New Courses for Fall 2009

CHECK OUT THESE EXCITING NEW COURSES BEING OFFERED THIS FALL:

Hindi for Heritage Speakers I
MDES W1608, Professor Rakesh Ranjan
This is an accelerated course for students of South Asian origin who already possess knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking and listening skills in Hindi. They may not have sufficient skills in reading and writing but are able to converse on familiar topics such as: self, family, likes, dislikes and immediate surroundings. This course will focus on developing knowledge of the basic grammar of Hindi and vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural and social topics related to aspects of daily life; and formal and informal registers. Students will be able to read and discuss simple texts and write about a variety of everyday topics by the end of the semester.

Colonialism: Film, Fiction, History & Theory
CLME W3032, Professor Hamid Dabashi
This course is intended as a Global Core Requirement, introducing Columbia College students to the global phenomenon of colonialism in a broadly introductory, interdisciplinary, and temporally and spatially expansive way. As all other courses in the Global Core, this introductory course to the global phenomenon of Colonialism is organized around a set of primary texts – in film, fiction, history, autobiography, and theory – produced in or about the regions of the world in which colonialism has had an impact. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a wide range of cinematic, fictional, historical, autobiographical, and theoretical sources on the global and cross-cultural phenomenon of colonialism.

Rethinking Middle East Politics
MDES W3260, Professor Tim Mitchell
This course examines a set of questions that have shaped the study of the politics of the modern Middle East. It looks at the main ways those questions have been answered, exploring debates both in Western academic scholarship and among scholars and intellectuals in the region itself. For each question, the course offers new ways of thinking about the issue or ways of framing it in different terms. The topics covered in the course include: the kinds of modern state that emerged in the Middle East and the ways its forms of power and authority were shaped; the birth of “economic development” as a way of describing the function and measuring the success of the state, and the changing metrics of this success; the influence of oil on the politics of the region; the nature and role of Islamic political movements; the transformation of the countryside and the city and the role of rural populations and of urban protest in modern politics; and the politics of armed force and political violence in the region, and the ways in which this has been understood. The focus of the course will be on the politics of the twentieth century, but many topics will be traced back into developments that occurred in earlier periods, and several will be explored up to the present. The course is divided into four parts, each ending with a paper or exam in which participants are asked to analyze the material covered. Each part of the course has a geographical focus on a country or group of countries and a thematic focus on a particular set of questions of historical and political analysis.

Introduction to Western Armenian Literature
MDES W3925, Professor Nanor Kenderian
A broad introduction to the major stages, movements and works of Western Armenian literature from its “inception” in the Ottoman Empire to its contemporary Diasporic variations. Using translations of Harutyun Kurkjyan’s comprehensive textbook Hay Kyank’ yev Grakanut’yun [Armenian Life and Literature] alongside translations from Heritage of Armenian Literature III and various readings in history and criticism, this course will offer a broad introduction to the major stages, movements and works of Western Armenian literature from its “literary inception” in the 1850’s Ottoman Empire until its current trends in the Diaspora. The course, which will also touch on major developments in theatre, cinema, and music, will offer an opportunity for comparative study. Since the trajectory of Western Armenian literature is inextricably bound with major historical events, the course will take an interdisciplinary approach as it brings significant historical developments into discussions of the literature’s trajectory. All readings will be in English and English translation.

Themes in the Novels of the Middle East, Africa & South Asia: Fiction of Post-Colonialism, CLME W4024, Professor Noha Radwan
This course offers a reading of a selection of novels from the Middle East, India and Africa that represent, interrogate and challenge the colonialist and post-independence history of their nations and regions. It has long been understood that colonial domination was achieved through the deployment of more than brute force. It was not only power, but also colonialist knowledge that became the foundations of European hegemony over the colonial world. It has also become a matter of little debate that post-colonial societies are still, to varying degrees, subject to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination. The course examines the complex processes by which the writers of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa suffer, resist and ultimately try to extricate their cultures and societies from the legacy of colonialism. Novels in both English and English translations will constitute the primary reading material for this course.

Locating Africa in the Early 20th Century World
HSME G4052, Professor Mamadou Diouf and Jinny Prais
During the early twentieth century the meaning of Africa and its location within the “universal” historical narrative was a source of discussion and debate among western and African elites. In this seminar, we will study the ways that African and people of African descent participated in this discussion. We will learn about how African, African American and European writers, artists and activists engaged and (re) interpreted imperial and international resources (including the insights of the new sciences of Man) to (re)imagine their political and social situations, and to participate in various political expressions , including surrealism, pan-Africanism, communism, feminism, black internationalism, and anti-imperialism. We will also engage critically debates (e.g., Egyptianisms and Ethiopianisms) and theoretical developments in African, imperial, transnational, international and global scholarship that seeks to understand the complex traffic of people and ideas across national and imperial boundaries.

