NEHC

Dreams belong to the universals of human existence as human beings have always dreamt and will continue to dream across time and cultures. The questions where do dreams come from and how to unravel a dream have always preoccupied the human mind. In this course we will focus on dreams in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultural environments. We will cover dreams from three complementary perspectives: dreams as experience, dream interpretation and dream theory. The reading materials will include: (a) a selection of dream narratives from different sources, literary texts as well as documentary accounts of dreams; (b) texts which document the forms and contexts of dream interpretation in the Greco-Roman and Greco-Egyptian cultures and (c) texts which represent attempts to approach dreams from a more general perspective by among others explaining their genesis and defining dream-types.

The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is a complex anthology of disparate texts and reflects a diversity of religious, political, and historical perspectives from ancient Israel, Judah, and Yehud. Because this collection of texts continues to play an important role in modern religions, new meanings are often imposed upon it. In this course, we will attempt to read biblical texts apart from modern preconceptions about them. We will also contextualize their ideas and goals through comparison with texts from ancient Mesopotamia, Syro-Palestine, and Egypt. Such comparisons will demonstrate that the Hebrew Bible is fully part of the cultural milieu of the Ancient Near East. To accomplish these goals, we will read a significant portion of the Hebrew Bible in English, along with representative selections from secondary literature. We will also spend some time thinking about the nature of biblical interpretation.

This course will examine the development of the Turkish state following WWI including questions of economy, institutions, and identity formation. The first quarter make be taken as a free-standing colloquium, or students may take both quarters and produce a research paper.

The building of sculpted monuments and monumental architecture seems to be a universal human trait in all parts of the world, from the pyramids of ancient Egypt to the inuksuit cairns of the arctic Inuit. What explains our urge to create monumental things? Why are monuments built, and how do we experience them? This course explores various answers to these questions through the disciplines that most frequently address monuments: archaeology, architecture, and art history. In the process, we will encounter a number of the major theoretical trends that have characterized the humanities and social sciences in the past century. This course examines humankind’s monumental record through a series of famous case studies from around the world to investigate the social significance of monuments in their original ancient or modern contexts. We will also determine whether lessons learned from th¬e past can be applied to the study of monuments today, and whether studying modern monuments – including those from our immediate surroundings in Chicago – can help us understand those of the past.

This course provides the student with an introduction to the major authors and various genres of
Syriac literature, including chronicles and historical texts, hagiography, biblical
commentary, and letters/responsa. Following this introduction, selected portions of several
Syriac texts will be read in English translation and discussed in class. A brief (6-10 pages)
paper and class presentation will be required (topic subject to the approval of the
instructor). There will also be a final exam.

This course explores the rituals, oral literature, and music associated with the nomadic cultures of Central Eurasia.

This course offers an introduction to the terms and concepts current in Arabic philosophical writings in the classical period of Islamic thought (roughly 9th to 17th century). It begins with the movement to translate Greek texts into Arabic and the debate among Muslims about the validity of philosophy versus revelation. From a close reading of key works (in English) by important philosophers such as al-Kindī, al-Rāzī, al-Sijistānī, al-Fārābī, Ibn Sīnā (Avicenna), al-Ghazzālī, Ibn Bājja, Ibn Tufayl, Ibn Rushd (Averroes), Suhrawardī, and Mullā Ṣadrā, a series of lectures will follow the career of philosophy in the Islamic world, first as a 'foreign' science and then, later, as selectively rejected but also substantially accepted as a natural component of sophisticated discourse.

This course is designed to acquaint the student with the basic problems and concepts as well as the sources and methodology for the study of the premodern history of the Islamic world. Sources will be read in translation and discuss in class. The concepts and tools acquired will be applied to specific research projects to be submitted as term papers.

This course integrates between sociological themes such as stratification, gender, culture, ethnicity, race, religion, political sociology and economy in order to study the Israeli society with all its diversity. Israeli society is a unique case for sociological study. A young nation which on the one side has a successful economy, but on the other side is dealing with an ongoing conflict with its Arab and Palestinian neighbors. Inequality rates in Israel are among the highest in the OECD, based on class, gender, ethnicity and nationality. Israel is exhibiting opposite trends between promoting gay rights and becoming more religious. In its 70th year Israel is facing deep social and political dilemmas which intertwine with major sociological themes. This course wishes to reveal these dilemmas and their deep complexities. The course will be divided to meetings which in each of them sociological themes and theories will be explored and problematized vis-à-vis Israeli society.