This course is designed for first year students interested in how ideas – across time and with changing valences – shape and help us navigate our world. At stake are conversations and contestations across centuries that focus on Big Ideas such as “Origins” (Genesis, Darwin, the Big Bang); “Truth” (Plato, Kant, Nietzsche); “Storytelling” (Jesus, Kafka, Octavia Butler); “Liberation” (Exodus and Leviticus, Frederick Douglass, Sigmund Freud, Angela Davis); and “Revolution” (the biblical notion of jubilee, Marx, DuBois). The material will not be read chronologically but by shared themes, problems, and conflicts. A central concern is tracing the paradigm shifts and different models of thought that occur between antiquity, the nineteenth century, and today.

Full details for NES 1591 - As, Ideas: Big Ideas

In this class, students are introduced to Jewish mystical and magic literatures spanning from the ancient to modern era, with a particular focus on the belief in supernatural demons and angels. Readings in this class include introductory-level secondary essays by leading experts in the field, as well as short primary source texts. Included among the latter are biblical passages, rabbinic sources from Midrash and Talmud, extrabiblical sources such as 3 Enoch and the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Aramaic magic bowls from late antique Persia, as well as Hekhalot texts such as Book of Creation (Sefer Yetzirah), Book of Mysteries (Sefer ha-Razim), Sword of Moses (Harbe de-Moshe), medieval masterpieces like Book of Splendor (Zohar), Book of Illumination (Sefer Bahir), and Sefer Hasidim, and, finally, the writings of early modern mystics, including Moses Cordevero, Isaac Luria, Abraham Abulafia, Moses Chaim Luzzatto, the Baal Shem Tov, and others. Through a close reading of these texts, students will learn about major themes and questions in the Jewish religion, such as the problem of evil, humanity’s role in repairing the world (Tikkun Olam), visions of ascending to the heavens, the practice of mindfulness and meditation, the concept of exile, among other key ideas. In addition to this course content, students will be walked through the step-by step process of writing a research paper on course-related topic of their choosing, using the manual “Little Red Schoolhouse” published by the University of Chicago Writing Program.

Full details for NES 1927 - FWS: Gods, Demons, and Angels in Jewish Magic and Mysticism

This course is designed for students who are interested in reading the language of the Qur'an with accuracy and understanding. The first week (4 classes) will be devoted to an introduction of the history of the Qur'an: the revelation, collection, variant readings, and establishment of an authoritative edition. The last week will be devoted to a general overview of revisionist literature on the Qur'an. In the remaining 12 weeks, we will cover all of Part 30 (Juz' 'Amma, suuras 78-114) and three suuras of varying length (36, 19, and 12).

Full details for NES 2204 - Introduction to Quranic Arabic

In this class, students are introduced to the broad scope of the city of Jerusalem’s political and religious history from its origins until today. Some topics the class covers include: the Jebusite origins of the city; the rise of kings David and Solomon; the Second Temple and Temple Mount; the life of Jesus in and around Jerusalem; Byzantine Jerusalem; the life of Muhammad in Jerusalem; the Crusades; the Ottoman era; archaeological sites; and the status of Jerusalem today. In addition to reading several broad accounts of the history of the city, students perform close readings of a range of primary sources, from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament, the Qur’an, travelogues, pilgrimage narratives, geographers, letters, poetry and short stories, archaeological studies, among many others. Throughout the semester, students will discuss questions about identity-formation, sacred space, memory, myth, and pilgrimage.

Full details for NES 2345 - Jerusalem: The Holy City

Why did the ancient Egyptians build pyramids, and why did they stop building them? Why did they depict things in ways that seem stiff and unnatural? Is ancient Egyptian art ?art?? These are some of the questions explored in this course, which spans late prehistory (c. 3500 BCE) to the Roman period (early centuries CE). We will take a thematic approach, progressing chronologically and introducing key genres where appropriate. First, we will explore central issues of symbolism, landscape, and materials through the architecture and furnishings of temples and royal tombs. Next come the social worlds of art. Can we speak of artists? How were gender, class, and ethnicity represented? Finally, we will survey the legacies of Egyptian visual culture in antiquity and the modern West. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for NES 2433 - The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt

In this course we will read some of the most influential micro-history writers and explore examples of different subgenres of microhistory, such as individual biographies, family histories, social histories of towns, city, and village histories, histories of singular events and the impact they have on a family or a community, a history of an object, and fictional narratives of individual experiences of global events. The course aims to explore how seemingly a limited-scale of analysis can illuminate the experience of much larger events. The course will draw on examples that focus on a wide range of experiences from around the world, with special attention paid to the the Middle East and Africa. The final research project will build on the student's own family's history, or the history of one individual, or an object (such as an inherited jewelry, a document, a painting, or a photograph etc) and research to situate that person/object/family's history in the context of an event of global important (such as a war, colonialism, mass violence, environmental history, empire, etc). (HIST-HTR)

Full details for NES 2462 - Personal Histories of Global Events: Microhistorical Approaches to the Writing of Global History

This course examines the production and exchange of wine, beer, coffee and tea, and the social and ideological dynamics involved in their consumption. We start in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, and end with tea and coffee in the Arab and Ottoman worlds. Archaeological and textual evidence will be used throughout to show the centrality of drinking in daily, ritual and political life. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for NES 2522 - Drinking through the Ages: Intoxicating Beverages in Near Eastern and World History

