Autumn

NEAA 20144/30144 Mesopotamian Archaeology I: Villages to States

This course surveys the archaeology of the villages and states of Mesopotamia (approximately the modern countries of Iraq and Syria) during the late 7th through late 3rd millennia BCE. Students will be introduced to the range of Mesopotamian sites and material culture, the region’s variable landscapes and environments, and key themes and debates in the study of this literate complex society. Themes include the origins of irrigation and urbanism; the development of inequality and formalisation of violent conflict; the consequences of craft specialisation; the forms and meanings of funerary practices; the presentation of power; and the archaeological evidence for religious ritual and beliefs. These developments varied between north and south Mesopotamia (later Assyria and Babylonia), and the contrasts and cultural connections between these two linked but distinct regions are integral aspects of the course. 
Augusta McMahon
2025-2026 Autumn

ARAB 10250 Colloquial Levantine Arabic Language and Culture

Spoken Levantine Arabic is a proficiency-based course designed to develop the linguistic skills necessary for personal day-to-day life. The course focuses on spoken rather than Standard written Arabic, and will therefore target primarily the oral/aural skills. Through the knowledge of Modern Standard Arabic and the introduction of colloquial vocabulary, expressions and grammar, the course will build the students’ competence in spoken Arabic. Students will also be introduced to the Levantine culture of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine.
Osama Abu-Eledam
2025-2026 Autumn

GEEZ 10101 Elementary Ge'ez I

This course introduces the fundamentals of Ge’ez (Classical Ethiopic) with an overview of grammar and the writing system, as well as exercises in reading early monumental and simple narrative texts.
Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee
2025-2026 Autumn

TURK 10101 Elementary Turkish I

This sequence features proficiency-based instruction emphasizing grammar in modern Turkish. This sequence consists of reading and listening comprehension, as well as grammar exercises and basic writing in Turkish. Modern stories and contemporary articles are read at the end of the courses.
Kagan Arik
2025-2026 Autumn

TURK 20101 Intermediate Turkish I

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. Prerequisite(s): TURK 10103, or equivalent with intermediate level proficiency test.
Prerequisites

TURK 10103 or equivalent with intermediate level proficiency test

Kagan Arik
2025-2026 Autumn

NEAA 20100/30100 Introduction to Archaeology

Archaeology is the study of the material evidence of past human activity. This course, which is offered every year in the Autumn Quarter, explores the history of archaeology as a discipline and the methods used by archaeologists to obtain evidence about past human activity via excavations, surface surveys, and remote-sensing technologies such as satellite imagery and ground-penetrating radar, with emphasis on archaeological fieldwork in the Middle East. This course also surveys the latest methods used to date, classify, and analyze various kinds of evidence after it has been obtained. And since archaeological data is always collected and interpreted within an intellectual framework of theoretical conceptions concerning human society, culture, and history, this course provides a brief overview of “archaeological theory,” i.e., the uses made by archaeologists of a wide range of different social theories that may lead to quite different interpretations of the same data. This topic is explored in more depth in a companion course on “Social Theory and Ancient Studies” (NEHC 20010/30010), which is offered in alternate years in the Winter Quarter.
David Schloen
2025-2026 Autumn

ARAM 10401 Elementary Syriac I

The purpose of this three-quarter sequence is to enable the student to read Syriac literature with a high degree of comprehension. The course is divided into two segments. The first two quarters are devoted to acquiring the essentials of Syriac grammar and vocabulary. The third quarter is spent reading a variety of Syriac prose and poetic texts and includes a review of grammar.
Aren Wilson-Wright
2025-2026 Autumn

HEBR 10101 Elementary Classical Hebrew I

(JWSC 22000)
The purpose of this three-quarter sequence is to enable the student to acquire a knowledge of the vocabulary and grammar of Classical Hebrew sufficient to read prose texts with the occasional assistance of a dictionary. The first quarter focuses on the inflection of nouns and adjectives and begins the inflection of verbs. It includes written translation to and from Hebrew, oral exercises, and grammatical analysis of forms.
Aren Wilson-Wright
2025-2026 Autumn

NEHC 20110 Media Islam

(RLST 29110)
Media are increasingly integrated into contemporary life. As in the past, we consume media—watching movies and television, listening to music and podcasts, and following influencers on social media. However, these passive activities now overlap with media production, participation, and commentary. For Muslims negotiating identity in diverse global society, media figure into representation and self-representation in complex, often subtle, ways. Intersecting with the family, mosque, community, and other core social institutions, media play a central role in contemporary Muslim experience. This class will examine religious media, i.e. those branded as “Islamic” in some fashion, such as television programs on Islamic law, or social media content with explicit religious commitments and claims to authority. It will also consider how Islam has been represented in popular culture, and the ways Muslims have related to those constructions of their faith. However, this dichotomy of religious and popular media no longer holds with Muslim-oriented television shows like Ramy, Ms. Marvel, the integration of Islam into popular American entertainment from Jack Ryan to Mr. Robot, and the complex engagement with religion in media across the historically Muslim world.
Thomas Maguire
2025-2026 Autumn

AKKD 30363 Kassite Legal and Administrative Texts

We will read a choice of legal and administrative texts from the Kassite period (1400-1150 BC), including contracts, tables, receipts, and letters. You will get an introduction to the Middle Babylonian dialect of Akkadian and learn how to approach those genres. We will also read unpublished material from photos, casts, and original tablets.
Prerequisites

1 year of Akkadian/Babylonian

Susanne Paulus
2025-2026 Autumn
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