Fall 2008 MEALAC Courses

Below is a partial listing of the courses offered by our department for Fall 2008. Please note that this information is subject to change. For further information, please visit the Registrar's Directory of Classes for Fall 2008.

The following designators appear in abbreviated form: MDES (Middle East), AHUM (Asian Humanities), ASCM (Asian Civilizations-Middle East), CLME (Comparative Literature-Middle East) and HSME (History-Middle East). These classes are open to both undergraduates and graduates.

Language Courses

Advanced Tamil I
MDES W4118 | Instructor: Sam Sudanandha

Third Year Arabic I
MDES W4210 | Instructor: May Ahmar

Third Year Arabic I
MDES W4210 | Instructor: May Ahmar

Fourth Year Arabic I: Modern Prose
MDES W4212 | Instructor: Taoufik Ben-Amor Note: INSTRUCTOR PERMISSION REQUIRED

Third Year Modern Hebrew I
MDES W4510 | Instructor: Ruth Raphaeli-Slivko

Fourth Year Modern Hebrew: Readings
MDES W4512 | Instructor: Ruth Raphaeli-Slivko

Elementary Bengali I
BENG W1101 | Instructor: Dwijen Bhattacharjya
Introductory course to Bengali, a major language of northeast India and Bangladesh.

Intermediate Bengali I
BENG W1201 | Instructor: Dwijen Bhattacharjya
Further develops a student's knowledge of Bengali, a major language of northeast India and Bangladesh.

Elementary Kannada I
KANA1101 | Instructor: Suman Mallipattana
Introduction to Kannada, one of the major Dravidian languages of Southern India and the state language of Karnataka, one of the four southern states in India.

Intermediate Kannada I
KANA 1201 | Instructor: Suman Mallipattana
Further develops a student's knowledge of Kannada, one of the major Dravidian languages of Southern India and the state language of Karnataka, one of the four southern states in India.

Intermediate Pulaar I
PULA W1201 | Instructor: Marianne S Sy
These courses further develop a student's knowledge of Pulaar, a major language of West Africa.

Elementary Punjabi I
PUNJ W1101 | Instructor: Sandeep Singh
Introduction to Punjabi, a major language of northern India and Pakistan. Beginning with the study of the Gurmukhi script, the course offers an intensive study of the speaking, reading, and writing of the language.

Intermediate Punjabi I
PUNJ W1201 | Instructor: Sandeep Singh
Further develops a student's writing, reading, and oral skills in Punjabi, a major language of northern India and Pakistan.

Elementary Swahili I
SWHL W1101 | Instructor: Jane Clayton
Essentials of grammar, basic vocabulary, practice in speaking and reading Swahili the most widely used indigenous language of East Africa.

Intermediate Swahili I
SWHL W1201 | Instructor: Abdul Nanji
A review of the essentials of Swahili grammar; detailed analysis of Swahili texts; practice in conversation.

Advanced Swahili I
SWHL W3335 | Instructor: Abdul Nanji
An introduction to the advanced syntactical, morphological, and grammatical structures of Swahili grammar; detailed analysis of Swahili texts; practice in conversation.

Elementary Telegu I
TELU W1101 | Instructor: Aruna P. Magier
Introductory course to Telugu, the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Note: EMAIL INSTRUCTOR FOR MORE INFORMATION AT apk42@columbia.edu.

Intermediate Telegu I
TELU W1201 | Instructor: Aruna P Magier
Further develops a student's knowledge of Telugu, the official language of the state of Andhra Pradesh, India. Note: E-MAIL INSTRUCTOR FOR MORE INFORMATION AT apk42@columbia.edu.

Elementary Wolof I
WLOF W1101 | Instructor: Marianne Sy
Introduction to the basic grammatical structures of Wolof, a major language of West Africa spoken in Senegal and Gambia.

Elementary Wolof II
WLOF W1102 | Instructor: TBA
Introduction to the basic grammatical structures of Wolof, a major language of West Africa spoken in Senegal and Gambia.

Intermediate Wolof I
WLOF W1201 | Instructor: Marianne Sy
Further develop a student's knowledge of Wolof, a major language of West Africa spoken primarily in Senegal and Gambia.

Elementary Zulu
ZULU W1101 I | Instructor: Elson Khambule
Introduces students to the basic structures of Zulu, a Bantu language spoken in South Africa, especially in the Zululand area of KwaZulu/Natal province.

