Fall 2022 Courses
MES
MES 1222 Modern Palestinian History (flyer)
Tuesday 4-6:30 p.m.
Professor: Abdel Razzaq Takriti
Location Barus & Holley 165
This course examines the origins of one of the longest running and most significant settler colonial realities in modern history. It explores social dynamics in late-Ottoman Palestine; the birth of the Zionist movement; the establishment of British imperial rule; the Palestinian revolt of 1936-39; the 1948 Nakba; the creation of the state of Israel; the dispossession of the Palestinian refugees; and the 1967 occupation and its aftermath. Students will consider questions of social, demographic, and cultural transformation as well as political dynamics. Using a range of primary sources, they will reflect upon the period in question on its own terms and search for the voices of its protagonists. This subject has attracted lively debate and contributed to major theoretical approaches such as post-colonialism and comparative settler-colonial studies. The course will engage these approaches and major historiographical debates in the field.
MES 1400 The Middle East in Berlin
Thursday 4-6:30 p.m.
Professor: Katharina Galor
Location: Barus & Holley 165
This seminar explores the physical and human landscapes of post-war Berlin: its steadily expanding urban fabric and how it engages with the rapidly changing population make-up. The focus will be on the tension between past and present histories, new German identities, the recent massive migrations, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia, and how these social and geopolitical phenomena interact with the city’s urban spaces and monuments. As case studies we will explore the relationship among Germans and three other significant communities: Turks, Israelis, and Palestinians.
RPP | WRIT
MES 1968 Approaches to the Middle East
Tuesday 4-6:30 p.m.
Professor: Alex Winder
Location: Page-Robinson Hall 301
When and why did the Middle East emerge as a field of study? What are the competing approaches to framing our understanding of this pivotal region? How did these approaches change over time? This upper-level seminar explores these questions within the larger context of colonial, national, and other ongoing encounters that have shaped modern regimes of knowledge production. The class features visits by leading scholars from different disciplines who reflect on the questions they ask and how they go about answering them. Readings range from canonical works to innovative new scholarship. No pre-requisites but previous coursework on this region recommended.
LANGUAGES
Arabic
ARAB 0100 First-Year Arabic (Alla Hassan)
ARAB 0300 Second-Year Arabic (Mirena Christoff)
ARAB 0450A Beginning Levantine Colloquial (Elsa Belmont Flores)
ARAB 0500 Third-Year Arabic (Miled Faiza)
ARAB 0700 Advanced Arabic: Tales of the City (Mirena Christoff)
ARAB 0850 Advanced Reading and Composition in Arabic: Kalila wa-Dimna (Miled Faiza)
Hebrew
HEBR 0100 Elementary Hebrew (Ruth Adler Ben Yehuda)
HEBR 0300 Intermediate Hebrew (Ruth Adler Ben Yehuda)
HEBR 0500 Writing and Speaking Hebrew (Ruth Adler Ben Yehuda)
Persian
PRSN 0100 Basic Persian (Michelle Quay)
PRSN 0105 Accelerated Persian (Michelle Quay)* (flyer)
PRSN 0300 Intermediate Persian Language and Culture (Michelle Quay)
Turkish
TKSH 0100 Introduction to Turkish (Esra Ozdemir)
TKSH 0300 Intermediate Turkish II (Esra Ozdemir)
TKSH 1100 Introductory Ottoman Turkish I (Esra Ozdemir)
ELECTIVES
Courses that may count towards electives, meet with the Director of Undergraduate Studies to discuss
Anthropology
ANTH 1225 Gendering Migration and Diasporas (Nadje Al-Ali)
Archaeology and the Ancient World
ARCH 0100 Field Archaeology in the Ancient World (Laurel Bestock, Parker van Valkenburgh)
ARCH 1622 Art, Secrecy, and Invisibility in Ancient Egypt (Laurel Bestock)
Assyriology
ASYR 0800 The Cradle of Civilization? An Introduction to the Ancient Near East (Jonathan Price)
ASYR 1000 Introduction to Akkadian (Matthew Rutz)
ASYR 1900 Introduction to Hittite Language and Literature (Felipe Rojas Silva)
ASYR 2100 The Ancient Near East: Early Modern Intellectual Histories (Felipe Rojas Silva, John Steele) Graduate seminar
Biblical Hebrew
BHBR 0100 Introduction to Biblical Hebrew (Josiah Bisbee)
Comparative Literature
COLT 1310J The Arab Renaissance (Elias Muhanna) (flyer) RPP | WRIT
Egyptology
EGYT 0200 Egypt in the Time of Cleopatra (Leo Depuydt)
EGYT 1310 Introduction to Classical Hieroglyphic Egyptian Writing and Language (Middle Egyptian I) (Christelle Alvarez)
EGYT 1330 Selections from Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts (James Allen)
EGYT 2210 Introduction to Coptic (Leo Depuydt)
History
HIST 0244 Understanding the Middle East: 1800s to the Present (Faiz Ahmed) RPP
HIST 1968V America and the Middle East: Histories of Connection and Exchange (Faiz Ahmed)
History of Art and Architecture
HIAA 1440F Architectural Reuse: The Appropriation of the Past (Sheila Bonde) WRIT
International and Public Affairs
IAPA 1804A Iran and the Islamic Revolution (Stephen Kinzer)
Italian Studies
ITAL 1400N Italian Orientalism(s) (Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg) RPP | WRIT
Judaic Studies
JUDS 0050P Sacred Spaces: Synagogues, Churches, Mosques (Katharina Galor) FYS | WRIT
Political Science
POLS 1822I Geopolitics of Oil and Energy (Jeffrey Colgan) WRIT
Religious Studies
RELS 1315 Religious Authority in an Age of Empire (Jae Hee Han) RPP
RELS 1530H Problems in Islamic Studies: Shaking up the Study of the Islamic World (Nancy Khalek)
Sociology
SOC 1128 Migrants, Refugees and the Mediterranean (Lisa DiCarlo)
Theatre Arts and Performance Studies
TAPS 0800K Islam Between Theatre and Performance (Kenneth Molloy) RPP
Turkish
TKSH 0720A Understanding Modern Turkey Through Film and Literature (Esra Ozdemir)
RPP
COLT 1310J The Arab Renaissance (Elias Muhanna)
HIST 0244 Understanding the Middle East: 1800s to the Present (Faiz Ahmed)
ITAL 1400N Italian Orientalism(s) (Suzanne Stewart-Steinberg)
MES 1400 The Middle East in Berlin (Katharina Galor)
RELS 1315 Religious Authority in an Age of Empire (Jae Hee Han)
TAPS 0800K Islam Between Theatre and Performance (Kenneth Molloy)