This introductory course explores the roles of amulets, love potions, curse tablets, and many other magical practices in ancient Greek and Roman societies. In this course, you will learn how to invoke the powers of Abrasax, become successful and famous, get people to fall desperately in love with you, and cast horrible curses on your enemies! We will also examine a range of ancient and modern approaches to magic as a concept: what exactly do we mean by magic, and how does it relate to other spheres of activity, like religion, science, and philosophy? When people (in ancient times or today) label the activities of others as magic, what are the social and political consequences of that act? As we investigate the practices that Greeks and Romans considered magical, we will also explore what those practices can teach us about many other aspects of life in the past, such as social class, gender, religion, and ethnic and cultural identity. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for NES 2546 - Magic and Witchcraft in the Greco-Roman World

What is cinema? Does film represent the world, or does it create new ones? Does film help us understand how we see and think, or has it changed our very forms of perception? In this course, students contemplate cinema as a technology, an art form, a mass medium, and a mode of perception. We will explore a range of key debates in film theory, from the early twentieth century to the present. We will consider a variety of topics lying at the intersection of formal-aesthetic and socio-ideological approaches to film, including medium specificity, spectatorship, apparatus, realism, and questions relating to film ontology more generally. We will also consider how feminist, postcolonial, and black film criticism have restructured discourses about the image. The course will train students in the vocabulary of film analysis while introducing them to cinema as a central site for thinking about modernity, politics, aesthetics, and global visual culture.

Full details for NES 2591 - Introduction to Film Theory

Alexander the Great’s conquest of the Persian empire in 330 BCE changed the ancient world forever, expanding the Greek world beyond the Mediterranean as far as India. In this course we will look at the history of the Hellenistic period. It was a time of intense intercultural contact, increasing trade across long distances, and the creation of large Greek kingdoms in a world previously dominated by city-states. We will also look at the methodological challenges of studying a period without a unified narrative history, exploring how papyri, inscriptions, archaeology and coins can contribute to our understanding of the Hellenistic period. (HIST-HPE, HIST-HTR)

Full details for NES 2622 - The World after Alexander the Great: A History of the Hellenistic Period

The course surveys the history and culture of pharaonic Egypt from its prehistoric origins down to the early first millennium bce. Within a chronological framework, the following themes or topics will be considered: the development of the Egyptian state (monarchy, administration, ideology), social organization (class, gender and family, slavery), economic factors, and empire and international relations. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for NES 2668 - Ancient Egyptian Civilization

This course examines major trends in the evolution of the Middle East in the modern era. Focusing on the 19th and 20th centuries and ending with the Arab Spring, we will consider Middle East history with an emphasis on five themes: imperialism, nationalism, modernization, Islam, and revolution. Readings will be supplemented with translated primary sources, which will form the backbone of class discussions. (HIST-HGS)

Full details for NES 2674 - History of the Modern Middle East

What does it mean to be queer in the Middle East? How do queer Muslims and Arabs navigate their sexuality around contemporary legal barriers to same-sex sexual intercourse and social disapprobation? How do the sexual and emotional lives of contemporary queer Muslims and Arabs differ or resemble the lives of people in the pre-modern period? Taking students from the dawn of Islam to the current day, this course charts the history of sex, sexuality, the family and queerness in the Middle East. Along the way, students will learn about Islamic legal and scriptural approaches to sexuality, the importance of sexuality to the propagation of colonialism and empire, post-colonial approaches to sexuality and sexual difference and beyond. (HIST-HGS)

Full details for NES 2727 - The Queer Middle East

These seminars offer an introduction to the humanities by exploring historical, cultural, social, and political themes. Students will explore themes in critical dialogue with a range of texts and media drawn from the arts, humanities, and/or humanistic social sciences. Guest speakers, including Cornell faculty and Society for the Humanities Fellows, will present from different disciplines and points of view. Students will make field trips to relevant local sites and visit Cornell special collections and archives. Students enrolled in these seminars will have the opportunity to participate in additional programming related to the annual focus theme of Cornell's Society for the Humanities and the Humanities Scholars Program for undergraduate humanities research. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for NES 2750 - Introduction to Humanities

This course examines Near East's rich and diverse literary heritage. We will read a selection of influential and wondrous texts from ancient to modern times, spanning geographically from the Iberian peninsula to Iran. We will explore a range of ancient myths of creation and destruction. We will also trace encounters with otherness in travel narratives. Together we will read and discuss such ancient works as the The Story of Sinuhe and The Epic of Gilgamesh, as well as selections from the Hebrew Bible, New Testament and Qur'an. We will explore medieval works such as the Travels of Ibn Battuta, the Shahnameh of Ferdowsi, and The Arabian Nights. We will also read Orhan Pamuk's My Name is Red, and Sonia Nimr's Wondrous Journeys in Strange Lands, as well as excerpts from Yochi Brandes's The Orchard. Students will also have the opportunity to research and analyze primary source materials in the collections of Cornell Rare Books and Manuscript Collection, and the Johnson Art Museum. All material is in English translation.