Global Political Thought: Gandhi, Iqbal, Nehru, Senghor
MDES G4062, Professors Sudipta Kaviraj, Akeel Bilgrami and Souleymane Diagne
This course is intended to explore important themes in modern political thought from texts taken from traditions outside the modern West. It will not be devoted to textual exegesis, but use as sites of exploration central questions of modern politics. The attempt will be not merely to grasp what these thinkers thought, but to think more widely with and through their texts. The course will focus on the works of M K Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Iqbal, and Leopold Senghor. It will involve reading assigned texts and critical and comparative analysis of their theoretical ideas.

Advanced Arabic Grammar Review
MDES W4215, Professor Taoufik Ben-Amor
Through reading and writing, students will review Arabic Grammar concepts within the context of linguistic functions such as narration, description, comparison, etc. For example, within the function of narration, students will focus on verb tenses, word order, and adverbials. Based on error analysis in the past twelve years that the Arabic Program has been using Al-Kitaab, emphasis will be placed on common and frequent grammatical errors.

Arabic Self-Narratives: Secular Autobiography &
Its Writers’ Predicament, CLME G4226, Professor Muhsin Al-Musawi
This course studies a number of autobiographical works; memoirs and reminiscences that are meant to rationalize and sell a writer’s experience. These serve as trajectories for a secular journey rather than one from denial to affirmation. Staunchly established in modernity and its nahda paradigms, most of these writings are secular itineraries that rarely search for faith. They are the journeys of a generation of Arab intellectuals who are facing many crises, but not the crisis of faith. They provide another look at the making of the Arab intelligentsia since the early 20th century and help us discern the pitfalls and failures, along with successes, that have been wrapping the nation state. No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required.

Islam on the Street: The Religious Dynamic in Modern Arabic Literary Production, CLME G4261, Professor Muhsin Al-Musawi
This course questions the whole idea of Arab modernity usually associated with the nahda or Arab awakening at the turn of the nineteenth century. Through close analysis of texts, poetry, narrative, travelogue and memoirs, it argues that the bane of modernity is its subordination to a Western ideal that minimizes or even negates its engagement with Islamic and Arab tradition. The nation state and through codification processes and as led by the intelligentsia forged a social program that is no less divested of tradition and rural culture. Only after 1967, the unsettling experience of total bankruptcy, that intellectuals question the dichotomies of science versus religion and the myth of progress versus tradition. New writings take to the street where they find substance and faith that has been ignored for long under cultural dependency. These works receive due attention in relation to theoretical studies that increase readers’ critical insight. No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required.

Readings in Hindi-Urdu Literature
MDES W4612, Professor Allison Busch
This course introduces a range of modern Hindi-Urdu literary texts and trends. From the late nineteenth century Hindi and Urdu authors experimented with genres like the short story and novel, which had been imported through colonial contact, creating a rich array of new (and sometimes hybrid) literary offerings. In this course we read select authors from the canon of modern fiction, while also touching on the most salient literary historical and cultural currents taking place in the world outside the texts. Students will also be exposed to select works of secondary literature and a few genres and poets of historical importance. Students develop their skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening, as well as working with advanced grammar topics and learning new idioms. While it is preferred that all students develop their skills in both Hindi and Urdu scripts, students who know only one script may also be admitted to the course with the permission of the instructor.

Mughal India
MDES G4652, Professor Allison Busch
The Mughal period was one of the most dynamic eras in world history, when India was the meeting place of many cultures. Of Timurid ancestry, the earliest Mughal rulers drew upon the heritage of Central Asia in their ruling styles and cultural practices, but they would soon adapt to the complexities of their Indian milieu, which had longstanding traditions that were a blend of Sanskrit and Persian, Hindu and Muslim idioms. European culture, whether filtered through Jesuit sermons, itinerant merchants, or Flemish engravings, was also making inroads into India during this period. This course is a broad cultural history of Mughal India as seen from a range of perspectives and sources. We consider the Mughals’ major achievements in visual culture as manifested in painting and architecture, as well as exploring diverse topics in religion, literature, politics, and historiography. Yet another approach is to listen to the voices of the Mughal rulers as recorded in their memoirs, as well as investigating the signal contributions of the dynasty’s women.

South Asia Research Colloquium
MDES G8620, Professors Sheldon Pollock and Allison Busch
This course is open to all graduate students working on any aspect of the South Asia humanities. Students will present their research in progress, choosing one or two historical or theoretical readings to accompany the draft of their work (this can be a dissertation chapter or MA essay in progress, an honors thesis, a seminar paper, or the like). Our focus will be on clarifying the object of study, testing the methodology employed, and situating the research within current historical and theoretical discussions.


