2022-2023

This course offers a critical analysis of the use of concepts such as empire and imperialism in the historiography of ancient Mesopotamia to address political formations that developed (and vanished) from the Early to Late Bronze Ages (mid-3rd to late-2nd millennium BCE). Drawing from theoretical studies on imperialism and the imperial constructions that developed in the Iron Age and beyond (starting with the Neo-Assyrian and Neo-Babylonian empires), this seminar will explore the nature of power, control, and resource management in these early formations, and how they qualify (or not) as imperial policies. Students will address a substantial part of Mesopotamian history (from the Sargonic down to the Middle Assyrian and Babylonian periods) and study in depth some key historiographical issues for the history of Early Antiquity. Primary documents will be read in translation and the course has no ancient language requirements. However, readings of secondary literature in common academic languages (especially French and German) are to be expected.
This course fulfills the requirements of a survey course in Mesopotamian civilization as defined by the Ancient PhD programs in NELC and MA program in the CMES.

This course is the second quarter of the annual introductory sequence to the Babylonian language and the Cuneiform script. Students will further explore the grammar of Babylonian in its Old Babylonian dialect (19th-16th c. BCE) and read ancient inscriptions (especially the Laws of Hammu-rabi) in the Old Babylonian monumental script. They will also be introduced to the Old Babylonian cursive used in letters and the documents of everyday life.

A selection of Turkish printed texts in Arabic script from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries is introduced in order of difficulty. Hakan Karateke's unpublished "Ottoman Reader" serves as a text book. The texts are drawn from historical textbooks, official documents, novels, and other genres.

Advanced Turkish students will develop their language skills in speaking, reading, translating, listening, and writing, while learning about Turkish society and culture at the same time. To address all of these aspects each class is divided into three sections which focusses on a specific skill.

Section one is the conversation part: it involves reading (or listening to) short (audio) pieces or phrases on a given topic; section two is reading and translation: students read and prepare pieces from Turkish literature, literature readings are short stories or selected parts from novels; section three is the listening part: by watching parts of a Turkish movie, students' skills in listening and understanding will get faster while we progress through the movie.

This sequence features proficiency-based instruction emphasizing speaking and writing skills as well as reading and listening comprehension at the intermediate to advanced levels in modern Turkish. Modern short stories, novel excerpts, academic and journalistic articles form the basis for an introduction to modern Turkish literature. Cultural units consisting of films and web-based materials are also used extensively in this course, which is designed to bring the intermediate speaker to an advanced level of proficiency.

The rapidly growing field of paleogenomics has brought together researchers from a wide variety of fields and perspectives in the social and natural sciences. This survey course is designed for students from all backgrounds interested in developing practical skills in ancient DNA methods, contextual research, analysis and interpretation. We will also focus on exploring and discussing ethics in the field and the implications of the growing interest of public audiences with ancient DNA. Throughout the course, we will also explore a variety of related topics by taking a deep dive into the archaeology context and analytical approaches of published case studies. Throughout the course, there will be a number of laboratory and computational activities to apply ancient DNA research methods. For a final project, you will explore a site, topic or study of your choosing with the tools learned in this course and evaluate the potential for ancient DNA to uncover new findings there.

Advanced Readings in Arabic - 2nd quarter

Arabic Through Debate:
Taking debate as its central fulcrum, the course will develop all four language skills: debaters must read on the proposition topic, prepare their arguments in writing, speak clearly to an audience, and listen carefully to their team mates and to the arguments of the opposing team. In the process, they will be immersed in Arab culture (targeted expressions and historical references, of-the-moment issues, etc.).
Course Objectives
a) Expanding student vocabulary and structures into the abstract, analytic realm, i.e., placing them solidly in the advanced ACTFL levels (see descriptions of ACTFL standards/levels: https://www.actfl.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/public/ACTFLProficiencyG…
b) Improving student speech techniques: pronunciation, intonation/voice modulation, pausing, emphasis, gesturing, visual communication
c) Improving listening and writing skills and expanding them to include topics of general and academic interest
d) Through a thoughtful selection of debate propositions, exposing students to some salient social, cultural, and political themes of importance to the Arab public
e) Sharpening the logical argumentative skills of students

This course introduces the background and development of the first urbanized civilizations in the Near East in the period from 9000 to 2200 BC. In the first half of this course, we examine the archaeological evidence for the first domestication of plants and animals and the earliest village communities in the "fertile crescent" (i.e., the Levant, Anatolia, Mesopotamia). The second half of this course focuses on the economic and social transformations that took place during the development from simple, village-based communities to the emergence of the urbanized civilizations of the Sumerians and their neighbors in the fourth and third millennia BC.
“This course fulfills the requirements of a survey course in Mesopotamian civilization as defined by the Ancient PhD programs in NELC and MA program in the CMES.”

This course counts as a Problems in the Study of Gender and Sexuality course for GNSE majors. This course will provide a historical and theoretical survey of issues pertaining to gender and sexuality in the modern Middle East. First, we will outline the colonial legacies of gender politics and gendered discourses in modern Middle Eastern history. We will discuss orientalist constructions of the harem and the veil (Allouche, Laila Ahmed, Lila Abu-Loghod), and their contested afterlives across the Middle East. We will also explore colonial (homo)sexuality, and attendant critiques (Najmabadi, Massad). We will pay especial attention to local discourses about gender and sexuality, and trouble facile assumptions of “writing back” while attending to the various specificities of local discourses of everyday life across various sites of the Middle East. Eschewing reductive traps for more nuanced explorations of the specifics of life in Beirut, Cairo, Istanbul, or Tehran – as well as to rural areas – we will show how gender and sexuality are constructed and practiced in these locales. In addition to foundational scholarly texts in the field, we will also engage with an array of cultural texts (films, novels, poetry, comics) and – where possible – have conversations with activists who are working in these sites via Skype/teleconferencing.