Global Arc

An overview of the issues surrounding global energy supplies, oil¿s unique economic properties, and its role in shaping the political economy of the Middle East and U.S. strategic interests in the region. We will begin by discussing the basic science and availability of energy sources, the state of technology, the functioning of energy markets, the challenges of coping with global climate change and the key role of the oil reserves in the Middle East. The second part of the course will focus on the history of oil in the Middle East and its impact on societies in the region.

Course examines the history of interaction between Zoroastrians and Muslims after the Arab conquest of Iran. We will address the overarching question of how Zoroastrians responded to an increasingly marginalized status within Muslim states and consider the evolving place of Zoroastrianism in the understanding of non-Zoroastrians in Iran and South Asia, as well as contemporary Kurdistan and Tajikistan. Topics covered include conversion; historical memory; the role of religious minority communities; inter-religious polemic and dialogue; law; and the relationship of religious minorities to larger communities under colonial and secular regimes.

This course investigates the role of oil in shaping the political economy of the Middle East and U.S. strategic interests in the region. The first part of the course covers events chronologically, from the pre-petroleum era to the current conflict in Iraq. Next we will cover U.S. policy interests in the region, followed by a discussion of debates concerning the impact of oil on economic and political development in the Middle East.

The importance of the Cairo Geniza, a cache of texts discovered in the attic of a medieval Egyptian synagogue, goes beyond Jewish history, crossing the breadth of the medieval world and offering an intimate view of commerce, slavery, heresy and seafaring; of what people wore, ate, rode, believed and did all day; of who married whom and why; of a Shi'ite state ruling over Sunnis, Christians and Jews; and of a society that remains the best documented of its period. Students in the course will read unpublished primary sources to gain an insider's glimpse of what we can know and can't know in premodern history.

This course explores a variety of medieval Arabic texts through the lens of wonder. It is through marveling at the foreign and inexplicable that we position ourselves in the world and separate the Self from the Other. Yet, wonder is also what prompts our curiosity for discovery and provokes our search for explanations. Where was the line drawn between the familiar and the strange in medieval Arabic culture? How was wonder defined? What role did it play? The course is taught in English in its entirety. No prerequisites.

This course offers an introduction to pre-modern Middle Eastern social history focused on gender and women's lives. Proceeding chronologically from late antiquity through the eighteenth century, we will use secondary scholarship and primary sources (including legal and literary texts, court records, and letters) to examine pre-Islamic and Islamicate ideas and practices surrounding male and female modesty, mobility, honor, kinship, social ties, access to property, legal status, and sexuality; how these ideas and practices shaped men's and women's experiences within households and in the public sphere; and how they changed over time.

This course explores why, since the late 18th century, Jews and non-Jews alike have asked if the Jews are a nation and why people answer differently, inviting students to think about the origins of nationalism and the relationship between nations and other groups - religions, 'races,' ethnicities, and states. Learn about those who insisted that the Jews are not a separate nation and consider the different motivations for rejecting the nationhood of the Jews. We will examine the varieties of Jewish nationalisms that arose at the end of the 19th century, including Diaspora nationalism, territorialism, and especially Zionism.

This course explores how feminist thought & activism circulates globally by examining a variety of feminist movements in the Middle East & North Africa. Beginning with modern feminist thought and activism in mid-19th century Syria & Egypt, we'll trace feminist movements in various contemporary contexts, from Morocco, Iran, Turkey, Tunisia, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon & Egypt in the 20th century, to women's participation in the Arab Spring and transnational Islamic movements in the 21st century. We'll map the local and geopolitical discourses that have shaped regional feminisms, and ask how local feminisms are transnational or global.

This is a course in comparative political theory. Beginning with a study of classical and contemporary Western liberal and democratic theory, this course explores how modern Iranian political theorists and ideologues interpret or critique liberalism and democracy or offer theories of government that stand at odds with liberal and democratic theory. These Iranian authors draw from both religious and non-religious (including Marxist) perspectives. Throughout the course, students will be encouraged to put the diverse authors that they read into dialogue with one another.

The decline of marriage in recent decades is often tied to the decline of religion. But why should marriage, a contractual relationship centered on sex and property, be seen as a religious practice? This seminar considers the varied and surprising ways in which the great monotheistic traditions of the Near East came to connect certain forms of human marriage - or their rejection- to divine devotion, and considers how marriage worked in societies shaped by these traditions. Spanning biblical Israel to the medieval Islamic world, this course will introduce you to the historical study of Near Eastern religions and to the field of family history.