Full details for NES 2754 - Wondrous Literatures of the Near East

An introduction to the history and theory of writing systems from cuneiform to the alphabet, historical and new writing media, and the complex relationship of writing technologies to human language and culture. Through hands-on activities and collaborative work, students will explore the shifting definitions of writing and the diverse ways in which cultures through time have developed and used writing systems. We will also investigate the traditional divisions of oral vs. written and consider how digital technologies have affected how we use and think about writing in encoding systems from Morse code to emoji. (ARKEO-COS)

Full details for NES 2812 - Hieroglyphs to HTML: History of Writing

Is Afghanistan part of Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East? Is it truly the 'graveyard of empires'? Why are great powers so interested in intervening in this country? Why did Britain, the Soviet Union, and the United States fail to maintain their presence there? How does Afghan society and politics function? In this course, students will have the opportunity to explore answers to these and other questions. (GOVT-IR)

Full details for NES 2847 - Political History of Modern Afghanistan

An introduction to some of the major thinkers and philosophical developments in the Islamic world from the 9th to the 14th centuries CE. Figures include Muslim thinkers such as Al-Kindi, Al-Razi, Al-Farabi, Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Al-Ghazali, and Ibn Rushd (Averroes) as well as important representatives of the Jewish tradition such as Moses ben Maimon (Maimonides). Themes include philosophical theology (the existence and nature of God, God's relation to the created world, prophecy, the place of reason in religion), metaphysics (the nature of existence, fundamental ontology, causality), mind and knowledge (the nature and mechanisms of cognition, our knowledge of ourselves and the world), and ethics and political philosophy (how best to live and organize the state).

Full details for NES 3212 - Philosophy in the Islamic World (800-1400)

What does it mean to be Jewish and Arab? In this course we will read and analyze representations of this contested identity in memoirs, essays, fiction, and film by and about Arab Jews. We will study the history of Arab Jewish communities as well as the causes and consequences of their displacement in the mid 20th Century. We will explore the identity politics of Arab Jews in diaspora communities in North America, Europe and Israel. Not all Jews from Arab contexts spoke Arabic or identified with Arab culture. We will examine the political, cultural, and philosophical differences among the terms Sephardi, Mizrahi, and Levantine. We will pay particular attention to the wide-ranging political philosophies of Arab Jews in Israel / Palestine, from the Israeli Black Panthers to the religious party Shas. We will conclude by examining the politics of memory in representations of Arab Jews produced in Arab countries.

Full details for NES 3414 - Arab Jews

This seminar will engage in a serious of close readings of select narrative texts (in translation) from the Hebrew Bible with a focus on literary techniques and aesthetic values informing their composition. Participants will be expected to study the text carefully in advance of each meeting and come to class prepared to discuss how the text means.

Full details for NES 3455 - The Narrative Artistry of the Hebrew Bible

In the conditions of strict censorship and numerous limitations on various forms of political organization and activism, literature and cinema, especially Iran's internationally acclaimed art cinematography, have been the major outlets through which the social and political concerns of the Iranian society have been voiced throughout the modern period. The course explores major themes and periods in Iran's transition from the secular state of the Pahlavi dynasty to the religious state of the Islamic Republic in the 20th and 21st centuries. We will focus on social as well as political themes including the Anglo-Russo-American Occupation of Iran, the 1979 Islamic Revolution, U.S.-Iranian relations, Iraq-Iran War, the Green Movement and the crisis of Islamic government, Images of the West in Iran, Modern Youth Culture, Gender segregation, and the struggle between modernity and traditionalism in contemporary Iran. We will watch selected Iranian documentary and feature films and draw on modern Persian literature but will approach them not as art forms but as reflections of major socio-economic, political, and religious phenomena in Iran's modern history. We will read and watch what the Iranians wrote and produced, read and watched, in order to view and explain Iran and its relations with the West through the Iranian eyes. We will examine how the Iranians perceived themselves and the others, how they viewed their own governments and the West, what issues inspired and shaped their outlook outside the official censorship during the period in question. All readings are in English translation and the films are with English subtitles. The course includes lectures deconstructing political, religious, and social evolution of modern Iran as well as regular class discussions where we will address the issues in question from a variety of perspectives. (HIST-HGS)

Full details for NES 3519 - History of State and Society in Modern Iran: Through Literature and Film

This course examines the culture and society of al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) from 711, when Islam arrived in Iberia, until 1492 and the demise of Nasrid Granada. Through extensive discussion and analysis of Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew primary documents and literary texts of various genres (in translation), the course challenges ideological bases of conventional thinking regarding the social, political, and cultural identity of medieval Spain. Among other things, the class investigates the origins of lyric poetry, the relationships among the various confessional and ethnic communities in al-Andalus and the problems involved in Mozarabic Christian and Andalusi Jewish subcultural adaptations of Andalusi Arabo-Islamic culture.

Full details for NES 3539 - Islamic Spain: Culture and Society

This course will take the students through the age of reforms in the Ottoman Empire, the rising of nationalism, and the encroachment of colonialism in the Middle East, North Africa and the Balkans, and the collapse of the empire. Emphasis will be placed on analyzing various historical narratives of ethno-religious nationalism using Turkey, Greece/Cyprus, and Lebanon, as case studies. (HIST-HGS)

Full details for NES 3542 - The Ottoman Empire 1800-1922

The purpose of the course is to place the Bible within the context of a larger ancient world that can be explored by systematic excavation of physical remains. Students will become familiar with archaeological excavations and finds from ancient Syria-Palestine from 10,000 bce to 586 bce. We will explore this archaeological evidence on its own terms, taking into consideration factors such as archaeological method and the interpretive frameworks in which the excavators themselves work, as well as the implications of this body of evidence for understanding the complexity and diversity of biblical Israel. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for NES 3588 - Archaeology and the Bible

Students will practice critical, close reading and examination of historical primary sources that are essential for the study of modern Jewish nationalism and statehood. In our discussions, we will identify influential historical ideas within different genres of texts (personal, journalistic, commercials, political, literary, etc.) and critically combine social history and theory, literary understanding and theory, and intellectual history. Throughout the course, special attention will be given to ideas of class and status and their implications on the formation and change of Jewish and Israeli nationalism over the years. Students will consider key concepts of class theory and engage in comparatively examining their usefulness as tools for their historical understanding of the texts analyzed.

