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This course introduces students to a wide range of humanities and social science concepts pertaining to the global study of technology with an emphasis on the Middle East in the 19th, 20th and 21st-centuries. The main body of the course focuses on three case studies namely oil, mapping, and the internet through which issues of power, race, colonialism, financial imperialism, violence, and surveillance will be explored. This colloquium provides a unique perspective on contemporary debates about the politics and ethics of technology through a study of their global circulation.

This course traces the historical development of Islamically-oriented armed networks without theologizing or essentializing their nature, organizational structures, activities, or violence. We will cover the scholarly studies on militant organizations such as Egyptian Jihad, Al-Gama'at Al-Islamiyya, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, IS(IS), Hizbullah with their sectarian, ideological, and strategic diversity. The trajectory of militant Islamism as various offshoots from earlier global radical Muslim networks will be of critical focus. Basic jihadi texts and historical surveys and monographs on organizations will form the major components of the readings."

This course surveys the history of the Middle East from c.950 A.D. to c.1517 A.D., placing particular emphasis on the following questions: What were the social, cultural, and political contexts for conversion to Islam in the Middle Ages? How did the interplay of nomadic and sedentary peoples shape Middle Eastern history? What were the nature of Christian-Muslim relations and the fate of religious minorities in an age of Crusade and Jihad? What were the conditions for the rise, flourishing, and eventual collapse of a ¿world-system¿ in this period (with the lands of the Middle East serving as its nexus)? Chronological topics include: the arrival in the Middle East of the Seljuk Turks, new adopters of Islam and recent nomads; the western European crusades to the Holy Land and the establishment of so-called ¿Crusader States¿ in Syria; the subjugation of Iran to pagan Mongols¿and the Mongols¿ eventual conversion to Islam; the rise to power of a dynasty of Turkish slave-soldiers (mamluks) in Cairo and the political reunification of Syria and Egypt under their rule. Readings will consist of both primary sources and works of modern scholarship.

This course aims to provide an intellectual history of contemporary Muslim political thought. It presents post-nineteenth century Muslim contributions to political thought. It is designed as a survey of some major thinkers from the Arab world to Iran and Southeast Asia, from Turkey to North America, who sought to interpret Islam's basic sources and Islamic intellectual legacy. Our readings include primary texts by Tahtawi, Tunisi, Afghani, Rida, Huda Sharawi, Qutb, Shariati, and Mernissi among other prominent figures. We will analyze recurring ideas in this body of thought such as decline, civilization, rationality, ijtihad (Islamic independent reasoning), shura (deliberative decision-making), democracy, secularism, Muslim unity, khilafah (caliphate and vicegerency), freedom, equality, and justice. We will discuss their current significance for the ongoing theoretical debates in Muslim political thought, Muslim intellectual history, and comparative political theory.

The 2016 presidential election propelled the topic of immigration to the center of public attention. This is not the first time, however, that questions of immigration and what it means to be an American have revealed deep divisions within the U.S. This course explores the reception of immigrants in modern America, including differing views toward immigration; how immigrants help shape ideas about the American nation; and the growth of state bureaucracy and policing apparatus as a response.

This colloquium explores the history of African Americans and Jews in 20th century US beginning with Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe and the Great Migration to America's urban centers. It considers the geographical and economic tensions that developed between two minority groups living in close proximity; the appropriation of black culture; Jewish claims to whiteness and performance of blackness; intercommunal relations during the Civil Rights movement; the breakdown of the black-Jewish alliance in the late 1960s; and the lingering ramifications of this shift today.

This class considers the notion of American Jewish exceptionalism through the lens of Trump's America. The social and economic success of American Jewry over the last 350 years is remarkable, yet Jews continue to find their position in American society called into question. This course moves between past and present and will consider key moments in American Jewish life with a particular emphasis on contemporary currents, including post-liberal identity politics, Israel, and the rise of white supremacy.

This course serves as an introduction to Korean culture, society, and history before the modern period. It begins with a discussion of early Korea and controversies over Korean origins; the bulk of the course will be devoted to the Chos'n period (1392-1910), that from the end of medieval Korea to the modern period. Topics to be covered include: Korean national and ethnic origins, the role of religious and intellectual traditions such as Buddhism and Confucianism, popular and indigenous religious practices, the traditional Korean family and social order, state and society during the Chos'n dynasty, vernacular prose literature, Korean's relations with its neighbors in East Asia, and changing conceptions of Korean identity.nThe course will be conducted through the reading and discussion of primary texts in English translation alongside scholarly research. As such, it will emphasize the interpretation of historical sources, which include personal letters, memoirs, and diaries, traditional histories, diplomatic and political documents, along with religious texts and works of art. Scholarly work will help contextualize these materials, while the class discussions will introduce students to existing scholarly debates about the Korean past. Students will be asked also to examine the premodern past with an eye to contemporary reception. The final project for the class is a film study, where a modern Korean film portraying premodern Korea will be analyzed as a case study of how the past works in public historical memory in contemporary Korea, both North and South. An open-ended research paper is also possible, pending instructor approval.

This colloquium explores the major themes of Korean history before 1800 and the role of culture and religions in shaping the everyday life of Chosôn-dynasty Koreans. Themes include the aristocracy and military in the Koryô dynasty, Buddhism and Confucianism in the making of Chosôn Korea, kingship and court culture, slavery and women, family and rituals, death and punishment, and the Korean alphabet (Hangûl) and print culture.