UW Bothell Course Descriptions
UW Tacoma Course Descriptions
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Detailed course offerings (Time Schedule) are available for
MELC 196 Introductory Studies in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Offered occasionally by visitors or resident faculty. Content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 196
MELC 199 Study Abroad (1-15, max. 15)
Credit for lower division MELC courses in an approved Study Abroad program. Requires credit evaluation by department or faculty. Does not automatically apply to major or minor requirements. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 199
MELC 201 Introduction to the Ancient Near East (5) SSc/A&H
Surveys the peoples, places, and events of the ancient Near East. Examines the cultures of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel with an eye to each culture's cultural contributions. Pays special attention to shared cultural elements as well as distinguishing characteristics of the peoples of these regions.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 201
MELC 203 Introduction to the Archaeology of Western Anatolia: Crossroads of the Ancient World (5) SSc
Archaeology of the western coast of Anatolia and its often-neglected place in the ancient Near Eastern and Classical worlds. Covers the cities of Troy and Ephesus, and the civilizations of the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Lycians and the Ionians in Anatolia. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 203
MELC 207 Introduction to the Archaeology of Ancient Iran (5) SSc
Introduction to the archaeology of ancient Iran (Persia) from the earliest inhabitants to the end of Sasanian period (circa10,000 BDE-651 CE). Covers the archaeology from various time periods in chronological order, with an emphasis on the archaeology and culture of the Achaemendid (Persian) period.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 207
MELC 208 Introduction To Ancient Near Eastern Archeology (5) SSc/A&H
Archaeological cultures of the ancient Near East, from 10,000 BCE to 332 BCE, including the civilizations of Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq), Egypt, the Levant (modern day Israel, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon), Anatolia (modern day Turkey) and Persia (modern day Iran).
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 208
MELC 234 Introduction to Shi'i Islam (5) SSc
Basic beliefs of Shi'ism today, how they developed over time, the role of intellectuals in the development of Shi'i thought, and how major law schools of Shi'ism give expression to those beliefs.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 234
MELC 243 Iran and Persianate Worlds (5) SSc/A&H
Explores culture of this Middle Eastern region through a multi-disciplinary approach that includes such manifestations as architecture, carpet-weaving, story-telling, and the composition of poetry.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 243
MELC 244 Voices of the Iranian Revolution (5) A&H/SSc
Includes critical readings of the 1979 Iranian Revolution as represented in essays, fiction, poetry, memoir, speeches, film, and other arts. Examines the ways that writers, artists, politicians, and intellectuals have depicted the origins and development of the Islamic Republic and the legacy of the revolution in Iranian society and culture today.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 244
MELC 257 Introduction to Central Asian Turkic Literature in Translation (5) A&H
Provides an overview of the major periods of Central Asian Turkic literature including: the Pre-Islamic Period (eighth-tenth centuries), the Islamic Period (tenth-twentieth centuries), the Modern Period (1905-1991), and the Post-Colonial period (1991-present). Centers on the Turkic peoples who lived under Russia and Soviet colonial rule.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 257
MELC 258 Introduction to Kyrgyz Writer Chingiz Aitmatov (5) SSc/A&H
Introduces the form and content of the work of the Kyrgyz writer, Chingiz Aitmatov, while also examining his life and influence on the people of Central Asia.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 258
MELC 259 Introduction to the Writers and Intellectuals of Central Asia under Soviet Colonialism (5) A&H/SSc, DIV
Discusses the lives and works of Kazakh, Kyrgyz Turkmen, and Uzbek poets and writers and intellectuals who lived during the Soviet period from 1917-1991.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 259
MELC 262 Central Asian Country Profiles: Introduction to Kazakhstan (5) A&H/SSc
Examines developments in Kazakhstan after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Part of a series on Central Asia.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 262
MELC 264 Central Asian Country Profiles: Introduction to Uzbekistan (5) A&H/SSc
Survey of the Uzbek people and their history. Examines developments in Uzbekistan after the country gained independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Part of a series on Central Asia.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 264
