Winter

This sequence concentrates on the acquisition of speaking, reading, and aural skills in modern formal Arabic.

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 We will also read unpublished material from photos, casts, and original tablets.

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.

This course offers an overview of the art/visual culture from the period of the Hittite Kingdom (1650-1200 BC). We will explore all materials (stone, metal, ceramics, etc.), problems of dating, iconography and its possible developments, questions of audience.

This course explores the ways linguistic theory can be used in the study of extinct languages. We will investigate how to use typological data and the predictive force of modern theories to critically assess claims regarding grammatical issues in extinct languages. We will also start developing a method for fact-finding in extinct languages. The course will focus on topics that are relevant for several extinct languages of the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern area, covering many extinct languages, such as the (near)-isolates Sumerian, Elamite, or Hurrian, the Semitic languages (e.g., Akkadian, Phoenician, Ugaritic), the Indo-European languages (e.g., Latin, Greek, Hittite), and ancient Egyptian. Examples of such topics are (split)-ergativity, Topic and Focus (information structure), and lexical and grammatical aspect.

This is the first in a three-quarter sequence that covers the basic grammar and cuneiform writing system of the Hittite language. It also familiarizes the student with the field’s tools (i.e., dictionaries, lexica, sign list). Readings come from all periods of Hittite history (1650 to 1180 B.C.).

This three-quarter sequence enables the students to reach an advanced level of proficiency in the Armenian language. Reading, discussion and writing assignments include a selection of original Armenian literature and excerpts from mass media. A considerable amount of historical-political and social-cultural issues about Armenia are skillfully built into the course for students who have intention to conduct research in Armenian Studies and related area studies or to pursue work in Armenia.

This is not just a literature course: it is at the same time an exploration of Iran’s recent history as mirrored in satirical works. Against the background of Iran’s recent history, from late Qajar period to present, this course will focus on a selection of satirical works (mainly in verse, but also some prose) in Persian language. Apart from a thorough review of the recent history, and apart from providing a lot of fun through satirical works, the students will be introduced to more advanced Persian. The secondary sources recommended will include articles, interviews and reviews in both Persian and English. 

Despite the genocide, Armenians have known thriving political, sociocultural, ideological, and ecclesiastical centers in the twentieth century. The seminar Beyond Genocide & Diaspora: Armenians in the Middle East focuses on such centers: in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Iran, and Turkey, amongst others. This will not be a journey of loss or simple rebirth, perspectives omnipresent in writings on modern Armenian history. Rather, we will be analyzing the history of power: on how Armenians experienced the everyday and the ordinary in the Middle East,  making these places their own, and how they manipulated and managed loss and renewal. At the same time, this seminar asks: what can we learn about these spaces, and the region more broadly, by looking at it through the lens of everyday Armenian sociopolitics? This analysis of Armenians does not only contribute to the study of Armenians, then. Rather, it shows how Armenians in the Middle East experienced politics everyday, and what those experiences can teach us about interlinked national and global events. This course also examines changing aspects of belonging, and explores how these concepts travel over time and space.