Full details for NES 3722 - Zionism and other Jewish nationalisms

What happens after death? If there is an Afterlife, how is it connected to earthly life? What would the Afterlife actually look like? What role does God or Satan play in the Afterlife? Since the earliest Qur'anic Revelations, Muslims have questioned, imagined and written about the Afterlife. In this course, we will read widely from across the Islamic religious and literary traditions, reading primary texts in translation. We will begin with a survey of the imagination of the Afterlife in scriptural, religious and literary texts, before examining the role and importance of the Afterlife in Islamic legal thinking and morality. Thereafter, we will focus on theological and ethical problems that arise from the imagination of the Afterlife, focusing in particular on the gendered experience of the Afterlife, as well as the question of whether the individual has free will and moral agency or whether eschatological fate is predetermined.

Full details for NES 3724 - Death and the Afterlife in Islam

There have been speculations, both founded and unfounded, about African positions on the Middle East. As an integral part of the international community, Africa as a whole has maintained keen interest in global politics from the end of World War II to the Cold War and beyond. This interest reached individuals as well. Notoriously, Alpha Blondy, the Ivorian singer and graduate of University of Columbia, dedicated his life to raising awareness on issues ranging from poverty, the corruption of public morality, and war. Three of his songs – Masada, Jerusalem, and Dieu – appeared between the two Palestinian Intifadas. This course pertains to concerns expressed then Blondy and likeminded African artists that a tragedy was in the making the region. It is based exclusively on the content and evaluations of the content of these three songs.

Full details for NES 4215 - African in the World I: Alpha

An introduction both to the History of Art and to an interdisciplinary approach to research and analysis through close study of these two works. Beginning with a sampling of Said's Orientalism and its critics, we will follow with a group read and analysis of each illustrated work, including text-image consideration and analysis. There will be heavy focus on multi-media primary source material in Kroch library, the Johnson Museum, and my own personal collection; consideration of both works in their 19th-c context, as well as medieval and earlier roots. We will devote half the semester to each, with 'hinge point' marked by a study day at Olana. Final product could include small exhibition, in tandem with individual papers/projects.

Full details for NES 4320 - Tales of the Alhambra and Lalla Rookh: Case Studies in Orientalism

This course introduces students to the history, evolution and trajectory of state-labor relations, labor activism, and the politics of unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). As the region with the highest concentration of non-democratic regimes in the world, the MENA provides a rich context for examining state efforts to control interest representation, and workers' struggles for freedom of association. In addition, the region features diverse political economic systems, making it ideal for examining the interaction between resource endowments and labor market dynamics. Finally, the region is ripe for the study of youth activism and the mobilization of the unemployed given that youth unemployment rates are higher in the MENA than any other world region.

Full details for NES 4337 - Labor and Employment in the Middle East and North Africa

This seminar explores the relationship between archaeology and modernity in its various dimensions. We examine how archaeological knowledge and practice have been tied to modern thought, including modernity’s conceptions of time, materiality, progress, and science. We explore how archaeology emerged as a discipline alongside colonialism and nationalism and consider the implications of these connections in the Middle East and beyond. The course also focuses on the archaeology of modernity—the growing field that investigates the material remains of the recent past. From the ruins and remnants of wars, genocides, and industrialization, to environmental crises and the waste of mass consumption, we consider how archaeological approaches to material traces offer unique insights into 20th and 21st century history and society. The course draws on case studies from southwest Asia and around the world. Through readings and discussions, we focus on critical questions about temporality, memory, and materiality, and consider how archaeological perspectives can defamiliarize the recent past.

Full details for NES 4355 - Archaeology and Modernity

The Phoenicians have long been an enigma, a people defined by distant voices. Originating from present-day Lebanon, they were Semitic speakers, renowned seafarers and transmitters of an innovative alphabet that transformed how Mediterranean and Near Eastern folk wrote their languages. Having left us virtually no texts of their own, their history has resembled a patchwork of recollections from Old Testament and Hellenistic times. Recent archaeological discoveries, however, reveal patterns of trade, colonization and socioeconomic transformations that make the Phoenicians less enigmatic while raising new questions. Our class explores the third and second millennium Canaanite roots of the Phoenicians, as well as the Biblical and Greco-Roman perceptions of their early first millennium heyday. We will explore the Phoenician homeland and its colonies, and investigate their maritime economy, language, and religion through both archaeological and textual sources. Temporally the focus is on Phoenician rather than Carthaginian or Punic history, thus up to about 550 BCE. The class has a seminar format involving critical discussions and presentations of scholarly readings, and requires a research paper. (ARKEO-RMNE)

