution that is qualitatively different from its pre-modern predecessor. Scholarship on the Shari'a in the modern period will also be examined as ideology. Finally, but not necessarily at the end of the course, we will pose questions about the nature of interpretation and language in the construction of a paradigmatic idea (and history) of the Shari'a.

CLME G4261y Popular Islam 3 pts.PS This course questions the whole idea of Arab modernity which is usually associated with the nahda or Arab awakening at the turn of the nineteenth century. Through close analysis of texts, poetry, narrative, travelogue and memoirs, it argues that the bane of modernity is its subordination to a Western ideal that minimizes or even negates its engagement with Islamic and Arab tradition. The nation state through codification processes and as led by the intelligentsia forged a social program that is no less divested of tradition and rural culture. Only after 1967, the unsettling experience of total bankruptcy, that intellectuals question the dichotomies of science versus religion and the myth of progress versus tradition. New writings take to the street where they find substance and faith that has been ignored for long under cultural dependency. These works receive due attention in relation to theoretical studies that increase readers' critical insight. No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required.

CLME W4304y Politics of World Art History: The Case of Armenian Medieval Art 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. A contextual and methodological exploration of the histories of art history utilizing the specific case of representation of Armenian medieval art in art history survey texts from the nineteenth century to the present. The course is theoretical and interdisciplinary and touches upon the issues of nationalism, orientalism, imperialism, cultural politics, educational policies, art historical methodology and politcs.

MDES W4314y Readings in Armenian Texts 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Prerequisites: MDES W1312 and MDES W1313, Intermediate Armenian or equivalent. Readings in Armenian Texts is the highest-level language course offered by the Armenian Language Program at MEALAC. It is designed for students who have a good foundation of the language or have attained the equivalent of Intermediate level Armenian and wish to perfect their knowledge of grammar while developing their skills in independent reading. The content of the course will change each term. Students will be introduced to a variety of fiction and non-fiction texts in Armenian. Texts will consist of full length short stories and newspaper articles as well as excerpts from lengthier works, all in modern Western Armenian. The emphasis will be on analyzing context, syntax and grammatical structures as clues towards comprehension. In addition to grammar and vocabulary analysis, students will produce translations, brief summaries and commentaries on the texts they read, both orally and in written form.

CLME G4323x Hagop Oshagan: Prison to Prison 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. An exploration of subjecthood, subjection and subjectivity in Western-Armenian literature, taking Ottoman-Armenian writer Hagop Oshagan's (1883-1948) prison-themed novels as its point of departure. Readings will also include Dostoyevsky, Hugo, Bakhtin, Lukács and Foucault alongside the works of other Armenian writers. Special attention will be paid to the impact of the Armenian nationalist movement and representations of "the Turk."

MDES W4324y Critical Approaches to Displacement, Memory & Music: The Case of Armenians in Turkey 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course aims at reconsidering the concept of "displacement" in multiple levels, especially focusing on music and memory. Its major objective is to develop critical perspectives to discuss the conditions of "being displaced" and "being at home" in relation to the minoritized groups' experiences within nationalized territories. Lectures will have a special emphasis on the Armenian community of Istanbul.

MDES G4326y The Armenian Genocide and the Holocaust: Memory and Representation 3 pts. This course is an investigation of the impact of genocide on the self and the imagination's representations in literature, film, and video testimony; primary texts will include poetry, memoir, video testimony, film, and visual art. Scholarly methodology will involve readings of literary criticism and theoretical works in the study of trauma, literary theory, and testimony. Among the questions the course will ask are: how does trauma shape imagination and open up access to the site of disaster that is now carried in fragments which inform memory; how do representations of violence shape and inflect aesthetic orientations and literary and artistic forms. In asking these questions, we will engage in the process of formal analysis of texts, psychological and historical contexts (for those texts), and finally ethical assessments about the function and role of these texts in the broader discourse of social thought and historical memory. The course will concern itself with the aftermath of two twentieth century genocides-that of the Armenians in Turkey during World War I and of the Jews in Europe during World War II-both seminal events of the twentieth century that, in various ways became models for ensuing genocides. Students will be permitted to write about other post-genocidal texts with the instructor's permission.