Home Faculty Programs Courses Languages Events News Affiliates Admissions		New Courses for Fall 2009 CHECK OUT THESE EXCITING NEW COURSES BEING OFFERED THIS FALL: Hindi for Heritage Speakers I MDES W1608, Professor Rakesh Ranjan This is an accelerated course for students of South Asian origin who already possess knowledge of basic vocabulary and limited speaking and listening skills in Hindi. They may not have sufficient skills in reading and writing but are able to converse on familiar topics such as: self, family, likes, dislikes and immediate surroundings. This course will focus on developing knowledge of the basic grammar of Hindi and vocabulary enrichment by exposing students to a variety of cultural and social topics related to aspects of daily life; and formal and informal registers. Students will be able to read and discuss simple texts and write about a variety of everyday topics by the end of the semester. Colonialism: Film, Fiction, History & Theory CLME W3032, Professor Hamid Dabashi This course is intended as a Global Core Requirement, introducing Columbia College students to the global phenomenon of colonialism in a broadly introductory, interdisciplinary, and temporally and spatially expansive way. As all other courses in the Global Core, this introductory course to the global phenomenon of Colonialism is organized around a set of primary texts – in film, fiction, history, autobiography, and theory – produced in or about the regions of the world in which colonialism has had an impact. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to a wide range of cinematic, fictional, historical, autobiographical, and theoretical sources on the global and cross-cultural phenomenon of colonialism. Rethinking Middle East Politics MDES W3260, Professor Tim Mitchell This course examines a set of questions that have shaped the study of the politics of the modern Middle East. It looks at the main ways those questions have been answered, exploring debates both in Western academic scholarship and among scholars and intellectuals in the region itself. For each question, the course offers new ways of thinking about the issue or ways of framing it in different terms. The topics covered in the course include: the kinds of modern state that emerged in the Middle East and the ways its forms of power and authority were shaped; the birth of “economic development” as a way of describing the function and measuring the success of the state, and the changing metrics of this success; the influence of oil on the politics of the region; the nature and role of Islamic political movements; the transformation of the countryside and the city and the role of rural populations and of urban protest in modern politics; and the politics of armed force and political violence in the region, and the ways in which this has been understood. The focus of the course will be on the politics of the twentieth century, but many topics will be traced back into developments that occurred in earlier periods, and several will be explored up to the present. The course is divided into four parts, each ending with a paper or exam in which participants are asked to analyze the material covered. Each part of the course has a geographical focus on a country or group of countries and a thematic focus on a particular set of questions of historical and political analysis. Introduction to Western Armenian Literature MDES W3925, Professor Nanor Kenderian A broad introduction to the major stages, movements and works of Western Armenian literature from its “inception” in the Ottoman Empire to its contemporary Diasporic variations. Using translations of Harutyun Kurkjyan’s comprehensive textbook Hay Kyank’ yev Grakanut’yun [Armenian Life and Literature] alongside translations from Heritage of Armenian Literature III and various readings in history and criticism, this course will offer a broad introduction to the major stages, movements and works of Western Armenian literature from its “literary inception” in the 1850’s Ottoman Empire until its current trends in the Diaspora. The course, which will also touch on major developments in theatre, cinema, and music, will offer an opportunity for comparative study. Since the trajectory of Western Armenian literature is inextricably bound with major historical events, the course will take an interdisciplinary approach as it brings significant historical developments into discussions of the literature’s trajectory. All readings will be in English and English translation. Themes in the Novels of the Middle East, Africa & South Asia: Fiction of Post-Colonialism, CLME W4024, Professor Noha Radwan This course offers a reading of a selection of novels from the Middle East, India and Africa that represent, interrogate and challenge the colonialist and post-independence history of their nations and regions. It has long been understood that colonial domination was achieved through the deployment of more than brute force. It was not only power, but also colonialist knowledge that became the foundations of European hegemony over the colonial world. It has also become a matter of little debate that post-colonial societies are still, to varying degrees, subject to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination. The course examines the complex processes by which the writers of the Middle East, South Asia and Africa suffer, resist and ultimately try to extricate their cultures and societies from the legacy of colonialism. Novels in both English and English translations will constitute the primary reading material for this course. Locating Africa in the Early 20th Century World HSME G4052, Professor Mamadou Diouf and Jinny Prais During the early twentieth century the meaning of Africa and its location within the “universal” historical narrative was a source of discussion and debate among western and African elites. In this seminar, we will study the ways that African and people of African descent participated in this discussion. We will learn about how African, African American and European writers, artists and activists engaged and (re) interpreted imperial and international resources (including the insights of the new sciences of Man) to (re)imagine their political and social situations, and to participate in various political expressions , including surrealism, pan-Africanism, communism, feminism, black