Intermediate Zulu
ZULU W1201 I | Instructor: Elson Khambule
Provides students with an in-depth review of the essentials of the Zulu grammar. Students are also able to practice their language skills in conversation.

Culture and Literature Courses

Intro to Islamic Civilization
Islamic civilization and its characteristic political, social, and religious institutions and intellectual traditions. ASCM V2003 | Instructor: George Saliba

Intro to Indian Civilization
ASCM V2357 | Instructor: Frances Pritchett
Introduction to Indian civilization with attention to both its unity and its diversity across the Indian subcontinent. Consideration of its origins, formative development,fundamental social institutions, religious thought and practice(Vedic, Buddhist, Jain, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh), literary and artistic achievements, and modern challenges.

Theory-Culture: Middle East/South Asia
MDES W3000 | Instructor: Nader Sohrabi

Major Texts: Middle East/India
AHUM V3399 | Instructor: Nanor Kenderian

Major Texts: Middle East/India
AHUM V3399 | Instructor: Hossein Kamaly

Intro to Hebrew Literature
CLME W3542 | Instructor: Dan Miron

Intro to Modern African History
MDES W3942 | Instructor: Mamadou Diouf
The seminar is an interdisciplinary exploration of the history of the African continent, examining very closely the colonial and postcolonial periods. Its focus is the intersection of politics, economics, culture and society. Using colonialism, empire, and globalization as key analytical frames, it pays special attention to social, political and cultural changes that shaped the various African individual and collective experiences.

Theory & Methods-Middle East & South Asia
MDES G4000 | Instructor: Sudipta Kaviraj

Freud & Derrida
MDES G4050 | Instructor: Gil Anidjar

Culture & Power in Iraqi Literature
CLME G4106 | Instructor: Muhsin Al-Musawi

Hebrew Love
MDES G4524 | Instructor: Uri Cohen
Hebrew Love will examine the Hebrew literary and visual canon in search of its discourse of love and the larger implications of such a discourse. Notoriously love is impossible to define and very difficult to engage as a critical category, and yet it forms the core of national revival and is the main vehicle of linkage between the work and the individual. Moving from the biblical foundation across time, works written in and out of the land of Israel and later in the state, will be read as formations of a Hebrew heart but also of gender, the nation and the polity. These contexts and intertexts will be examined together as the poetics of emotional experience and another effort to understand what we talk about when we talk about love.

Political Theology
MDES G4560 | Instructor: Gil Anidjar
This reading-intensive course will engage the notion of "political theology," a notion that emerges within the Western tradition (Varro, Augustine) and has become instrumental in thinking and institutionalizing the distinction between religion and politics over the course of the twentieth century. We will take as our point of departure the key texts that have revived this notion (Schmitt, Kantorowicz), engage their interpretation of the Bible and of Augustine and medieval followers. We will then examine the role of Spinoza and Moses Mendelsohn, the extension of the notion of religion to "the East"(Said, Grosrichard, Asad), and conclude with some of the current debates over secularization in the colonizing and colonized world.

Readings in Hindi Literature I
MDES W4610 | Instructor: TBA

Readings In Urdu Literature I
MDES W4635 | Instructor: Frances Pritchett

Advanced Sanskrit I
MDES W4810 | Instructor: Som Dev Vasudeva

Advanced Turkish
MDES W4910 | Instructor: Etem Erol

Constitutionalism, Ataturk, Reza Shah
HSME G4941 | Instructor: Nader Sohrabi

Readings In Classical Arabic I
MDES G6210 | Instructor: George A Saliba

Arabic Literary Production
CLME G6225 | Instructor: Muhsin Al-Musawi

Modern Jewish Literary Complex
MDES G6522 | Instructor: Dan Miron
Introduction to the problematics of the modern Jewish literary complex; the history and the nature of Jewish multilingualism and multi-culturalism; differential and integral bilingualisms; the modalities of literary contiguity. Reading material: Achad ha'am (The Renaissance of the Spirit); Berdizcewski (Jewish bilingualism and bi-culturalism); Sadan (Masat mavo); Niger (Di tveyshprakhkeyt).

Advanced Study - South Asian History, Culture and Society
ANTH G8014 | Instructor: Nicholas Dirks. Partha Chatterjee