MELC 265 Introduction to Central Asian Turkic Literature in Translation (3) A&H
Introduces the foundations of modern Uzbek literature; the common Turkic literature of the eighth-century and the more recent Chagatay-Uzbek literature. Focuses on post-Soviet literature since 1991. After independence Uzbek writers were able to express themselves without censorship and prosecution.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 265
MELC 266 The Modern Middle East and Central Asia (5) SSc
Ethnographic overview of Muslim societies in the middle east and central Asia from various anthropological perspectives. Examines the unity and diversity of Muslim communities and acquaints students with the significant linguistic, cultural, and political diversity of Muslim societies. Helps students develop an understanding of Islam as a lived experience.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 266
MELC 267 Folktales Along the Silk Road (3) A&H/SSc
Introduces student to the Silk Road connecting China and Europe through the cities of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Constantinople, now Istanbul. Applies comparative-historical and sociological method in folktale research, i.e. compares Western European stories and motifs with tales from the Silk Road while paying attention to the environment of storytelling.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 267
MELC 271 Cultural History of Turkey: From Empire to Nation (5) A&H/SSc
Topics include: social, economic, and political structures of Ottoman and Turkish Anatolia; language, literature, and artistic tradition; social status of women, literacy and illiteracy, the secular enterprise of Kemal Ataturk; Islamic fundamentalism, educational institutions, Kurdish nationalism.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 271
MELC 287 The Middle East in Song (2, max. 8) A&H
Surveys popular song as it has shaped modern culture and identity in the Middle East. Topics vary. All texts in English; no previous knowledge of other languages required. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 287
MELC 296 Special Studies in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (1-5, max. 15) SSc
Offered occasionally by visitors or resident faculty.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 296
MELC 301 Art of the Ancient Near East (3) A&H
Examines the artistic remains of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (3000 BCE-550 BCE), with some attention to architecture. Topics examined include: art as ritual power, the relationship between text and image, art and cosmology, visual propaganda, and the legacy of ancient Near Eastern art.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 301
MELC 302 Religions of the Ancient World (3) SSc
A comparative exploration into ancient religious customs, rituals, and beliefs (ca. 3000-500 BCE). Focus on peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, and Israel. Topics include conceptions of worship and divinity, sacred space and time, and types and roles of priesthoods, divination, prayers, and afterlife beliefs. Recommended: NEAR E 201. Offered: A.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 302
MELC 308 Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient Near East (3) A&H/SSc, DIV
Investigates and critically assesses trends and topics in recent studies of gender and sexuality in the ancient Near East, pertaining especially to texts, artifacts, art and images from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Levant. Explores ancient Near Eastern taxonomies and functions of gender and sexuality, and examines social, political and religious forces that inform and construct gendered categories of gods, humans, and their worlds. Recommended: MELC 201. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 308
MELC 309 Death and Afterlife in the Ancient World (3) SSc/A&H
Explores human yearnings, obsessions, fears, and aspirations associated with death and afterlife by examining major political, military, social, economic, religious, literary, artistic, and architectural phenomena directly connected to the way ancient cultures, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and the Levant, have conceptualized death.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 309
MELC 310 Jewish Literature: Foundations and Re-imaginings (5) A&H, DIV
Overview of 3000 years of literary creativity. Considers multiple genres, including Bible, Midrash, medieval poetry, Hasidic tale, modern fiction, TV satire, and popular music lyrics, with emphasis on how later literature reinterprets and re-imagines earlier texts. Explores diversity in Jewish writing, focusing on Jews as minority and diaspora communities as well as on centers and margins within Jewish cultures. Offered: WSp.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 310
MELC 311 The Archaeology of Biblical Israel (5) SSc
Archaeology of ancient Israel (southern Levant). Covers the known archaeological material and Biblical and other contemporaneous textual sources to explore this topic, covering the archaeological cultures from the Middle Bronze Age to the end of the Babylonian Exile (2000-300 BCE).