internationalism, and anti-imperialism. We will also engage critically debates (e.g., Egyptianisms and Ethiopianisms) and theoretical developments in African, imperial, transnational, international and global scholarship that seeks to understand the complex traffic of people and ideas across national and imperial boundaries. Global Political Thought: Gandhi, Iqbal, Nehru, Senghor MDES G4062, Professors Sudipta Kaviraj, Akeel Bilgrami and Souleymane Diagne This course is intended to explore important themes in modern political thought from texts taken from traditions outside the modern West. It will not be devoted to textual exegesis, but use as sites of exploration central questions of modern politics. The attempt will be not merely to grasp what these thinkers thought, but to think more widely with and through their texts. The course will focus on the works of M K Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Mohammad Iqbal, and Leopold Senghor. It will involve reading assigned texts and critical and comparative analysis of their theoretical ideas. Advanced Arabic Grammar Review MDES W4215, Professor Taoufik Ben-Amor Through reading and writing, students will review Arabic Grammar concepts within the context of linguistic functions such as narration, description, comparison, etc. For example, within the function of narration, students will focus on verb tenses, word order, and adverbials. Based on error analysis in the past twelve years that the Arabic Program has been using Al-Kitaab, emphasis will be placed on common and frequent grammatical errors. Arabic Self-Narratives: Secular Autobiography & Its Writers’ Predicament, CLME G4226, Professor Muhsin Al-Musawi This course studies a number of autobiographical works; memoirs and reminiscences that are meant to rationalize and sell a writer’s experience. These serve as trajectories for a secular journey rather than one from denial to affirmation. Staunchly established in modernity and its nahda paradigms, most of these writings are secular itineraries that rarely search for faith. They are the journeys of a generation of Arab intellectuals who are facing many crises, but not the crisis of faith. They provide another look at the making of the Arab intelligentsia since the early 20th century and help us discern the pitfalls and failures, along with successes, that have been wrapping the nation state. No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required. Islam on the Street: The Religious Dynamic in Modern Arabic Literary Production, CLME G4261, Professor Muhsin Al-Musawi This course questions the whole idea of Arab modernity usually associated with the nahda or Arab awakening at the turn of the nineteenth century. Through close analysis of texts, poetry, narrative, travelogue and memoirs, it argues that the bane of modernity is its subordination to a Western ideal that minimizes or even negates its engagement with Islamic and Arab tradition. The nation state and through codification processes and as led by the intelligentsia forged a social program that is no less divested of tradition and rural culture. Only after 1967, the unsettling experience of total bankruptcy, that intellectuals question the dichotomies of science versus religion and the myth of progress versus tradition. New writings take to the street where they find substance and faith that has been ignored for long under cultural dependency. These works receive due attention in relation to theoretical studies that increase readers’ critical insight. No prior knowledge of Arabic language is required. Readings in Hindi-Urdu Literature MDES W4612, Professor Allison Busch This course introduces a range of modern Hindi-Urdu literary texts and trends. From the late nineteenth century Hindi and Urdu authors experimented with genres like the short story and novel, which had been imported through colonial contact, creating a rich array of new (and sometimes hybrid) literary offerings. In this course we read select authors from the canon of modern fiction, while also touching on the most salient literary historical and cultural currents taking place in the world outside the texts. Students will also be exposed to select works of secondary literature and a few genres and poets of historical importance. Students develop their skills in reading, writing, speaking and listening, as well as working with advanced grammar topics and learning new idioms. While it is preferred that all students develop their skills in both Hindi and Urdu scripts, students who know only one script may also be admitted to the course with the permission of the instructor. Mughal India MDES G4652, Professor Allison Busch The Mughal period was one of the most dynamic eras in world history, when India was the meeting place of many cultures. Of Timurid ancestry, the earliest Mughal rulers drew upon the heritage of Central Asia in their ruling styles and cultural practices, but they would soon adapt to the complexities of their Indian milieu, which had longstanding traditions that were a blend of Sanskrit and Persian, Hindu and Muslim idioms. European culture, whether filtered through Jesuit sermons, itinerant merchants, or Flemish engravings, was also making inroads into India during this period. This course is a broad cultural history of Mughal India as seen from a range of perspectives and sources. We consider the Mughals’ major achievements in visual culture as manifested in painting and architecture, as well as exploring diverse topics in religion, literature, politics, and historiography. Yet another approach is to listen to the voices of the Mughal rulers as recorded in their memoirs, as well as investigating the signal contributions of the dynasty’s women. South Asia Research Colloquium MDES G8620, Professors Sheldon Pollock and Allison Busch This course is open to all graduate students working on any aspect of the South Asia humanities. Students will present their research in progress, choosing one or two historical or theoretical readings to accompany the draft of their work (this can be a dissertation chapter or MA essay in progress, an honors thesis, a seminar paper, or the like). Our focus will be on clarifying the object of study, testing the methodology employed, and situating the research within current historical and theoretical discussions.