Middle East and South Asia Studies

An examination of language policies in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia (broadly defined). Students are introduced to the concepts and theories involved in language planning and policy (LPP) and discuss topics such as the legal status of language(s); linguistic rights; language attitudes and ideologies; language in education; language standardization; multilingualism and nationalism; and language endangerment. Students investigate the factors that govern and influence different LPPs through a series of case studies from the MESA region.

This course explores the many ways in which Hindus visualize and talk about the divine and its manifestations in the world through mythic stories, use of images in worship, explanations of the nature of the soul and body in relation to the divine, and the belief in human embodiments of the divine in Hindu holy men and women. Topics include: the religious meanings of masculine and feminine in the divine and human contexts; the idea of local, family and "chosen" divinities; and differing forms of Hindu devotion for men and women.

Yogis, ascetics and other holy people pursue extraordinary paths that invert the normal aims and values of society. This course surveys ideas on mental and physical training, their conceptual basis, the range of techniques used, and their philosophical development. Course material is drawn from a diverse range of religions that may include Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, Islamic and Christian. The course seeks to answer such questions as: "What is the purpose of these teachings and for whom were they designed?" "What roles do yogis and ascetics play in religious life?" and "What is their ethical status in the world?"

Through a chronological presentation of sites and objects, we study Tibet's great artistic movements from the 7th-20th centuries. Our analyses of the art and material culture of Tibet, and its larger cultural zone, has an art historical and historiographic focus. This two-pronged approach encourages students to analyze not only the styles and movements of Tibetan art, but the methods by which this art world has been studied by and simultaneously presented to Western audiences.

How have issues of gender and sexuality in medieval and modern Islamic societies been debated across the Middle East, South Asia and the West? Students examine scholarly and public discussions of gender and Islam, and they build a vocabulary in which to talk about women, queer and intersex history as they concern Muslim societies and their foundational sources in their regional and historical contexts.

This course examines literary works of women writers in the Arabic literary tradition. In the Western world, Arab women's fiction is often read in order to gain insight into the social and political questions facing women in various Arab societies - the metaphorical drawing of the veil from the face of the Arab woman. We follow this mode of inquiry to some extent, and we also consider our eagerness to draw back this veil in the first place. While paying attention to literary themes, poetics, rhetoric and literary forms, we examine the roles women came to fulfill in Arabic literary culture, the narrative and poetic forms they have adopted in their writing in different periods, and the way these reflect on gender dynamics in the Middle East.