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 311
MELC 312 Looting and Loss: Middle Eastern Archaeology (5) SSc
Explores the history and context of recent politicization, looting, and destruction of archaeological and cultural sites in the Middle East, as well as the associated human toll, with primary focus on the current state of modern Syria and Iraq. Covers the politics of archaeology in the Middle East from the First Gulf War to more recent times. Offered: jointly with ARCHY 312.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 312
MELC 314 The Archeology of Early Islam (5) SSc
Introduction to the archaeology of early Islam, from 632 to 1000 CE with the study of the rise (and occasional fall) of Islam in Arabia, Egypt, and Spain/Portugal through a survey of the local architecture and material culture. Students study key archaeological sites and histories of these regions.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 314
MELC 316 Israeli Identities (5) A&H, DIV
Examines fiction and film, as well as selected poetry, popular songs, and essays, to explore diverse groups within contemporary Israeli society. Topics include the sabra ideal, holocaust survivors, Sephardic/Mizrahi communities, religious and secular Jews, Israel's Arab minority, and questions of gender.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 316
MELC 320 Jewish Poetry (5) A&H
Examines elements of traditional Jewish prayers and worship with modern poems that draw on those classical sources. Examines poets from Europe, the Americas, the Near East and North Africa. Taught in English.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 320
MELC 321 Israel in Film (2) SSc/A&H
Presents films that introduce students to important aspects of Israeli culture. Topics include: Zionism, the Holocaust, immigration, religious and secular communities, mizrachim, Russians, army service, war and trauma, LGBT themes, and Israel's Arab minority.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 321
MELC 325 Modern Hebrew Literature in Translation (3) A&H
Major developments in Hebrew literature from the Enlightenment to the current Israeli literature.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 325
MELC 329 Classical Arabic Literature in Translation (5) A&H
Examines development of Arabic literature from its beginnings through the fall of the Abbasid dynasty and the Mongols. Coincided with period when Arabic language and literature were dominate forces in Islamic civilization. Topics include: Pre-Islamic poetry, impact of Islam on the literature, court poetry, and the rise of Arabic prose.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 329
MELC 330 Colonialism, Nationalism, and the Modern Arabic Novel (5) SSc/A&H
Examines how representative novels from the modern canon in Arabic have both endorsed and critiqued aspects of nationalism and colonialist ideology.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 330
MELC 331 Thousand and One Nights (5) A&H
Examines the major story cycles of the Thousand-and-One-Nights collection in their social and historical contexts.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 331
MELC 332 Arab American Writers (5) SSc/A&H
Explores the influences of Arab American writing both in the United States and the Arab world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Discusses issues of emigration to the United States from the Arab world and its impact on the formation of a distinctive Arab American identity.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 332
MELC 334 Culture of the Arab World (5) SSc/A&H
General survey of the linguistic, geographical, historical, social, religious, and cultural aspects of the modern Arab world, including the Arabic language, family, and the Arab experience in the United States. Examines Arab American relations, the role of the past and of social change, and Arab art and music.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 334
MELC 337 Egyptian Cinema: Glamour on the Nile (5) A&H
History and development of Egyptian cinema. Examines a range of topics, including: the transition to sound, the differentiation into film genres, the nationalization of the film industry in the 1960s, the role of the director as auteur, and the recovery of the Egyptian film industry after 2000.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 337
MELC 343 Classical Persian Literature in Translation (5) SSc/A&H
Introduces themes, forms, and historical development of Persian literature from the tenth to nineteenth centuries CE. Topics include lyric and epic forms, Sufism, premodern poetics, and reception history of English translations. Reading include Rumi, Hafez, Khayyam, Ferdowsi, Sa'di among others. No prior knowledge of Persian language or literature required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 343
MELC 344 Modern Persian Literature in Translation (5) SSc/A&H
Introduces Persian literature from early modernizing projects in the nineteenth century up to today. Includes poetry, fiction, essays, and film. Examines various ways that Persian writers define modernity in their own works and respond to writers in other languages and traditions. No prior knowledge of Persian language or literature required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 344
MELC 345 Persian Literature in Translation (5) A&H
Designed to familiarize students with an expanding collection of works translated from Persian literature, both classical and modern, into English. Focuses on a few representative texts and offers interpretations of the culture through close readings. Prior acquaintance with Persian culture not required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 345
MELC 350 Archaeology of Ancient Near Eastern Warfare and Empire (5) SSc
Surveys the archaeological remnants of war, warfare, and empire in the ancient Near East, from the rise of earliest cities to the Roman period (circa 3000 BCE-30 CE), with a focus on the cultural consequences of violence and warfare on various ancient Near Eastern cultures.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 350
