Through engaging with authentic texts, this advanced class aims to activate the
language skills students have learned in previous language courses. We will read
selections from Arabic poetry and prose and will respond to them in writing,
discussion and translation. We will focus on close reading, relying on our
knowledge of grammar. We will also work to develop writing, comprehension, and
speaking skills through short critical responses and oral presentations. All class
discussions will be conducted in Arabic.

This course is a continuation of first semester Advanced Intermediate Arabic. Emphasis continues to be on all four language skills: Speaking, Listening, Reading, & Writing. The readings for the class are chosen from actual texts from both medieval and modern Arabic in a variety of fields and subjects. Students will be expected to give classroom presentations and to write short essays in Arabic. Evaluation will be both Achievement- and proficiency- based.

This is the continuation of the first semester Intermediate Arabic. This course is also proficiency-based, implying that all activities within the course are aimed at placing you, the learner, in the context of the native-speaking environment. Evaluation is done by the more traditional testing methods (vocabulary tests, grammar and translation exercises). We anticipate that students will achieve Intermediate High according to the ACTFL scale.

This is the continuation of the first semester Intermediate Arabic. This course is also proficiency-based, implying that all activities within the course are aimed at placing you, the learner, in the context of the native-speaking environment. Evaluation is done by the more traditional testing methods (vocabulary tests, grammar and translation exercises). We anticipate that students will achieve Intermediate High according to the ACTFL scale.

This course is a continuation of first semester Elementary Arabic, and builds on the speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in the standard means of communication in the Arab World. Evaluation is done by the more traditional testing methods (vocabulary tests, dictations, grammar and translation exercises). We anticipate that by the end of this course, students will range in proficiency from Novice High to Intermediate Low on the ACTFL scale.

This course is a continuation of first semester Elementary Arabic, and builds on the speaking, listening, reading and writing skills in the standard means of communication in the Arab World. Evaluation is done by the more traditional testing methods (vocabulary tests, dictations, grammar and translation exercises). We anticipate that by the end of this course, students will range in proficiency from Novice High to Intermediate Low on the ACTFL scale.

This course focuses on the historical and cultural relationship between Africans and their descendants abroad.

This course examines the nature and dynamics of the state and civil society in Africa and how these determine the career of democracy, democratization and democratic rule in the continent. It considers different accounts of the state in Africa (or the African state), civil society and democracy in elaborating an informed understanding of the political, economic and social processes in the continent. How does the nature of the state in Africa account for the nature of the civil society and vice versa? How can the career of democracy in the continent illuminate our understanding of the nature of state-society relations? How robust is the relationship between civil society and the state? How can we account for the relationships among civil society, the state and democratic institutions and processes? What are the local, regional, and global forces that nurture and/or hinder democratic practices, including electoral democracy? These questions are confronted in light of their implications for, and complex interactions with, different social formations, institutions, groups, and social practices including gender, ethnicity, nationalism, race, religion, social protest, political institutions, economic formations, etc., etc.

This course explores the evolution of representations of the Black femme body in French and francophone imaginaries, tracing a chronological arc that begins with early colonial imagery and ends with the rise of a 2018 movement spearheaded by a collective of Black comediennes, denouncing exclusionary practices in the French entertainment industry. We will first focus on the male gaze — European, Caribbean and African — and the way it constructed the Black femme body, to better understand how Black female authors undermine, resist, parody, or continue to bear the weight of these early images when they take control of their own representation. While our primary readings will be authored by French-writing women, including Mayotte Capecia (Martinique), Marie Vieux-Chauvet (Haiti), Maryse Condé (Guadeloupe), Mariama Bâ (Senegal) and Marie Ndiaye (France), our theoretical foundation will include anglophone thinkers, such as bell hooks, Audre Lorde, Saidiya Hartman, and others. Readings and discussions will be in English.

This new course will explore multiple dimensions of Africa’s environmental history, drawing upon literature in the natural sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. It is one component of a pilot project supported by Penn Global and directed by the instructor on ‘Local Histories of Climate Change in the Horn of Africa”, though we will cover topics and case studies from the entire continent. The course takes an historical perspective on environmental change in Africa, with an eye to engaging current debates on climate change and its impact on contemporary urban and rural communities. Students will read and discuss key works on the African environment, conduct their own literature reviews on selected topics, and prepare case studies of communities which have been impacted by severe climate events in the past half-century. The format combines lectures and seminar-style discussions, and we will draw upon the expertise of guest lecturers in a variety of disciplines which have contributed to the study of environmental change.