Pre-Modern Islamic World (Survey)

This comprehensive survey course introduces the rich history of the premodern Islamic world, spanning from the 7th to the 17th century. Students will embark on an exploration of the intricate political, social, and cultural tapestry of Islamic civilization, delving into the rise and fall of empires, the evolution of religious practices, and the development of societies. The course will illuminate the diverse artistic expressions, architectural marvels, and literary traditions that have left an indelible mark on the world. Furthermore, the course investigates the dynamic interactions between Islamic civilization and its neighboring cultures, in an effort to reveal a complex web of exchange and influence. By the end of this course, students will gain a profound understanding of the multifaceted nature of the premodern Islamic world and its enduring impact on global history.

History of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (Survey)

This survey course revisits significant historical transitions from the 18th century through to the present in the Middle East and North African (MENA) region. It starts from the Ottoman and Safavid Empires, and continue to the stumbled bureaucratic and social reforms. From there, the course examines how European colonial powers inserted their modernization schemes in this region. In the second half of the twentieth century, global independence movements gave birth to post-colonial nation states, in which MENA political elites experimented with ambitious models of self-governance. The final part focuses on the troubled reinvention of political Islam under the ambivalent legacy of authoritarian regimes. The course is inclusive to undergraduate students without a prior knowledge of the MENA region. The geographic coverage includes both the Arab East (mashriq) and Arab West (maghreb), as well as Turkey and Iran.

China and the Middle East:
Commodities, Ecology, Infrastructure (Mid-Level)

How did cellulose fiber paper become a globally circulated technology after its invention in Han China? How did Islam spread out from the Middle East to Central and East Asia? What role does infrastructure play in the contemporary rejuvenation of the Silk Road? This course opens up a new perspective of transnational history between China and the Middle East as interconnected and mutually constituted entities. The course moves chronologically from the Ancient Silk Road to the contemporary Belt and Road Initiative, and depicts a grand picture of long-durée communications between the two regions. It focuses on the contours of material exchanges, technology transfers, long-distance traveling, and the spread of ideas and religious beliefs. This course motivates students to think critically about the relationships between material and culture, institution and politics, environment and human practice in a global framework.

Dark Matters:
Technology and it Discontents in the Middle East (Upper-Level to Graduate)

While technologies allow human societies to achieve unprecedented progress, they also induce multiple forms of political and social inequality. Consequently, unethical uses of those same technologies not only hit media’s headlines for public attention, but also cause legal disputes among secular professionals and religious scholars throughout the Middle East. This course focuses on innovative yet parasitical and troubling usages of technology, including drug smuggling and addiction, theft and sabotage regarding infrastructure, assisted reproductive technologies, and so forth. Drawing from interdisciplinary perspectives, this course aims to approach technology as more than invented objects, but as situated within larger frameworks of politics, socio-economy, and culture of the Middle East. Ultimately, it promotes critical thinking about the phenomena in question, their causes and consequences.

Bandits, Terrorists, and Freedom Fighters:

A Global South History of Insurgency (Upper-Level to Graduate)

The course examines interlinked categories of bandit, terrorist, and freedom fighters to understand insurgency as a politically and socially constructed concept throughout modern history of the Global South. The course approaches specific instances of illegal use of force in their sociopolitical and historical settings, and builds toward a consideration of insurgency from “the actors’ points of view.” Through the categories of bandits, terrorists, and freedom fighters, the course considers broader issues in history and international relations, such as structure and agency, state power and sovereignty, and definitions of legal and illegal uses of force. This course provides an analytical framework to understand violence and its intentionality, and to think critically about the (il)legitimacy of violence and the paradox of justice.

Critical Political Economy (Graduate)

Critical political economy comprises an integrative analysis of the economy, society, and politics, and considers the three as interdependent structures that inform historical development. This course teaches theories on critical political economy that are broadly connected to the original writings of Karl Marx (Grundrisse and Capital). The central concerns of this course emphasize the dynamics of capitalism and scholarly critiques on it. The course initiates from Marx’s classic analysis of the capitalist mode of production to understand the core elements, terms, concepts, and modes of analysis in critical political economy. It then traces various trends of scholarship that deal with particular dimensions of capitalism, including world system, social class, race and gender, financialization and debt, globalization, and environment. The course views the scholarship as a single category because they commonly provide a critique of modern capitalism and of the existing political, economic and social conditions.