Full details for NES 4550 - Archaeology of the Phoenicians

How and why do landscapes come to inspire the religious imagination? And why do religious practices, rituals, traditions, and beliefs take place in particular landscapes? This seminar treats these questions by focusing on the desert, both imagined and real, as it has shaped religious ascetic practice, especially the development of Christian monasticism in the Middle East. We will read widely from monastic literatures, mostly from late ancient Egypt, to explore both the historical development of monasticism in Christianity and examine why the monastic impulse seems so closely tied to the desert. In addition to reading saints lives and the stories of hermits, we will read early monastic rules, the desert fathers, and we will draw from archaeological sources to examine the varieties of ascetic practices in the deserts of late ancient Egypt, Gaza, Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. Throughout the course we will explore ancient and modern ideas about wilderness and we will explore parallels between ancient Near Eastern literatures and their nineteenth- and twentieth-century parallels in the American frontier and environmental literatures.

Full details for NES 4557 - Desert Monasticism

This seminar examines the emergence of national identities, nationalist movements, and nation-states in the modern Arab world. First, we will examine various approaches to the question of nationalism, using Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities as our basic reference. We will then test the applicability of these general theories to the Arab World through our examination of specific case studies. (HIST-HGS)

Full details for NES 4672 - Nationalism(s) in the Arab World

For undergraduates who wish to obtain research experience or do extensive reading on a special topic. Students select a topic in consultation with the faculty member who has agreed to supervise the course.

Full details for NES 4992 - Independent Study, Undergraduate Level

Each fall, a small number of highly qualified seniors enter the Near Eastern Studies Honors Program. The Honors Program is open to NES majors who have done superior work and who wish to devote a substantial part of their senior year to advanced, specialized, independent research and writing of a thesis. Successfully completing an honors thesis will require sustained interest, exceptional ability, diligence, and enthusiasm. Students must also take two honors courses NES 4998 in fall and NES 4999 in spring, in addition to the regular major requirements. While admission to the Honors Program and completion of a thesis do not guarantee that students will be awarded honors in Near Eastern Studies, most students find the experience as intellectually rewarding as it is rigorous.

Full details for NES 4998 - Senior Honors Essay

Each fall, a small number of highly qualified seniors enter the Near Eastern Studies Honors Program. The Honors Program is open to NES majors who have done superior work and who wish to devote a substantial part of their senior year to advanced, specialized, independent research and writing of a thesis. Successfully completing an honors thesis will require sustained interest, exceptional ability, diligence, and enthusiasm. Students must also take two honors courses NES 4998 in fall and NES 4999 in spring, in addition to the regular major requirements. While admission to the Honors Program and completion of a thesis do not guarantee that students will be awarded honors in Near Eastern Studies, most students find the experience as intellectually rewarding as it is rigorous.

Full details for NES 4999 - Senior Honors Essay

There have been speculations, both founded and unfounded, about African positions on the Middle East. As an integral part of the international community, Africa as a whole has maintained keen interest in global politics from the end of World War II to the Cold War and beyond. This interest reached individuals as well. Notoriously, Alpha Blondy, the Ivorian singer and graduate of University of Columbia, dedicated his life to raising awareness on issues ranging from poverty, the corruption of public morality, and war. Three of his songs – Masada, Jerusalem, and Dieu – appeared between the two Palestinian Intifadas. This course pertains to concerns expressed then Blondy and likeminded African artists that a tragedy was in the making the region. It is based exclusively on the content and evaluations of the content of these three songs.

Full details for NES 6215 - African in the World I: Alpha

An introduction both to the History of Art and to an interdisciplinary approach to research and analysis through close study of these two works. Beginning with a sampling of Said's Orientalism and its critics, we will follow with a group read and analysis of each illustrated work, including text-image consideration and analysis. There will be heavy focus on multi-media primary source material in Kroch library, the Johnson Museum, and my own personal collection; consideration of both works in their 19th-c context, as well as medieval and earlier roots. We will devote half the semester to each, with 'hinge point' marked by a study day at Olana. Final product could include small exhibition, in tandem with individual papers/projects.

Full details for NES 6320 - Tales of the Alhambra and Lalla Rookh: Case Studies in Orientalism

This course introduces students to the history, evolution and trajectory of state-labor relations, labor activism, and the politics of unemployment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). As the region with the highest concentration of non-democratic regimes in the world, the MENA provides a rich context for examining state efforts to control interest representation, and workers' struggles for freedom of association. In addition, the region features diverse political economic systems, making it ideal for examining the interaction between resource endowments and labor market dynamics. Finally, the region is ripe for the study of youth activism and the mobilization of the unemployed given that youth unemployment rates are higher in the MENA than any other world region.

Full details for NES 6337 - Labor and Employment in the Middle East and North Africa

This seminar explores the relationship between archaeology and modernity in its various dimensions. We examine how archaeological knowledge and practice have been tied to modern thought, including modernity’s conceptions of time, materiality, progress, and science. We explore how archaeology emerged as a discipline alongside colonialism and nationalism and consider the implications of these connections in the Middle East and beyond. The course also focuses on the archaeology of modernity—the growing field that investigates the material remains of the recent past. From the ruins and remnants of wars, genocides, and industrialization, to environmental crises and the waste of mass consumption, we consider how archaeological approaches to material traces offer unique insights into 20th and 21st century history and society. The course draws on case studies from southwest Asia and around the world. Through readings and discussions, we focus on critical questions about temporality, memory, and materiality, and consider how archaeological perspectives can defamiliarize the recent past.