MELC 351 Royal Literature in the Bible and the Ancient Near East: Rebels, Kings, and Wanderers (3) A&H
Kingship in the Bible and ancient Near East. Draws on sources from Sumer, Egypt, Babylon, Syria, Haiti, and Israel. Highlights how ideas of kingship changed over time and differed between cultures. Recommended: MELC 101 or MELC 201.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 351
MELC 360 Oral Literature of the Turkic Peoples of Central Asia: The Heroic Epos (3) A&H/SSc
Representative heroic poems of Central Asian Turkic peoples now living in the Central Asian Republics and China. Origin of the heroic epos, its relation to the romantic epos and other oral literary genres. Art of the singer and his role in nomadic Turkic society. Emphasis on Manas, the monumental epos of Kirghiz.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 360
MELC 372 Modern Turkish Literature in Translation (3) A&H
Covers major theoretical issues concerning Ottoman court literature and Turkish epic and troubadour poetry. Major writers and works of modern Turkish literature read and analyzed in their social, political, and theoretical contexts. Previous study of Turkish literature not required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 372
MELC 385 Modern Middle Eastern Literature in Translation (3) A&H
Contemporary cultures of the Middle East studied through exposure to a representative sample of their literary work. Texts selected address major issues in Middle Eastern societies, e.g., tradition versus modernity, national identity and the challenge of the West, Arab-Israeli conflict.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 385
MELC 386 Middle East through Cinema (5, max. 12) A&H
Analyzes the function of cinema in shaping communal and individual identities in Middle Eastern cultures. Examines topics including religious transformation, violence, identity, gender, immigration, and exile through film screenings, discussions, and supplementary readings.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 386
MELC 392 Politics and Poetics of Translation (5) A&H, DIV
Study of translation through close examination of medieval and modern Middle Eastern literary texts. Explores how translation is shaped by profoundly unequal power dynamics and effects of imperial domination of English in translation practices. Includes translations from Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish into English and translations among these languages. Knowledge of a second language not assumed.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 392
MELC 396 Intermediate Studies in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (1-5, max. 15)
Offered occasionally by visitors or resident faculty.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 396
MELC 399 Study Abroad (1-15, max. 15)
Credit for MELC 200-400-level courses in an approved Study Abroad program. Requires credit evaluation by department or faculty. Does not automatically apply to major or minor requirements. Offered: AWSpS.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 399
MELC 429 Islamic Mystical Literature in Translation (5) A&H
Readings from the works of principal Sufi writers and poets.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 429
MELC 431 Arabic Linguistics (5) A&H/SSc
Studies Arabic through modern linguistic analysis. Covers Arabic's phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, and discusses the history of Arabic as well as the frequently debated issue of diglossia in Arabic-speaking countries. Equal attention given to the linguistic features of both FuS'Ha Arabic and modern Arabic dialects. Prerequisite: ARAB 102.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 431
MELC 432 Arabic Sociolinguistics (5) SSc/A&H
Focuses on how Arabic is used by native speakers in various social contexts. Examines diglossia (co-existence of Modern Standard Arabic with the Arabic vernacular), linguistic variation in the Arab world, and the effect of variables such as education, social status, politics, and gender. Prerequisite: ARAB 101.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 432
MELC 485 Digital Media: The Middle East and Central Asia (5) A&H
Hands-on, project-based approach to imaging, new media, electronic text, databases, metadata and accessibility, rights management, and other issues central to contemporary humanities research on the Middle East and Central Asia.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 485
MELC 490 Supervised Study (1-6, max. 18)
Special work in Middle Eastern studies.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 490
MELC 491 Seminar in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (2)
Covers issues of methodology as well as linguistic, philosophical, literary critical, and rhetorical topics. Focuses on developing academic presentation and communication skills. Includes supervised readings and group discussion. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 491
MELC 496 Advanced Studies in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (3-5, max. 15) SSc
Offered occasionally by visitors or resident faculty. Content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 496
MELC 497 Honors Thesis (5)
Participants identify a specific thesis topic and conduct individual research under the direction of a thesis adviser, culminating in an Honors thesis. Open only to juniors and seniors in the Departmental Honors Program.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 497
MELC 498 Capstone Essay (5) A&H/SSc
Supervised individual research and writing of a capstone essay. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 498
MELC 499 Undergraduate Research (1-6, max. 18)
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 499
MELC 501 Art of the Ancient Near East (3)
