Fall Courses

Banner Credit: Marrakesh, Morocco. Photograph by Luke Yarbrough.

Fall 2021

  • Anthropology M166Q/ Arabic M171/History M108C – Culture Area of Maghrib (North Africa)

    Instructor: Aomar Boum

    Lecture, three hours. Designed for juniors/seniors. Introduction to North Africa, especially Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, also known as Maghrib or Tamazgha. Topics include changing notions of personal, tribal, ethnic, linguistic and religious identities; colonialism; gender and legal rights, changing representations of Islam, and religions in region’s public spaces. P/NP or letter grading.

  • History 105A – Survey of Middle East, 500 to Present: 500 to 1300

    Instructor: Michael Morony

    Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Background and circumstances of rise of Islam, creation of Islamic Empire, and its development. Rise of Dynastic Successor States and Modern Nation States. Social, intellectual, political, and economic development. P/NP or letter grading

  • History 165 – Topics in African History: African History through History of Things

    Instructor: Ghislaine Lydon

    Cowries, gold, cocoa, ebony, and ivory are all things that bring Africa to mind. Thinking about each of these things individually is original and fun way to learn about Africa’s economic and cultural history, but also about Africa’s place in world history. Focusing on certain commodities and emblematic items, and their place in history, generates all kinds of questions about desires, needs, and struggles of people of world throughout history. Examination of how quest, trade, and diffusion of certain things can explain large swaths of history. Students also learn about African goods–commodities or things–that changed world.

  • History 200J – Advanced Historiography: Near East: Historiography of Modern Middle East

    Instructor: James Gelvin

    Introduction to most important ideas and debates in field of modern Middle Eastern history, and placement of those ideas and debates within context of Anglo-American historiographic trends, with concentration on approaches. Part one of two-part study; second part not required. Only both parts fulfill Middle East field historiography requirement.

  • History 9D – Introduction to Asian Civilizations: History of Middle East

    Instructor: James Gelvin

    Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Introduction to history of Muslim world from advent of Islam to present day. P/NP or letter grading.

  • History C201N – Topics in History: Africa: Things in History, History of Things: New Approaches to Researching African History

    Instructor: Ghislaine Lydon

    Salt, gold, rubber, cloth, cell phones: mere mention of any one of these goods or commodities conjures processes in world history that speak to shared human experience. Focusing on number of these things is fun and creative way to learn about African and world history. Tracing historical itineraries of certain commodities and emblematic things, and their places in history, generates fascinating questions about consumerism and evolving developments in common needs of people in Africa, around world, and across centuries. Introduction to key popular and scholarly works on history of consumerism, and trading systems in and out of Africa that supported far-flung exchanges of things. Consideration of how quest, trade, and diffusion of certain goods can explain large swaths of history. Students work on research project focused on history of one remarkable thing in African history.

  • Iranian 103A – Advanced Persian: Introduction to Classical Persian Poetry

    Instructor: Domenico Ingenito

    Lecture, three hours. Requisite: course 102C. Students who do exceptionally well in course 20C may be permitted to enroll with consent of instructor. May be taken independently for credit. P/NP or letter grading.

  • Islamic Studies 151 – Islamic Thought

    Instructor: Luke Yarbrough

    Lecture, 90 minutes; discussion, 90 minutes. Recommended requisite: course M110. Based on original writings of major Islamic thinkers in English translation, provides balanced picture of enormous ideological variety found in contemporary Muslim world. Examination of representative writings from wide spectrum of modern Islamic intellectuals and writers. Letter grading.

  • Islamic Studies 200 – Introduction to Islamic Studies

    Instructor: Asma Sayeed

    This course serves as an introduction to the interdisciplinary, global field of Islamic Studies and is intended for early stage MA and PhD students and advanced undergraduates. The course is required for Islamic Studies graduate students. Students will survey current trajectories in Islamic Studies, acquire advanced research skills, and engage with a range of disciplinary and theoretical approaches to sources and research methods. Students will also have the opportunity to meet with Islamic Studies affiliated faculty to discuss their scholarship and work-in-progress.