Graduate

First quarter of Classical High Intermediate Arabic

High Intermediate Arabic, the modern track, provides students with a full academic year to activate the language and grammar studied in the first two years, while expanding their cultural and literary knowledge of the Arab world. This three-quarter sequence is taught in Arabic and focuses on all four language skills. The purpose of this sequence is conceived of functionally (what can students do) rather than with an eye to finishing a given textbook. It will have reached its objective if each student leaves with a clearly improved ability to produce oral and written Arabic in a variety of contexts (personal and professional correspondence, description, prescription, comparison narration, argumentation, etc.), to listen and understand spoken MSA, and to read a variety of texts (short stories, a novel, media writing, poetry, social media, opinion pieces, etc.) and a deepened understanding of the diversity of the Arab experience. An important component of the course is taking the learning outside the classroom: through visits to an Arab neighborhood, interviews of Arabs in Chicago, producing a play.

Academic Modern Standard Arabic

The first quarter of Intermediate Arabic

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.

Elementary Arabic is a 3-course, year-long sequence intended for complete beginners. It targets both literacy in the formal, standard, written form of Arabic (fuSHa), and also integrates the spoken dialect (‘ammiyyah) when needed. Through in-class practice and intensive homework projects, students will gain a solid foundation in the four skills (reading, writing, speaking, listening). At the end of the sequence, students will gain basic functional fluency on a variety of personal topics (self, family, studies, location, daily activities, etc.). These courses adopt a project-based approach to learning, and therefore meet three times a week for 80 minutes.

This course expands and cements students’ knowledge of the Akkadian language through readings from the most famous work of literature from ancient Mesopotamia, the Standard Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh. Our focus will be on deepening proficiency in grammar and reading cuneiform signs, on developing understanding of the literary dialect of Standard Babylonian, and on the pleasures of collectively reading this profound, perplexing, and beautiful text. We will also consider a range of issues relevant to the study of Babylonian literature: critical use of sign lists, dictionaries, and other Assyriological resources; questions of translation; and matters of cuneiform textual criticism, particularly those that arise from the study of texts known from multiple manuscripts.

Introduction to the grammar of Akkadian, specifically to the Old Babylonian dialect. The class covers the first half of the Old Babylonian grammar, an introduction to the cuneiform script, and easy translation exercises.

This course focuses on Hittite literary texts. The texts are read in cuneiform and placed in their social-historical context. The reading hones the student's philological skills. We will study both translated literature, such as the Gilgamesh epic, and indigenous literature. Hittite indigenous literature has often been dismissed as unsophisticated, but recent research has led to a reevaluation. Guided by this research we will further explore the literariness of indigenous literature and its relationship to translated literature. We will also engage with recent work on the influence of Hittite literature on Greek literature.

This course examines the intersections of culture, politics, and biomedicine in the Middle East from a variety of theoretical and scholarly approaches. Students will study different conceptualizations of health, healing, the body, and personhood in the region, with a strong emphasis on biomedicine and contemporary state and governmental processes. Key topics covered in class include but are not limited to: the rise of western biomedicine in the region; religious perspectives of the body; Islam and organ trafficking and transplantation; racialized bodies in medical science; war and medicine, sex, gender, and reproductive technologies, and the impact of COVID-19 across the region.