Featured Elective Courses

ANTH 1225 Gendering Migration and Diasporas
Thursday, 4:00-6:30 p.m.
Professor: Nadje Al-Ali
Friedman Hall 101

This course will employ a decolonial and transnational feminist approach to explore gender and sexuality as central lenses in our understanding of different forms of migration and diasporas. We will address the various ways that experiences, processes and consequences linked to different migrations are gendered. The course will introduce a range of geographical contexts and empirical examples/case studies with the aim to challenge the US centrism existent in many academic debates. We will analyze relevant power relations and forms of oppression, as well as resistance strategies by migrants, asylum seekers and refugees. The course will use an intersectional lens to explore the way different power configurations interplay in specific contexts, paying particular attention to patriarchy, heteronormativity, nationalism, racism, Islamophobia and class-based inequalities. We will engage economic, political, social and cultural dimensions, but also the politics of non/belonging, and cultural productions.

DIAP

COLT 0510K The 1001 Nights
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11:00 – 11:50 a.m.
Professor: Elias Muhanna
Friedman Hall 208

Explores the origins, performance, reception, adaptation, and translation of the 1001 Nights, one of the most beloved and influential story collections in world literature. We will spend the semester in the company of genies, princes, liars, slaves, mass murderers, orientalists, and Walt Disney, and will consider the Nights in the context of its various literary, artistic, and cinematic afterlives.

DIAP | WRIT

EGYT 1430 History of Egypt I
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 2:00 – 2:50 p.m.
Professor: Laurel Bestock
Rhode Island Hall 008

A survey of the history and society of ancient Egypt from prehistoric times to the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty (ca. 5000-1300 BC). Readings include translations from the original documents that serve as primary sources for the reconstruction of ancient Egyptian history.

WRIT

HIST 1969C Debates in Middle Eastern History
Wednesday, 3:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Professor: Sreemati Mitter
Page-Robinson 403

This seminar investigates the historical bases of some of the major debates which continue to dominate contemporary discussions on the Middle East. These include debates on colonialism and its legacies; problems associated with the post-colonial Middle Eastern state (the "democracy deficit": human rights; oil; political Islam); and arguments about the causes and consequences of some of the major events in Middle Eastern history (the Israel-Palestinian conflict; the Iranian revolution; the Lebanese civil war; 9/11 and the Iraq invasion; and the Arab Spring).

DIAP | WRIT

JUDS 0617 Jewish Women: Between Conformity and Agency
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30 – 3:50 p.m.
Professor: Katharina Galor
Sayles Hall 305

This undergraduate seminar studies Jewish women in different temporal and geographical contexts, internally within their own communities and externally with other neighboring religious groups. Visual and material sources (iconography, artefacts, architectures, film) are examined in dialogue with texts (biblical and Talmudic writings, medieval and modern commentaries, contemporary literature) to explore the binary of male authority and female agency. Case studies will encompass the Middle East and Europe from antiquity to the present. Two field trips will complement the visual and theoretical focus in class.

WRIT

PRSN 0100 Basic Persian
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9:00 – 9:50 a.m.
Professor: Michelle Quay
Sayles Hall 200

Fast-paced course for beginners. Course stresses acquisition of Persian alphabet and basic grammatical patterns, beginning levels of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Strong emphasis on the links between language and culture. One additional hour in consultation with instructor and enrolled students.

RELS 0290D Islamic Sexualities
Monday, 3:00 – 5:30 p.m.
Professor: Nancy Khalek
Salomon Center 202

In this course we examine gender and sexuality in Muslim cultures, as well the ways in which Islam is imagined in relationship to gender and sexuality. We will think about how particular constructions of gender and sexuality affect the representation of Islam and Muslims in the US and abroad, especially in films and documentaries, which form a critical component of this course. Students will learn to engage with and complicate key terms and themes including "masculinity," "cultural difference," "women's and LGBT rights," and "modernity/civilization" that are widely, and often uncritically, deployed in current representations of Islamic culture.

DIAP | WRIT

RELS 0610 Sufi Islam
Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30 – 3:50 p.m.
Professor: Shahzad Bashir
Rockefeller Library A9

A historically oriented survey of mystical philosophies and social practices associated with Sufi Islam. We will concentrate on three areas: (1) Concepts and practices going back to the earliest men and women identifiable as Sufis; (2) Prose and poetry of two medieval masters—Ibn al-ʿArabi (d. 1240) and Jalaloddin Rumi (d. 1274)—who have had long-lasting influence on Sufi thought; and (3) Sufi social practices as seen in the history and ethnography of societies in Asia and Africa. The course will pay special attention to the way Sufis have addressed aesthetic, ethical, and existential issues faced by human beings.

TKSH 0720A Understanding Modern Turkey Through Film and Literature
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 1:00 – 1:50 p.m.
Professor: Esra Ozdemir
195 Angell Street 202

This course will introduce students to modern Turkey and offer a wide range of perspectives on the society and its culture. Each week, we will focus on a single theme such as: family and gender; social classes and their interaction with each other; Istanbul and its neighborhoods; Turkey’s role within Europe; ethnic identities and their recognition by Turkish society; Turkish media and entertainment; modernism and political Islam; important events in the very recent history of Turkey including the Hrant Dink assassination, terror attacks, and the 2016 coup d’état attempt; education and academic freedom; modern literature; specific cultural practices and rituals; foreigners’ perspectives on Turkish society; and modern Turkish sensory experiences including music and cuisine.

Academics