CLME G4444y Secularism and Its Critics 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. An interdisciplinary overview of the secularism debates, drawing from political theory (as pertains to tolerance, law and religious freedom), literature (including modern reading practices, secular criticism and blasphemy) and anthropology (as it intersects with comparative religion and Middle East Studies).

MDES W4510x Third Year Modern Hebrew I 4 pts. Prerequisites: Hebrew W1513 or W1515 or the instructor's permission. Students are expected to have basic familiarity with regular and irregular verbs in five categories of the Hebrew verb system: Pa'al, Pi'el, Hif'il, Hitpa'el and Nif'al. The course focuses on vocabulary building and on development of reading skills, using adapted literary and journalistic texts with and without vowels. Verb categories of Pu'al and Huf'al are taught systematically. Other verb forms are reviewed in context. A weekly hour is devoted to practice in conversation. Daily homework includes reading, short answers, compositions, listening to web-casts, and giving short oral presentations via voice e-mail. Frequent vocabulary quizzes.

MDES W4511y Third Year Modern Hebrew II 4 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W4510 or MDES W1515 or the instructor's permission. Focus on transition from basic language towards authentic Hebrew, through reading of un-adapted literary and journalistic texts without vowels. Vocabulary building. Grammar is reviewed in context. A weekly hour is devoted to practice in conversation. Daily homework includes reading, short answers, short compositions, listening to web-casts, or giving short oral presentations via voice e-mail. Frequent vocabulary quizzes.

MDES W4512x Fourth Year Modern Hebrew: Readings I 4 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W4511 or MDES W1515 or MDES W1516 or the instructor's permission. Students are expected to have a good familiarity with the Hebrew verb system, and the ability to read a text without vowels. This is an advanced course focusing on the development of reading skills using authentic, un-adapted literary, journalistic and academic texts. Verb forms are reviewed in context. In addition to the texts read by the whole class, each student completes two independent reading projects in areas of his/her interest. A weekly hour is devoted to practice in conversation. Daily homework includes reading, composition, listening to web-casts, or giving short oral presentations via voice e-mail. Frequent vocabulary quizzes. Two five page term reports on the independent readings.

MDES W4513y Fourth Year Hebrew: Readings II 4 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W4512 or MDES W1516 or MDES W1515, or the instructor's permission. Students must have a good familiarity with the Hebrew verb system, and the ability to read a text without vowels. This is an advanced course focusing on development of reading comprehension in literary, journalistic and academic texts. In addition to the texts read by the whole class, each student completes two independent reading projects in his/her area of interest. A weekly hour is devoted to practice in conversation. Daily homework includes reading, compositions, listening to web-casts, or short oral presentations via voice e-mail. Frequent vocabulary quizzes. Two five page reports on the independent reading material.

MDES G4524x Hebrew Love: National Discourse and Sentimentality in Hebrew Literature 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Hebrew Love will examine the Hebrew literary and visual canon in search of its discourse of love and the larger implications of such a discourse. Notoriously love is impossible to define and very difficult to engage as a critical category, and yet it forms the core of national revival and is the main vehicle of linkage between the work and the individual. Moving from the biblical foundation across time, works written in and out of the land of Israel and later in the state will be read as formations of a Hebrew heart but also of gender, the nation and the polity. These contexts and intertexts will be examined together as the poetics of emotional experience and another effort to understand what we talk about when we talk about love.

CLME W4526 The Language of Kabbalah 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014.

MDES G4542y The Culture of Israeli Cinema 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. The goal of this class is to provide an introduction to the history of Israeli cinema whose interpretation and discussion will also be an in-depth discussion of the main issues engaged by Israeli culture. Cinema provides an interesting vantage point to approach to Israeli culture, as it always expresses a social point of view and its history not only represents the major issues Israel has dealt with since its creation, but is in itself a history of the struggle for hegemony within Israeli culture and society. Each meeting will include an in class screening of one of the major works of Israeli cinema beginning in the 1950's and leading up to "Beaufort" and "Waltzing With Bashir". Preparation for class will consist of the reading of literary and scholarly texts that provide some of the context for the movies and the issues debated within. Discussion will be based on "Reading" cinema as a complex text that allows insight not only to the issues but to the very fabric of their discourses.

