Survey of the Indian Ocean history from 8000 BCE to present. Includes rise of major religions in the area, dynamics of trade, including the influence of European expansion and the resistance to it.

We will read and critique the fiction and poetry of culturally specific regions while reflecting on the assumption that experiences and identities are fundamentally gendered. We will explore issues associated with women writing in regional languages to writing in mainstream languages like Hindi, Urdu and English. We will also examine how the publication and dissemination of women's texts are related to the women movements in India and Pakistan. Prerequisite: Completion of First Writing Requirement

Introduces the cultural traits and patterns of contemporary Arab society based on scholarly research, recent field work, and personal experiences and observations in the Arab world. Taught in English; no knowledge of Arabic is required.

A comprehensive overview of contemporary Arab women's literature, this course examines all Arab women's literary genres starting from personal letters, memoirs, speeches, poetry, fiction, drama, to journalistic articles and interviews. Selected texts cover various geographic locales and theoretical perspectives. Special emphasis will be given to the issues of Arab female authorship, subjectivity theory, and to the question of Arab Feminism.

Introduction to various types of written and spoken Hindi; vocabulary building, idioms and problems of syntax; and conversation in Hindi. Prerequisite: HIND 1020 or equivalent.

Prerequisite: HEBR 1020 with grade of C or above, or instructor permission.

Introduces students to spoken Arabic, with oral production highly emphasized. Prerequisite: ARAB 2020 or equivalent, or instructor permission.

Continuation of the study of the fundamentals of grammar, with special attention to verb conjugation, noun declension, and syntactic structure, and their occurrence in texts which deal with modern Israeli culture and values. These texts, which include excerpts from newspapers and fiction, introduce 600 new words and expose the learner to political and other issues of modern Israel. Prerequisite: HEBR 1020 with grade of C or above, or instructor permission.

Prerequisite: HEBR 1010.

This course is devoted to the longstanding screen histories of A Thousand and One Nights. We will investigate the way in which the text has variously congealed into a cinematic genre in its own right; a catapult for explorations of the fantastic, iterated as the wonders of technology/medium and sensuality; a contested site of negotiating Orientalist desires and stereotypes; and a platform for reflection upon the question of storytelling itself.