This course is for undergraduate and graduate students who have successfully completed Intermediate Persian II or taken the placement exam. It teaches students the monāzereh (debate) skills in Persian academic settings by focusing on short press commentaries and literary excerpts. Students will improve their translation skills by working on primary modern Persian poetry and short stories as well as original press excerpts of the most well-known newspapers and magazines of modern Iran. The course is designed to improve students' skills in comprehending, reading, and translating formal, written Persian.

This course is conducted in Persian and designed to help you continue expanding upon what you have learned in Elementary Persian II. In this course, we will begin to address a broader variety of cultural topics in order to increase your proficiency in linguistic as well as cultural terms. Emphasis is placed on actively using the language for interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes of communication. Therefore use of English is restricted. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are integrated into the course, as are culture, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Students must either have successfully completed Elementary Persian II or take the departmental placement exam.

This course is designed to help you start learning Persian and to give you the necessary tools to continue your study of Persian. This course introduces the Persian alphabet alongside grammar and vocabulary. Emphasis is placed on actively using the language for interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication. The four language skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading and writing) as well as pronunciation and culture are integrated into the curriculum. There is no prerequisite.

Persian for Heritage Speakers is conducted in Persian and designed to help you strengthen your skills by learning not only to read and write, but also to engage in more complex forms of discourse in Persian. In this course, we will begin to address a variety of topics in order to increase your proficiency in linguistic as well as cultural terms. Emphasis is placed on actively using the language for interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes of communication. Therefore, English is restricted. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are integrated into the course, as are culture, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Prerequisite: Students must be proficient in spoken Persian (whether Farsi or Dari), and lack reading and writing skills.

In this course we will approach the relationship between plants and people from archaeological and anthropological perspectives in order to investigate diverse plant consumption, use, and management strategies. Topics will include: archaeological formation processes, archaeobotanical sampling and recovery, lab sorting and identification, quantification methods, and archaeobotany as a means of preserving cultural heritage. Students will learn both field procedures and laboratory methods of archaeobotany through a series of hands-on activities and lab-based experiments. The final research project will involve an original in-depth analysis and interpretation of archaeobotanical specimens. By the end of the course, students will feel comfortable reading and evaluating archaeobotanical literature and will have a solid understanding of how archaeobotanists interpret human activities of the past.

This course aims to introduce students to the study of Islamic law, the all-embracing sacred law of Islam. In this course we will attempt to consider many different facets of the historical, doctrinal, institutional and social complexity of Islamic law. In addition, the various approaches that have been taken to the study of these aspects of Islamic law will be analyzed. The focus will be mostly, though not exclusively, on classical Islamic law. Specific topics covered include the beginnings of legal thought in Islam, various areas of Islamic positive law (substantive law), public and private legal institutions, Islamic legal theory, and issues in the contemporary development and application of Islamic law.

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the culture and media of modern Iran, with a critical perspective on issues such as identity formation, ethnicity, race, and nation-building. It focuses on how these issues relate to various aspects of modern Iranian culture - such as religion, gender, sexuality, war, and migration - through the lens of media, cinema, and literature.

By focusing on the scientific analysis of inorganic archaeological materials, this course will explore processes of creation in the past. Class will take place in the Center for the Analysis of Archaeological Materials (CAAM) and will be team taught in three modules: analysis of lithics, analysis of ceramics and analysis of metals. Each module will combine laboratory and classroom exercises to give students hands-on experience with archaeological materials. We will examine how the transformation of materials into objects provides key information about past human behaviors and the socio-economic contexts of production, distribution, exchange and use. Discussion topics will include invention and adoption of new technologies, change and innovation, use of fire, and craft specialization.

This course is a study of modern Arabic literary forms in the context of the major political and social changes which shaped Arab history in the first half of the twentieth century. The aim of the course is to introduce students to key samples of modern Arabic literature which trace major social and political developments in Arab society. Each time the class will be offered with a focus on one of the literary genres which emerged or flourished in the twentieth century: the free verse poem, the prose-poem, drama, the novel, and the short story. We will study each of these emergent genres against the socio-political backdrop which informed it. All readings will be in English translations. The class will also draw attention to the politics of translation as a reading and representational lens.

Review and discussion of the principal aspects of ancient Egyptian history, 3000-500 BC.