CLME G4560x Political Theology 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This reading-intensive course will engage the notion of "political theology," a notion that emerges within the Western tradition (Varro, Augustine) and has become instrumental in thinking and institutionalizing the distinction between religion and politics over the course of the twentieth century. We will take our point of departure the key texts that have revived this notion (Schmitt, Kantorowicz), engage their interpretation of the Bible and of Augustine and medieval followers. We will then examine the role of Spinoza and Moses Mendelsohn, the extention of the notion of religion to "the East" (Said, Grosrichard, Asad), and conclude with some of the current debates over secularization in the colonizing and colonized world.

MDES G4601x Politics in India 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. 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 W4610x-W4611y Readings In Hindi Literature, I and II 3 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W1613 or the instructor's permission. Conducted largely in Hindi. Includes reading and discussion of selected literary, social science, historical, and/or journalistic texts. Since the content changes each term, the course may be repeated for credit.

MDES W4612x Readings in Hindi-Urdu Literature 4 pts. Prerequisites: Two years of Hindi-Urdu, or permission of the instructor. This course introduces a range of modern Hindi-Urdu literary texts and trends. From the late nineteenth century Hindi and Urdu authors experimented with genres like the short story and novel, which had been imported through colonial contact, creating a rich array of new (and sometimes hybrid) literary offerings. In this course we read select authors from the canon of modern fiction, while also touching on the most salient literary historical and cultural currents taking place in the world outside the texts. Students will also be exposed to select works of secondary literature and a few genres and poets of historical importance. Students develop their skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening, as well as working with advanced grammar topics and learning new idioms. While it is preferred that all students develop their skills in both Hindi and Urdu scripts, students who know only one script may also be admitted to the course with the permission of the instructor.

MDES W4613y Hindi-Urdu: An Overview 4 pts. Prerequisites: Completion of Intermediate Hindi-Urdu or consent of instructor. A review and overview of the shared Khari Boli grammar, of both scripts, and of the linguistic and literary history of Hindi-Urdu. The course will solidify your knowledge, introduce you to new resources, and prepare you to do scholarly work in either script. Students will have a chance to plan and conduct a number of 'TBA' class hours according to their own interests; these classes are usually very enjoyable.

CLME G4621x or y Court Cultures of India 3 pts. This course approaches the phenomenon of princely India from a range of perspectives. Students learn about the political and cultural practices of specific courts that played a major role in Indian history such as the Guptas, Vijayanagarm and the Mughals, while also being exposed to aspects of Indian courtly life more generally. Topics include, among others, literature, art, architecture, intellectual practices, music and the science of erotics (Kamasutra). While the emphasis is on Indian court culture as seen from within India, cross cultural perspectives are also introduced. For instance, why were Sanskrit literature and Indian architecture emulated far afield in Southeast Asia in the first millenium? And how was Indian court culture perceived by Europeans in the early modern and colonial periods? The course concludes with some reflections on the legacy of Mughals and maharajas in postcolonial India.

MDES G4623x India Before Colonialism: Culture, Society, Polity 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course is designed as an introduction to core topics in the study of South Asia prior to 1800. The course is intended for MA and beginning PhD students as well as upper-level undergraduates who have already taken at least one course in South Asian Studies. It will expose students to the most important new scholarship on cultural, social and political dimensions of the subcontinent during the pre-colonial era. The course will explore three areas of inquiry. The first and most straightforward will look into what we are learning about the actual organization of knowledge in traditional India. The second is how do the readings help us measure, retrospectively, the transformation of knowledge acquisition introduced by European colonialism. The third area concerns questions of scholarship itself; how are objects of analysis identified, or created, in these texts; how is evidence deployed, arguments formulated and knowledge advanced?

MDES W4624x Advanced Hindi-Urdu I 5 pts. This is a third year (or fifth semester) course in the Hindi-Urdu program that aims to continue building upon the existing listening, speaking, reading, writing and cultural skills in Hindi and Urdu. Students will be expected to expand their vocabulary, enhance their structural accuracy and develop their cultural appropriateness through their enthusiastic participation in classroom activities and immersing themselves in the speech community outside. The objective of the course is to strengthen students' language skills and to go beyond them to understand and describe situations and people, understand and discuss short stories, news items and events. Writing in the target language will be emphasized throughout as a support skill to enable students to use their diverse vocabulary and grammatical structures. This course will prepare students for "Advanced Hindi-Urdu II" which will be offered in the spring semester.