Full details for NES 6355 - Archaeology and Modernity

What does it mean to be Jewish and Arab? In this course we will read and analyze representations of this contested identity in memoirs, essays, fiction, and film by and about Arab Jews. We will study the history of Arab Jewish communities as well as the causes and consequences of their displacement in the mid 20th Century. We will explore the identity politics of Arab Jews in diaspora communities in North America, Europe and Israel. Not all Jews from Arab contexts spoke Arabic or identified with Arab culture. We will examine the political, cultural, and philosophical differences among the terms Sephardi, Mizrahi, and Levantine. We will pay particular attention to the wide-ranging political philosophies of Arab Jews in Israel / Palestine, from the Israeli Black Panthers to the religious party Shas. We will conclude by examining the politics of memory in representations of Arab Jews produced in Arab countries.

Full details for NES 6414 - Arab Jews

This course examines the culture and society of al-Andalus (Islamic Spain) from 711, when Islam arrived in Iberia, until 1492 and the demise of Nasrid Granada. Through extensive discussion and analysis of Arabic, Latin, and Hebrew primary documents and literary texts of various genres (in translation), the course challenges ideological bases of conventional thinking regarding the social, political, and cultural identity of medieval Spain. Among other things, the class investigates the origins of lyric poetry, the relationships among the various confessional and ethnic communities in al-Andalus and the problems involved in Mozarabic Christian and Andalusi Jewish subcultural adaptations of Andalusi Arabo-Islamic culture.

Full details for NES 6539 - Islamic Spain: Culture and Society

The Phoenicians have long been an enigma, a people defined by distant voices. Originating from present-day Lebanon, they were Semitic speakers, renowned seafarers and transmitters of an innovative alphabet that transformed how Mediterranean and Near Eastern folk wrote their languages. Having left us virtually no texts of their own, their history has resembled a patchwork of recollections from Old Testament and Hellenistic times. Recent archaeological discoveries, however, reveal patterns of trade, colonization and socioeconomic transformations that make the Phoenicians less enigmatic while raising new questions. Our class explores the third and second millennium Canaanite roots of the Phoenicians, as well as the Biblical and Greco-Roman perceptions of their early first millennium heyday. We will explore the Phoenician homeland and its colonies, and investigate their maritime economy, language, and religion through both archaeological and textual sources. Temporally the focus is on Phoenician rather than Carthaginian or Punic history, thus up to about 550 BCE. The class has a seminar format involving critical discussions and presentations of scholarly readings, and requires a research paper.

Full details for NES 6550 - Archaeology of the Phoenicians

How and why do landscapes come to inspire the religious imagination? And why do religious practices, rituals, traditions, and beliefs take place in particular landscapes? This seminar treats these questions by focusing on the desert, both imagined and real, as it has shaped religious ascetic practice, especially the development of Christian monasticism in the Middle East. We will read widely from monastic literatures, mostly from late ancient Egypt, to explore both the historical development of monasticism in Christianity and examine why the monastic impulse seems so closely tied to the desert. In addition to reading saints lives and the stories of hermits, we will read early monastic rules, the desert fathers, and we will draw from archaeological sources to examine the varieties of ascetic practices in the deserts of late ancient Egypt, Gaza, Sinai, Palestine, and Syria. Throughout the course we will explore ancient and modern ideas about wilderness and we will explore parallels between ancient Near Eastern literatures and their nineteenth- and twentieth-century parallels in the American frontier and environmental literatures.

Full details for NES 6557 - Desert Monasticism

The purpose of the course is to place the Bible within the context of a larger ancient world that can be explored by systematic excavation of physical remains. Students will become familiar with archaeological excavations and finds from ancient Syria-Palestine from 10,000 bce to 586 bce. We will explore this archaeological evidence on its own terms, taking into consideration factors such as archaeological method and the interpretive frameworks in which the excavators themselves work, as well as the implications of this body of evidence for understanding the complexity and diversity of biblical Israel.

Full details for NES 6588 - Archaeology and the Bible

This seminar examines the emergence of national identities, nationalist movements, and nation-states in the modern Arab world. First, we will examine various approaches to the question of nationalism, using Benedict Anderson's Imagined Communities as our basic reference. We will then test the applicability of these general theories to the Arab World through our examination of specific case studies.

Full details for NES 6672 - Nationalism(s) in the Arab World

A series of lectures on a range of themes in the discipline sponsored by the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Presentations include lectures by invited speakers and works in progress presented by faculty and graduate students.

Full details for NES 6722 - Graduate Colloquium

What happens after death? If there is an Afterlife, how is it connected to earthly life? What would the Afterlife actually look like? What role does God or Satan play in the Afterlife? Since the earliest Qur'anic Revelations, Muslims have questioned, imagined and written about the Afterlife. In this course, we will read widely from across the Islamic religious and literary traditions, reading primary texts in translation. We will begin with a survey of the imagination of the Afterlife in scriptural, religious and literary texts, before examining the role and importance of the Afterlife in Islamic legal thinking and morality. Thereafter, we will focus on theological and ethical problems that arise from the imagination of the Afterlife, focusing in particular on the gendered experience of the Afterlife, as well as the question of whether the individual has free will and moral agency or whether eschatological fate is predetermined.