Examines the artistic remains of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (3000 BCE-550 BCE), with some attention to architecture. Topics examined include: art as ritual power, the relationship between text and image, art and cosmology, visual propaganda, and the legacy of ancient Near Eastern art.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 501
MELC 502 Religions of the Ancient World (3)
A comparative exploration into ancient religious customs, rituals, and beliefs (ca. 3000-500 BCE). Focus on peoples of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Syria, and Israel. Topics include conceptions of worship and divinity, sacred space and time, and types and roles of priesthoods, divination, prayers, and afterlife beliefs. Recommended: NEAR E 201. Offered: A.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 502
MELC 505 The Biblical Prophets (3)
Explores the Biblical prophets (in translation) within their Near Eastern contexts. Historicity, literary and rhetorical sophistication, and ideological agendas. Seeks to uncover the meaning and distinctiveness of Israelite prophecy within the context of the larger Near East. No knowledge of the Bible required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 505
MELC 506 The History of Biblical Interpretation (3)
Traces Biblical interpretation and translation technique from the earliest translations of the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) to the various historical literary, deconstructionist, and holistic strategies of more recent times. Adopts a 'hands-on' approach to the material and explores various hermeneutics by applying them in class.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 506
MELC 507 From Israelites to Jews: the First Six Centuries BCE (3)
Traces the Israelites, from the Babylonian destruction of the Jerusalemite Temple (586 BCE) to events following the destruction of the second Temple (first century CE). Focuses on primary historical and literary sources as well as archaeological and artistic evidence. No knowledge of Hebrew or the Bible required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 507
MELC 508 Gender and Sexuality in the Ancient Near East (3) A&H/SSc, DIV
Investigates and critically assesses trends and topics in recent studies of gender and sexuality in the ancient Near East, pertaining especially to texts, artifacts, art and images from ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Levant. Explores ancient Near Eastern taxonomies and functions of gender and sexuality, and examines social, political and religious forces that inform and construct gendered categories of gods, humans, and their worlds. Recommended: MELC 201. Offered: AWSp.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 508
MELC 509 Death and Afterlife in the Ancient World (3)
Explores human yearnings, obsessions, fears, and aspirations associated with death and afterlife by examining major political, military, social, economic, religious, literary, artistic, and architectural phenomena directly connected to the way ancient cultures, such as Egypt, Mesopotamia, Israel, and the Levant, have conceptualized death.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 509
MELC 511 The Archaeology of Biblical Israel (5)
Archaeology of ancient Israel (southern Levant). Covers the known archaeological material and Biblical and other contemporaneous textual sources to explore this topic, covering the archaeological cultures from the Middle Bronze Age to the end of the Babylonian Exile (2000-300 BCE).
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 511
MELC 520 Jewish Poetry (5)
Examines elements of traditional Jewish prayers and worship with modern poems that draw on those classical sources. Examines poets from Europe, the Americas, the Near East and North Africa. Taught in English.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 520
MELC 529 Classical Arabic Literature in Translation (5)
Examines development of Arabic literature from its beginnings through the fall of the Abbasid dynasty and the Mongols. Coincided with period when Arabic language and literature were dominate forces in Islamic civilization. Topics include: Pre-Islamic poetry, impact of Islam on the literature, court poetry, and the rise of Arabic prose.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 529
MELC 530 Colonialism, Nationalism, and the Modern Arabic Novel (5)
Examines how representative novels from the modern canon in Arabic have both endorsed and critiqued aspects of nationalism and colonialist ideology.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 530
MELC 531 Thousand and One Nights (5)
Examines the major story cycles of the Thousand-and-One-Nights collection in their social and historical contexts.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 531
MELC 532 Arab American Writers (5)
Explores the influences of Arab American writing both in the United States and the Arab world during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Discusses issues of emigration to the United States from the Arab world and its impact on the formation of a distinctive Arab American identity.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 532
MELC 534 Culture of the Arab World (5)
General survey of the linguistic, geographical, historical, social, religious, and cultural aspects of the modern Arab world, including the Arabic language, family, and the Arab experience in the United States. Examines Arab American relations, the role of the past and of social change, and Arab art and music.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 534
MELC 538 Arabic Linguistics (5)
Studies Arabic through modern linguistic analysis. Covers Arabic's phonology, morphology, syntax, and semantics, and discusses the history of Arabic as well as the frequently debated issue of diglossia in Arabic-speaking countries. Equal attention given to the linguistic features of both FuS'Ha Arabic and modern Arabic dialects. Prerequisite: ARAB 512.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 538