CLME G4626x Indo-Persian Literary Culture 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. A wide-ranging exploration of the multiple dimensions and spaces of textual productions of the Indo-Persian literary civilization, from the 10th to the 18th century, examining major texts written in Persian in South Asia (from the qasidas and the masnavis of Mas'ud-e Sa'd Salman and Amir Khusraw to the linguistic writings of Siraj al-Din Arzu), in the context of larger socio-historical and linguistic developments. Special attention paid to the relationship between Persian as a cosmopolitan language in the Subcontinent and the wider Persian-writing and Islamic world, and on the relevant issues of multilingualism and aesthetic transitions.

MDES W4635x-W4636y Readings In Urdu Literature, I and II 3 pts. Prerequisites: MDES W1613 or the instructor's permission. Conducted largely in Urdu. Includes reading and discussion of selected literary, social science, historical, and/or journalistic texts. Since the content changes each term, the course may be repeated for credit.

HSME G4643x 19th Century Indian Muslims: Identity, Faith, Politics 3 pts. This is an advanced undergraduate/graduate history seminar course over thirteen weeks, designed to introduce upper level students to the study of Muslims in colonial India in the nineteenth century. Although dealing with this period, the main focus of this course will be on social, religious and political developments, inspired by, and affecting, India's Muslims in the second half of the century.

MDES G4652y Mughal India 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. The Mughal period was one of the most dynamic eras in world history, when India was the meeting place of many cultures. Of Timurid ancestry, the earliest Mughal rulers drew upon the heritage of Central Asia in their ruling styles and cultural practices, but they would soon adapt to the complexities of their Indian milieu, which had longstanding traditions that were a blend of Sanskrit and Persian, Hindu and Muslim idioms. European culture, whether filtered through Jesuit sermons, itinerant merchants, or Flemish engravings, was also making inroads into India during this period. This course is a broad cultural history of Mughal India as seen from a range of perspectives and sources. We consider the Mughals' major achievements in visual culture as manifested in painting and architecture, as well as exploring diverse topics in religion, literature, politics, and historiography. Yet another approach is to listen to the voices of the Mughal rulers as recorded in their memoirs, as well as investigating the signal contributions of the dynasty's women.

MDES W4710x-W4711y Advanced Persian, I and II 3 pts.

MDES G4721x Epics and Empires: Shahnameh 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014.

CLME G4725x Memory & History in Persian Literature 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. A discussion-based seminar exploring the role and use of memory in the broad domain of Persian textual culture, addressing the relationship between memory and literary creation and reproduction, the tradition of memorialistic and (auto)biographical writings, and the construction and reception of historical identity in the literary space. Special attention paid to the development of the tazkira-genre (broadly speaking, "biography") in Iran and South Asia and the role of the representation of the literary past in shaping ideas of "tradition" and "newness" in the eastern Islamic world.

CLME G4733x Iran: Film, Fiction, Poetry & History 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. 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.

CLME G4760x Shi'ites and Shi'ism 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014.

MDES W4810x-W4812y Advanced Sanskrit, I and II 4 pts. Prerequisites: Two years of Sanskrit or instructor permission The two levels of advanced Sanskrit are typically given in alternate years. In 2011-12, kavya and alankarasastra will be offered; in 2013-14, mimamsa and nyaya. Additional courses, including Introduction to Panini and Introduction to the Literary Prakrits, are also available periodically. Final examinations will be required of all students in the first year of Advanced Sanskrit. In the second year, students are required to prepare a research project in lieu of the examination. This may be a research paper, a book or articles review, a bibliographical study, a translation, or whatever will advance the student's research capabilities.

MDES W4921x-W4922y Elementary Ottoman Turkish I and II 3 pts. Prerequisites: Two years of modern Turkish.

MDES W4926x-W4927y Intermediate Ottoman Turkish I 3 pts. Prerequisites: Elementary Ottoman Turkish.