Full details for NES 6724 - Death and the Afterlife in Islam

For graduate students who wish to do intensive reading on a focused topic. Students select a topic in consultation with the faculty member that has agreed to supervise the course.

Full details for NES 6992 - Independent Study: Graduate Level

What is religion, and how can we use material culture to investigate ancient beliefs and rituals? This course (1) explores major themes and problems in the archaeology of ancient Greek religion, and (2) compares and critiques selected theoretical and methodological approaches to the archaeology of cult more generally. Students will consider and analyze ritual artifacts, cult sites, and other aspects of religious material culture, as well as primary textual sources (in translation).

Full details for NES 7758 - Archaeology of Greek Religion: Theory, Methods, and Practice

Intended for beginners. Provides a thorough grounding in reading, writing, grammar, oral comprehension, and speaking. Students who complete the course are able to function in basic situations in a Hebrew-speaking environment.

Full details for HEBRW 1102 - Elementary Modern Hebrew II

The course is aimed at training students in exact and idiomatic Hebrew, expanding vocabulary and usage of grammatical knowledge, and acquiring facility of expression in both conversation and writing. Uses written and oral exercises built around the texts. Reading and discussion of selections from Hebrew literature and Israeli culture through the use of texts and audiovisual materials.

Full details for HEBRW 2100 - Intermediate Modern Hebrew

This is the second course in our third-year Modern Hebrew language sequence. Like its predecessor, it focuses on developing speech proficiency, reading and listening comprehension, and writing. It does this through reading of a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts; viewing of filmic works and television series selected for their social, political, and cultural relevance; class discussions; presentations and writing about everyday issues in Israel and abroad.

Full details for HEBRW 3102 - Advanced Modern Hebrew II

This course develops oral and written communication, as well as reading and listening comprehension, through engagement with Israeli media (newspapers, radio reports, and television and internet news) and literature. Through study of course materials, students will also gain a broader understanding of the State of Israel necessary for advanced Hebrew proficiency.

Full details for HEBRW 3104 - Advanced Hebrew Through Language, Media and Literature

This course is designed for students who have completed the advanced Hebrew sequence and wish to maintain and further develop their proficiency. Centered on the close reading of a contemporary Hebrew book, the course emphasizes vocabulary expansion, reading comprehension, and spoken fluency. Students will read assigned chapters outside of class and submit short written responses, including summaries, reflections, and discussion prompts. Class meetings focus on guided discussion, interpretation of the text, and active language use.

Full details for HEBRW 3106 - Advanced Hebrew Novel and Discussion Seminar

Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.

Full details for HEBRW 5509 - Graduate Studies in Hebrew

This course is designed to help students start speaking Arabic from the very first day. This is done in the context of learning about the diverse Arab cultures and reading and writing the beautiful alphabet! Topics include Arab hospitality, holidays, family structure, popular slang and sayings, songs, and more.

Full details for ARAB 1100 - Gateway to Arabic Language and Culture

This two-course sequence assumes no previous knowledge of Arabic and provides a thorough grounding in the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. It starts with the alphabet and the number system and builds the four skills gradually and systematically through carefully selected and organized materials focusing on specific, concrete and familiar topics such as self identification, family, travel, food, renting an apartment, study, the weather, etc.). These topics are listed in the textbook's table of contents. The student who successfully completes the two-course sequence will have mastered about 1000 basic words and will be able to: 1) understand and actively participate in conversations on a limited range of practical topics such as self-identification, family, school, work, the weather, travel, etc., 2) read and understand, with the help of a short list of words, passages of up to 180 words written in Arabic script, and 3) discuss orally in class and write a 50-word paragraph in Arabic. The two-course sequence aims to take the student from the Novice to the Intermediate Mid level according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines.

Full details for ARAB 1202 - Elementary Arabic II

In this two-course sequence learners continue to develop the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing and grammar foundation through the extensive use of graded materials on a wide variety of topics. While more attention is given to developing native-like pronunciation and to grammatical accuracy than in ARAB 1201 and ARAB 1202, the main focus of the course will be on encouraging fluency and facility in understanding the language and communicating ideas in it. The student who successfully completes this two-course sequence will have mastered over 1500 new words and will be able to: 1) understand and actively participate in conversations related to a wide variety of topics beyond those covered in ARAB 1201 and ARAB 1202, such as the history and geography of the Arab world, food and health, sports, economic matters, the environment, politics, the Palestine problem, etc. 2) read and understand, with the help of a short list of words, passages of up to 300 words, and 3) discuss orally in class and write a 150-word paragraph in Arabic with fewer grammatical errors than in ARAB 1202. The two-course sequence aims to take the student from the Intermediate Mid to the Advanced Mid level according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines.

Full details for ARAB 2202 - Intermediate Arabic II

This course is designed for students who are interested in reading the language of the Qur'an with accuracy and understanding. The first week (4 classes) will be devoted to an introduction of the history of the Qur'an: the revelation, collection, variant readings, and establishment of an authoritative edition. The last week will be devoted to a general overview of revisionist literature on the Qur'an. In the remaining 12 weeks, we will cover all of Part 30 (Juz' 'Amma, suuras 78-114) and three suuras of varying length (36, 19, and 12).

