The goal of this course is to increase student's efficiency in reading modern texts; ranging from literary prose fiction to news media excerpts, to poetry. although the students will be expected to learn grammatical structures emphasis will be placed on the functional usage of the language and on communication in context. Prerequisites: Persian 3010 or instructor's permission.

A second-year course focusing on developing reading fluency in Sanskrit. Selections are chosen to reinforce student's knowledge of grammar from SANS 1020/5020, to expand vocabulary, and to introduce the Upanisads, a major spiritual text of ancient India. Prerequisite: SANS 1020.

In this class we will conduct close readings (in Urdu!) of several 20th-century dramas/plays, and will discuss them in detail. There will be weekly assignments, a final take-home exam, and a final video project. Prerequisite: URDU 2020 or instructor permission.

This course aims to introduce students to Persian literature's contribution to global humanism through poetry and poetics. We'll explore how Persian romance novels in verse (masnavi) engage with themes like love, desire, beauty, and the Divine, and how these themes intersect with gender, religion, society, ethics, womanhood, and leadership. The main focus will be the narrative content, the poets' arguments, and the issues they raise.

This course reviews key milestones of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict throughout the lends of competitive sports in the MENA regions and in Israel in particular. The course examines sports¿ role in reflecting socio-political divisions of religion, gender, class and representation struggles, while serving political interests as part of culture and identity building, as well as its utilization as a platform for ethno-nationalist violence.

The course aims to provide advanced training in developing linguistic and communicative skills in business Arabic. The business topics cover data & communication, finance, insurance, law & contract, research & production, marketing, transport, travel, meetings, and conferences. Instructor permission.

In this course we will examine the history of astrology, as both a body of knowledge and a process of discovery, from the ancient to the contemporary periods. Astrology played a significant, albeit underappreciated, role in the making of ancient and medieval societies. We will consider astrology's early global status as a science with immutable laws, and its 17th-century designation as a pseudo-science in Western thought.

In this course, we will examine the history of the Ottoman Empire through social, political and cultural changes and transformations. We will do this through concepts and phenomena such as state and empire formation, capitalism, class struggle, imperialism, colonialism, orientalism, nationalism, nation-building, patriarchy, and ethnic engineering. We will discuss each period and theme within a global framework.

The course focuses on two key twelfth-century texts: Nasrullah Munshi's Kalila and Dimna (translated by Wheeler Thackston), a collection of animal fables--featuring lions, jackals, elephants, hares, tortoises, snakes, ducks, and even ants--rooted in Indian and Persian moral traditions; and Farid ud-Din Attar's The Conference of the Birds (translated by Afkham Darbandi and Dick Davis), a Sufi allegory exploring the soul's journey. 

This course provides a close look at Palestinian cultural and literary production within the State of Israel. Muslim and Christian Palestinian citizens of Israel. With the support of region-specific theory, and through a continuous engagement with (the English translation of) literature, music, film, spoken word, visual art, political speeches, and newspaper articles, you will develop a critical understanding of the multifaceted, contemporary manifestation of Palestinian voices in Israel.