MDES W4940y Late Ottoman State and Society 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This course is concerned primarily with the Ottoman Empire during the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries. Yet the period is examined within the broader historical and institutional framework of Ottoman history. It begins by considering the rise of the Ottomans, creation of the Empire, and survey of its major institutions and legitimation ideologies before the 19th century. Within the period of concentration, we survey the history of reforms in the Ottoman Empire and the challenges confronting a declining multi-ethnic Empire in the face of Western advance. Issues that receive particular attention are the millet system, the Ottoman state's legitimation crisis, (neo)patrimonialism, and the inner workings of the bureaucracy. The nineteenth century is also a fertile period for social movements, revolutions and transformation of identities through nationalist movements. Both topics, nationalism and revolution, will be investigated in light of the challenges confronting a disintegrating Empire. In the last part of the course we will concentrate on the emergence of the Turkish Republic. Here we consider the continuities and breaks with the Ottoman past and examine some of the identity issues raised by the creation of the Republic.

HSME G4941x Constitutionalism, Ataturk and Reza Shah 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. The emergence of modern Turkey and Iran has been linked to two strong figures of Ataturk and Reza Shah. Depicted as "men of order," they have been held responsible for the major transformations associated with the rise of the modern nation states of Turkey and Iran. This course critically examines the legacy of these two leaders by placing them within the long term history of social and political transformations in the Ottoman Empire and Iran in the course of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Particular emphasis will be placed on the relationship between the emergence of these leaders and the constitutional movements that preceded them. Of interest here is the degree to which they were in continuity with, a reaction to, or a break from these movements. Of further interest is the creation of modern citizenship, authoritarianism, commitment to constitutionalism, radical reforms from above, rise of the middle class, social and political programs directed toward homogenization, and republicanism.

MDES G6221 Arabs and Others, Narrative Encounters 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. This seminar argues the case of Arabs and Otherness in terms of historical and cultural dynamics beyond the simplifications of approval or total rejection. Looked upon in terms of discourse analysis with good use, also, of both Lacan and new-historicism, we study encounter narratives, before reaching "awakening texts," modernity encounters, and subsequent modernist narration that explodes stereotyping predications.

CLME G6224 Arabic Poetic Modernity 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. While mapping Arabic poetry and poetics, their origination, formation, and impact on the cultural milieu, this course focuses on the making and predicament of modernity, its innate contradictions, and the implications of pastism, colonialism and globalism. It studies Arab poets as caught between a past that was read, misread, or misunderstood, and a present that has a large body of challenge, attraction, and difference. They have to understand their Islamic or Arab milieu, fathom its cultural underpinnings while negotiating a western legacy of many facets. The outcome is central to any study of endemic problems that mar Arab ideology and may explain its many failures and successes. The course reads criticism in line with poetic production, the role of the poet as public intellectual (terms and applications are defined and set in tribal, national, social, and cultural terms and contexts), and the interference of group or totalitarian opinion with his/her self-styled vision and career. Books and material are in English translation, but Arabic originals form part of the preparation of MEALAC students, specializing in Arabic. No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required from NON-MEALAC students.

CLME G6507x Cultural History of Modern Hebrew Poetry 3 pts.Not offered in 2013-2014. Prerequisites: Knowledge of Hebrew required Zionist modern nationality relied on both traditional but also, and mostly, newly invented culture to assert its subjectivity. The course readings will include studies of the poetics of the era, especially the poetics of Hebrew Romanticism, Modernism, and the Avant-Garde. This will enable the students to follow the developments in form and theme of Modern Hebrew Poetry. The course, then, will propose and analyze a broad approach to Modern Hebrew Poetry. This is a 6 week course. Readings will be in Hebrew.

CLME G6530y Dynamics of Israeli Culture: Fiction and Politics 3 pts. The seminar on fiction and politics in Israeli Literature examines correlations between political attitudes and development of Israeli fiction since the 1970's.

CLME G6530x Dynamics of Israeli Culture: Poetry 3 pts. The course will survey the development of Israeli Literature within three time sections and along the evolving process of its three main genres. The time sections are those a) the birth of Israeli literature in the aftermath of the 1948 War (the 1950s); b)the maturation of Israeli literature during the 1960s and 1970s; c) Israeli Literature in the era of the peace process and the Intifadas (1980s and 1990s). The genres are those of lyrical poetry, prose fiction (mainly novels), and drama. The course will also follow the crystallization of three sets of Israeli poetics: the conservative (realistic) one, the modernist, and the post-modernist ones. All texts will be available in English translations. Participation does not depend on former knowledge of Hebrew or Israeli literature.