Global Arc

This course examines the concept of "Central Asia" and how the formation of modern Central Asian republics, each labelled with specific ethnonyms, has obscured the region's profoundly interconnected history that transcends current political boundaries. It offers a longue durée approach to the region's history as part of the Turko-Indo-Persianate world. It addresses Central Asia as a shared space where nomadic and sedentary societies lived together for centuries, mixed with each other and created the region's multifaced cultural identity.

What are Digital Humanities? What does the library of the future look like? Will the single-author peer-reviewed article survive the DH storm that is coming? How will the DH impact the ways we do historical research? And what ethical and legal problems arise from the use of DH methods? In this course, we will familiarize ourselves and experiment with a variety of Digital Humanities tools, such as network analysis, geospatial mapping, text mining, and crowdsourcing, interrogating how the DH reshape the ways we approach textual and material culture, ask research questions, process data, publish, and store academic scholarship.

How do religions start, and who starts them? Why do some religious movements succeed, and others fail? Did the concept of "religion" even exist in the premodern world? We will seek answers to these questions and more as we explore religious traditions that flourished in the Near East and Central Asia during Late Antiquity, namely Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Manichaeism and Zoroastrianism. Using a diverse array of primary sources (texts, coins, mosaics, and wall paintings), we will explore interactions between members of these religious groups as we challenge traditional tropes and narratives about premodern society and religion.

This course critically examines the experiences of queer, black, and non-Muslim bodies in Islamic societies, past and present. Drawing on critical theory, as well as premodern and modern literature in translation, we examine how the Islamic tradition positions itself towards the societal margin, how the margin can be used as a method of research (social and material histories), and how it structures the cosmic order (the Islamic barzakh). Throughout the course, we seek to dislodge the margin-center binary by exposing its entanglements in the modern order of knowledge, envisioning alternatives from the Islamic tradition instead.

Hands-on course introduces you to manuscripts and the first printed books -- how to handle them and what excites people about them. Most famous books, from the I Ching to The Odyssey to the Bible, have come down to us copied by hand. Yet manuscripts are not just vehicles for texts: they have their own stories to tell and carry the traces of scribes, craftspeople, booksellers, owners, readers, and doodlers. The class meets in Special Collections and centers experiential learning, including handling historical materials, reading the evidence embedded in writing surfaces, inks, and layouts, and executing traditional bookmaking techniques.

This course is a multidisciplinary approach to the field of Central Asian Studies with a special focus on the interconnectivity between Central Asia and its neighbouring regions (China, India, Iran, the Mediterranean and eastern Europe). It provides a comprehensive overview of Central Asian history, art, culture, religion, and politics from ancient times to the early modern period. It helps students engage with primary materials and analyse them within their historical context. Students will develop an understanding of how Central Asia's multi-faceted cultural identity was created and how it influenced its neighbouring regions.

Junior Independent Work requires students to complete a substantial piece of research and scholarship under the supervision and advisement of a Princeton faculty member. The work requires sustained investment and attention throughout the semester. See below for details on works-in-progress submissions and due dates.

Who was the Prophet Muhammad, and how did Islam rise from an illicit movement in Mecca into a world religion? This course surveys the expansion of Islam into North Africa, Iran, and South Asia until 1000 CE by exploring its rich literature: Arabic poetry, the Quran, Muhammad's biography, and Sindhi hymns of the Prophet, read alongside Christian and Jewish responses to Islam. We study how Muslims understood revelation, authority, and community - and why Islam divided into Sunni and Shi`i traditions. Readings also explore Islamic philosophy, architecture, and mysticism (Sufism), revealing how Islam reshaped global history. No background req.

How do board games reflect the societies that play them? This course explores the history of play from the ancient Royal Game of Ur to modern tabletop design. Centering the Near East and South Asia, we examine how games like backgammon, chess, and snakes and ladders modeled fate, courtly etiquette, and spiritual piety. Students will study medieval chess problems, coffeehouse culture, and postcolonial theory. Bridging history and modern game design, the course will feature guest lectures from historians and tabletop industry figures, challenging students to read and prototype games as complex cultural texts.

This course offers a comprehensive analysis of humanitarian and development aid provided by regional donors in the broader Middle East, with a focus on Gulf States' foreign aid in contemporary crises. By adopting a multidisciplinary approach that incorporates history, anthropology, and international relations theories, the course enables students to acquire the understanding of foreign aid and humanitarian practices, as well as the analytical tools necessary to critically evaluate the strengths and contradictions of the international aid system, ultimately enhancing their knowledge of aid dynamics in contemporary regional crises.