Class Schedules

This course explores the dynamic and diverse cultures and people of the Maghreb – North Africa. From Carthage and other indigenous empires of North Africa, through early Christian centuries, to the arrival of Islam and its various expressions, to the “golden period” when North Africa and Spain came together, in Al -Andalusia; one of the greatest chapters of human creativity and cooperation. We conclude c.1492, and the beginning of the early modern period in North Africa and the Mediterranean.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course introduces students to the Qur'an through diverse perspectives, including through its revelation, assembly as a text, its form, its interpreters, and its embodied learning practices. We will pay particular attention to the Qur'an's narrative form through its prophetic, environmental, and gender narratives. We will learn about the life of the Prophet Muhammad in conjunction with the revelation of the Qur'an as well as the importance of the Prophet's own sayings and examples in Islamic law and practice. We will examine interpretations of the Qur'an from different chronological, geographical, environmental, and gendered perspectives. We will ask questions such as: What role has the Qur'an played for Muslims historically? In the contemporary period? In what ways does the Qur'an speak to believers? What are some of the ways Muslims have approached and interpreted the Qur'an? No Arabic language proficiency required.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This class will be a reflection on the long history of co-existence of people in South Asia thought to belong to two very different religions Hinduism and Islam. We will begin by looking at the formation of classical Islam in the Middle East, and looking at the classical Hindu epic, the Ramayana. From there we will move to a survey of the history of encounter and exchange, from the early period (al Biruni), to the establishment of the great Muslim sultanates. We will critically examine the evidence of religious conflict, alongside the evidence of rich cultural exchange, and interrogate the competing historigrahic narratives, according to which South Asia either become a single Indo-Islamic civilization or a place of two cultures destined to become different modern nation states (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Finally, we will consider colonial and post colonial South Asia and conclude with a reflection on the Babri Masjid crisis and India's debates about secularism.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines the Qur'an and hadith, and other authoritative texts that ground Islamic jurisprudence, and explores the diverse ways in which Muslims have understood and interpreted these teachings in locations across the world (i.e. Indonesia, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and the United States) and at various points in history.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the Qur'an and hadith, and other authoritative texts that ground Islamic jurisprudence, and explores the diverse ways in which Muslims have understood and interpreted these teachings in locations across the world (i.e. Indonesia, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and the United States) and at various points in history.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course explores the art and architecture of the Ancient Near East from the earliest agricultural societies in the 10th millennium BCE to the arrival of Islam in the 7th century CE. Within this historical framework the lectures and class discussions will focus on culturally specific concepts of design, representation and aesthetics in ancient Mesopotamia, Iran, Anatolia and Syro-Palestine, and explore their uses in politics, imperialism, burial practices, private rituals and state cults. The lectures will explore topics such as the development of narrative representation, monumental public art, portraiture, small-scale glyptic arts and the design, and production of personal ornaments such as jewelry.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WA
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course will explore the art and architecture of the medieval Christian world from the time of Constantine the Great (306-337 CE) to the fall of Constantinople in 1453. The lectures and class discussions will focus on the role of images and relics in Christianity as well as the developments in sacred and secular architecture across Europe and the Byzantine empire. Special emphasis will be given to certain trends such as the foundation of monasteries, pilgrimage, icon and relic worship, and the emergence of Romanesque and Gothic styles in architecture, which changed the urban and rural topography of the continent.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Fine arts

Course Materials

This course explores the dynamic and diverse cultures and people of the Maghreb – North Africa. From Carthage and other indigenous empires of North Africa, through early Christian centuries, to the arrival of Islam and its various expressions, to the “golden period” when North Africa and Spain came together, in Al -Andalusia; one of the greatest chapters of human creativity and cooperation. We conclude c.1492, and the beginning of the early modern period in North Africa and the Mediterranean.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is taught jointly between the department of Religious Studies and the department of Classics, by a specialist in the Roman East and a specialist in classical India. We will start on either side of this world, with Alexander the Great and Ashoka, exploring the relationship between empire and religion from Rome to India in the world's crossroads for the thousand years between Alexander and the rise of Islam.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course is taught jointly between the department of Religious Studies and the department of Classics, by a specialist in the Roman East and a specialist in classical India. We will start on either side of this world, with Alexander the Great and Ashoka, exploring the relationship between empire and religion from Rome to India in the world's crossroads for the thousand years between Alexander and the rise of Islam.

General Education Requirements:
Internationalism

Distribution Requirements:
Humanities

Course Materials

This course examines the Qur'an and hadith, and other authoritative texts that ground Islamic jurisprudence, and explores the diverse ways in which Muslims have understood and interpreted these teachings in locations across the world (i.e. Indonesia, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and the United States) and at various points in history.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials

This course examines the Qur'an and hadith, and other authoritative texts that ground Islamic jurisprudence, and explores the diverse ways in which Muslims have understood and interpreted these teachings in locations across the world (i.e. Indonesia, the Middle East, South Asia, Europe and the United States) and at various points in history.

General Education Requirements:
Writing WP
Internationalism OR U.S. Identities and Differences

Distribution Requirements:
Social science

Course Materials