MELC 539 Arabic Sociolinguistics (5)
Focuses on how Arabic is used by native speakers in various social contexts. Examines diglossia (co-existence of Modern Standard Arabic with the Arabic vernacular), linguistic variation in the Arab world, and the effect of variables such as education, social status, politics, and gender. Prerequisite: MELC 534.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 539
MELC 543 Classical Persian Literature in Translations (5)
Introduces themes, forms, and historical development of Persian literature from the tenth to nineteenth centuries CE. Topics include lyric and epic forms, Sufism, premodern poetics, and reception history of English translations. Reading include Rumi, Hafez, Khayyam, Ferdowsi, Sa'di among others. No prior knowledge of Persian language or literature required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 543
MELC 544 Modern Persian Literature in Translation (5)
Introduces Persian literature from early modernizing projects in the nineteenth century up to today. Includes poetry, fiction, essays, and film. Examines various ways that Persian writers define modernity in their own works and respond to writers in other languages and traditions. No prior knowledge of Persian language or literature required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 544
MELC 545 Persian Literature in Translation (5)
Designed to familiarize students with an expanding collection of works translated from Persian literature, both classical and modern, into English. Focuses on a few representative texts and offers interpretations of the culture through close readings. Prior acquaintance with Persian culture not required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 545
MELC 551 Royal Literature in the Bible and the Ancient Near East: Rebels, Kings, and Wanderers (3)
Kingship in the Bible and ancient Near East. Draws on sources from Sumer, Egypt, Babylon, Syria, Haiti, and Israel. Highlights how ideas of kingship changed over time and differed between cultures. Recommended: MELC 201 or equivalent.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 551
MELC 572 Modern Turkish Literature in Translation (3)
Covers major theoretical issues concerning Ottoman court literature and Turkish epic and troubadour poetry. Major writers and works of modern Turkish literature read and analyzed in their social, political, and theoretical contexts. Previous study of Turkish literature not required.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 572
MELC 584 Egyptian Cinema: Glamour on the Nile (5)
History and development of Egyptian cinema. Examines a range of topics, including: the transition to sound, the differentiation into film genres, the nationalization of the film industry in the 1960s, the role of the director as auteur, and the recovery of the Egyptian film industry after 2000.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 584
MELC 585 Digital Media: The Middle East and Central Asia (5)
Hands-on, project-based approach to imaging, new media, electronic text, databases, metadata and accessibility, rights management, and other issues central to contemporary humanities research on the Middle East and Central Asia.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 585
MELC 586 Middle East through Cinema (5, max. 12)
Analyzes the function of cinema in shaping communal and individual identities in Middle Eastern cultures. Examines topics including religious transformation, violence, identity, gender, immigration, and exile through film screenings, discussions, and supplementary readings.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 586
MELC 587 Teaching Arabic as a Foreign/Second Language (3)
Theory and practice of communicative language teaching; current developments in foreign-language teaching; evaluation of teaching materials; includes participation at the departmental and university-wide fall orientation; required for beginning teaching assistants of Middle Eastern Languages. Credit/no-credit only.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 587
MELC 588 Methodologies in Middle Eastern Studies (5)
Investigates prevalent approaches through a survey of scholarship on Near and Middle Eastern cultures and thought across time periods, cultures, and communities. Examines discourses developed on polytheistic and monotheistic religions, imperial and nationalist social systems, and ideological frameworks, such as Orientalism.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 588
MELC 589 Research Methods (3)
Introduction to research in Islamic civilization. Research methods, primary sources, evidence and documentation, reference works, transliteration systems, scholarly writing style.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 589
MELC 590 Seminar on Middle Eastern Cultures and Thought (3-5, max. 30)
Content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 590
MELC 593 Politics and Poetics of Translation (5)
Study of translation through close examination of medieval and modern Middle Eastern literary texts. Explores how translation is shaped by profoundly unequal power dynamics and effects of imperial domination of English in translation practices. Includes translations from Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, and Turkish into English and translations among these languages. Knowledge of a second language not assumed.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 593
MELC 596 Special Studies in Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures (3-5, max. 15)
Offered occasionally by visitors or resident faculty. Content varies.
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 596
MELC 600 Independent Study or Research (*-)
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 600
MELC 700 Master's Thesis (*)
View course details in MyPlan: MELC 700
