Courses
To see a complete list of courses offered and their descriptions, visit the online course catalog. Students can register for courses on the Student Information Services (SIS) website.
Note that courses other than those listed below may be approved by the Islamic Studies DUS for credit toward the minor in Islamic Studies.
- AS.070.465 - Concepts: How to Read Hindu and Islamic Texts
What is the nature of anthropological concepts and what relations do they bear to concepts internal to a society? We invite students to think with key ideas from Hindu and Islamic traditions, asking if anthropological concepts are best seen as abstractions from the particular or as intertwined with ongoing lines of inquiry, say into the nature of the real and continual efforts to test it? Topics in ritual theory, grammar, aesthetics, translation, revelation, luminosity, figuration and the mythological among those to be considered.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Das, Veena, Khan, Naveeda
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: F 2:00PM - 4:30PM
Status: Open - AS.194.201 - Jews, Muslims, and Christians in the Medieval World
The three most widespread monotheisms have much more in common than is generally portrayed: a common founding figure, a partly shared succession of prophets, closely comparable ethical concerns and religious practices, a history of coexistence and of cultural, religious, social and economic interaction. This course will focus on a number of key texts and historical events that have shaped the relationships between Jews, Muslims, and Christians during the Middle Ages and contributed to their reciprocal construction of the image of the “other.” The geographical center of the course will be the Mediterranean and the Near and Middle East, a true cradle of civilizations, religions, and exchange.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Ferrario, Gabriele
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Status: Open - AS.194.502 - Independent Study
Approval Required
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Staff
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings:
Status: Approval Required - AS.070.214 - Politics and Poetics of Mobility in Africa
This course considers a broad survey of contemporary themes in African mobility, displacement, and re-settlement. Drawing on historical, anthropological, and literary texts and film, the course uses mobility as a window into a range of topics that are of scholarly interest in contemporary African studies: from urbanization and labor, to violence, political subjectivity and the changing nature of the state, formal and informal economy, gender and domesticity, and religious movements.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: McGlennen, Emma Elizabeth
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: TTh 9:00AM - 10:15AM
Status: Open - AS.070.374 - What Does it Mean to be Religious?
What do we mean when we say that something or someone is “religious?” We unpack this question in a comparative approach, and pay special attention to the ways in which this term has been applied to the study of Islamic cultures and Muslim experience. Through an exploration of the categories of experience, creativity and the individual, we offer a more capacious way of imagining what it means to be religious.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Haeri, Niloofar, Ziad, Homayra
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: T 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Status: Open - AS.010.423 - Modern and Contemporary Art in South Asia
How does modernism operate in the colonial context, work with and against the nationalisms of new countries (India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh), challenge existing norms of the art world and the art market, engage with the difficult and violent upheavals of Partition and sectarian conflict, and allow for experimentations and new forms all the while? This course will explore the history of the art of the subcontinent from c. 1880 to the present by critical engagement with the art, artists, and theories at play in the South Asian region.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Brown, Rebecca Mary
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: M 4:30PM - 7:00PM
Status: Closed - AS.194.401 - Themes in Medieval Islamic Thought
This seminar examines medieval Muslim thinkers who addressed themes at the intersection of theology, philosophy, science, and ethics: the definition of the nature of God’s attributes, His uniqueness, transcendence and omnipotence; human freewill and the limits of human knowledge; the nature of the world; and the relationship among reason, religion, and science. The course will look at how these and other crucial themes were addressed by major medieval philosophers and philosophical schools not only in Islam, but also in Judaism and Christianity, and highlight similarities and differences among the three major monotheistic faiths.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Ferrario, Gabriele
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: T 1:30PM - 3:50PM
Status: Waitlist Only - AS.010.103 - Introduction to the Art of Asia
A survey of the art and architecture of Asia, from the ancient world to the present and including the Indian subcontinent, China, Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Brown, Rebecca Mary
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: MW 1:30PM - 2:45PM
Status: Open - AS.194.210 - Race, Gender, Citizenship: Being Muslim in America
This course explores how American Muslims navigate and contest complex notions of belonging in the context of national conversations on race, gender, citizenship, and national security. With a focus on specific case studies that range from Black Muslim movements of the early twentieth century to the ongoing War on Terror, the course will add complexity to the public conversation on what it means to be Muslim - and what it means to be American. The course will draw on history, ethnography, first-person narratives, films, blogs, documentaries and fiction.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Ziad, Homayra
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: M 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Status: Open - AS.100.421 - Sex, Law and Islam
ISIS, “virgins” in paradise, the sexual slavery of Yazidi women…. This course will use anthropological and historical studies to examine the long history of how rules and understandings about sex, sexuality, and gender have mattered in how people think about Islam.
Credits: 3.00
Instructor: Khan, Naveeda, Shepard, Todd
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: W 1:30PM - 4:00PM
Status: Open - AS.375.116 - First Year Arabic II
Continuation of AS.375.115. Introductory course in speaking, listening, reading, and writing Modern Standard Arabic. Presents basic grammatical structures and a basic vocabulary. Through oral-aural drill in classroom, tapes in Language Laboratory, and reading/writing exercises, students attain a basic level of competence on which they can build in subsequent years of study. Accelerated students should register for Section 01. May not be taken Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory
Credits: 4.50
Instructor: Hassan, Inas, Jafire, Sana
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: MWF 9:00AM - 9:50AM, TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Status: Open - AS.375.116 - First Year Arabic II
Continuation of AS.375.115. Introductory course in speaking, listening, reading, and writing Modern Standard Arabic. Presents basic grammatical structures and a basic vocabulary. Through oral-aural drill in classroom, tapes in Language Laboratory, and reading/writing exercises, students attain a basic level of competence on which they can build in subsequent years of study. Accelerated students should register for Section 01. May not be taken Satisfactory/ Unsatisfactory
Credits: 4.50
Instructor: Hassan, Inas, Jafire, Sana
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: MWF 10:00AM - 10:50AM, TTh 10:30AM - 11:45AM
Status: Waitlist Only - AS.375.216 - Second Year Arabic II
Continuation of AS.375.215. Designed to bring students up to competency level required for third/fourth year Arabic. Students will consolidate and expand their mastery of the four basic skills acquired in AS.375.115-116. More authentic material--written, audio, and visual--will be used, and culture will be further expanded on as a fifth skill. Accelerated students should register for Section 01. Recommended Course Background: AS.375.215 or permission required.
Credits: 4.00
Instructor: Hassan, Inas, Jafire, Sana
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: MW 11:00AM - 11:50AM, TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Status: Open - AS.375.402 - Fourth Year Arabic II
This is an introductory course to different periods of the Arabic literature. Selections of famous Arabic poetry and short prose works are the substance of the course. Continuation of AS.375.401. Recommended Course Background: AS.375.302 or equivalent.
Credits: 2.00
Instructor: Hassan, Inas
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: TTh 9:00AM - 9:50AM
Status: Open - AS.375.216 - Second Year Arabic II
Continuation of AS.375.215. Designed to bring students up to competency level required for third/fourth year Arabic. Students will consolidate and expand their mastery of the four basic skills acquired in AS.375.115-116. More authentic material--written, audio, and visual--will be used, and culture will be further expanded on as a fifth skill. Accelerated students should register for Section 01. Recommended Course Background: AS.375.215 or permission required.
Credits: 4.00
Instructor: Hassan, Inas, Jafire, Sana
Term: Spring 2019
Meetings: MW 12:00PM - 12:50PM, TTh 12:00PM - 1:15PM
Status: Open