Full details for ARAB 2204 - Introduction to Quranic Arabic

In this two-semester sequence, learners will be introduced to authentic, unedited Arabic language materials ranging from short stories, and poems, to newspaper articles dealing with social, political, and cultural issues. Emphasis will be on developing fluency in oral expression through discussions of issues presented in the reading and listening selections. There will be more focus on the development of native-like pronunciation and accurate use of grammatical structures than in the previous four courses. A primary objective of the course is the development of the writing skill through free composition exercises in topics of interest to individual students. This course starts where ARAB 2202 leaves off and continues the development of the four language skills and grammar foundation using 18 themes, some new and some introduced in previous courses but are presented here at a more challenging level. The student who successfully completes this two-course sequence have mastered over 3000 new words and will be able, within context of the 18 new and recycled themes to: 1) understand and actively participate in conversations, 2) read and understand, with the help of a short list of words, authentic, unedited passages of up to 400 words, and 3) discuss orally in class and write a 300-word paragraph in Arabic with fewer grammatical errors than in ARAB 2202. The two-course sequence aims to take the student from the Advanced Mid to the Superior level according to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines.

Full details for ARAB 3202 - Advanced Arabic II

The objective of this course is to help students develop all four communicative skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) through the use of Arabic films coupled with other structured materials such as study guides, short readings and other authentic resources. Each lesson focuses on student-centered and interactive activities that include pair or group work, role-play, debates, and class presentations.

Full details for ARAB 3700 - Arabic Language Through Film

Certain verses in the Quran have challenged Muslim interpreters as well as modern scholars. In some cases, the verses do not seem to fit the context; in others, they violate standard rules of Arabic grammar. Some in the Muslim tradition take these verses as evidence of the miraculous nature of the language of the Quran whose secrets only Allah knows. A number of modern scholars, particularly in the West, have tried to understand them by reference to Semitic languages, particularly Syriac and Hebrew, or by reference to Christian and Jewish traditions, which had a substantial influence on the language of the Quran. Some scholars have gone so far as to offer alternative readings of the Quranic text or to propose emendations. Applying the tools of modern linguistic analysis, we will examine a sample of these passages, read their standard Muslim interpretation (tafsiir), identify grammatical and textual problems and propose alternative interpretations that arguably produce a semantically more coherent and grammatically sounder text.

Full details for ARAB 4867 - In Search of the Original Quran

Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.

Full details for ARAB 5509 - Graduate Studies in Arabic

In this introductory course of a sequence of two, learners will develop a basic foundation in reading, writing, listening, and beginning conversation skills in contemporary Turkish. Learners will read short texts on Turkish culture, handle non-complex social conversations, understand sentence-level statements, and write simple paragraphs on familiar topics. This course has a section focused on Turkish TV series. In this section, the learners will have a deeper understanding of Turkish language, society, and culture. They will watch the most popular TV series, complete the assigned tasks, and discuss in class. This course is for new learners of Turkish.

Full details for TURK 1331 - Elementary Turkish through TV Series II

This class is designed for students who have completed Intermediate Turkish I and who want to further improve and practice their Turkish in a culturally rich environment. Intermediate Turkish II through Cooking is structured around simple Turkish recipes and hands-on cooking experiences. These activities are integrated with the grammar and vocabulary students learn, which they practice during the cooking process. Students gain insight into Turkish food culture, its historical background, and culinary narratives through cooking-based activities.

Full details for TURK 2333 - Intermediate Turkish II Through Cooking

Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.

Full details for TURK 5509 - Graduate Studies in Turkish

Intended for beginners and heritage speakers alike, this course is a quick and easy way to a popular worldly language in a modern day context (Farsi)! Students develop all four skills - speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Additional materials from authentic culture-focused readings and Persian poetry are an integral part of the curriculum. By the end of this course students will be able to actively participate in conversations centered around family and friends, hometown, country, studies and work, daily activities, modern Iran as well as write extensively on familiar topics. Students will acquire cultural competence and be able to function in authentic Persian cultural context using the taarof.

Full details for PERSN 1321 - Elementary Persian-Farsi II

The course is designed with strong integration of modern colloquial Persian (Farsi). Only colloquial Persian is used for all speaking and listening activities, while reading and writing tasks are performed in formal Persian. Authentic material drawn from Persian language TV, radio and movies is introduced regularly in accordance with the topic and vocabulary of given week. By the end of the semester students will be able to speak, read and comprehend material on a range of social, cultural, political and everyday topics. You'll learn how to write emails and notes as educated Persian speakers, read Persian newspapers and comprehend audio material intended for native speakers. We'll also delve into Persian folk tales, modern Persian rap and pop and Persian humor.

Full details for PERSN 2322 - Intermediate Persian-Farsi Through Media and Film

Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.

Full details for PERSN 5509 - Graduate Studies in Persian

A continuation of HIERO 1450. For over two thousand years, from the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2100 BCE) into the Roman era, Egyptian monuments were inscribed with hieroglyphs of the Middle Egyptian writing system. Students will continue to learn the complete Middle Egyptian verbal system and continue to enrich their Egyptian vocabulary. We will also continue translating complete literary and religious texts, including the fantastic tale of a sailor's maritime misadventures and divine encounters (The Shipwrecked Sailor) and a hymn in honor of the sun god (The Litany of Re).

Full details for HIERO 1451 - Ancient Egyptian II: Introduction to Middle Egyptian Hieroglyphs

Topics vary by semester in relation to student needs.

Full details for HIERO 5509 - Graduate Studies in Hieroglyphic Egyptian