Global Arc

There is growing interest today in bioethics and how human beings form ethical subjectivities during embodied life-crisis events such as pregnancy, birth, illness and death. This course examines how various Muslim communities use their cultural and textual heritages to respond to the challenges of new technologies and biomedicine in questions related to the beginnings of life. We will consider how Muslims cultivate ethical subjectivities in increasingly global localities, and the gender politics of reproduction and fertility.

The Caucasus region has served as a contested borderland from time immemorial and has fascinated outsiders for nearly as long. It is today a tense and explosive region. This course surveys the history of both the north and south Caucasus. It begins with an overview of the region's geography, peoples, and religions, and then examines in more detail the history of the Caucasus from the Russian conquest to the present day. Topics covered include ethnic and religious conflict and coexistence, Sovietization, the formation of national identities, and pipeline politics.

An introduction to the vast number of Islam-inspired sociopolitical movements. An attempt is made to present the contemporary movements in the light of the Islamic tradition of rebellion and revolution. Islamic movements will be surveyed against the historical and social context in which they occurred, with emphasis on the Arab World and Iran. Questions will be raised about the ways in which these movements have been approached and interpreted. Two 90-minute classes.

The rise of revivalist and radical religious movements in Muslim societies understandably has spurred interest in the politics of Islam. Yet Muslims have also had extensive experience with secular politics. Central Asia and the Middle East in the 20th century saw secularization projects that fundamentally transformed Muslim societies and left legacies that will persist long into the 21st century. Drawing on the disciplines of history, religious studies, anthropology, and political science, this course explores how Central Asian and Middle Eastern Muslims embraced and rejected, assimilated and resisted, constructed and negotiated secularism.

A general introduction to Iran in the period from the establishment of the Qajar dynasty in the late 18th century to the present day. Particular emphasis will be given to the social and cultural development of Iran under the stimulus of its contacts with the West. Two lectures, one preceptorial. Offered in alternate years.

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.