In cooperation with several GTU member schools, the Center for Islamic Studies offers introductory and advanced courses in Islamic history, theology, philosophy, culture, arts, and religious practice. It is affiliated with departments at the University of California, Berkeley that intersect with the study of Islam -- such as African Diaspora Studies, Anthropology, Ethnic Studies, Near Eastern Studies, South and Southeast Asian Studies, and the Center for Middle Eastern Studies. The following list consists of courses within the GTU consortium and at UC Berkeley.
GTU and UC Berkeley Courses in Islamic Studies
Spring 2017
Islam in the Public Sphere
Course Number: HRRS 3391
Location and Time: PSR:6, T 2:10PM-5:00PM
This course will introduce students to some of the frames, themes and theories in the study and representation of Islam/Muslims in the public sphere, with a focus on Europe and the UnitedStates. Using interdisciplinary approaches and sources, the topics covered include: conceptual frameworks in the study of Islam/Muslims; the public sphere and public Islam in secular contexts; modernity and power; racialization of Muslims in America; slavery; Islamic feminist discourses on rights; women, gender, sexuality; cultural memory, media, aesthetics; the production of Islamophobia; the politics of pluralism; interreligious relations and dialogue through theology, social justice, environment and humor.
Introduction to Islamic Law
Course Number: HRRS 1300
Instructor: Khater (GTU/CIS)
Location and Time: MUDD: 102, TH 2:10PM-5:00PM
This course will introduce students to the history and development of Islamic law, the emergence of the various legal schools (madhhabs), their legal principles, sources of legislation which include the Qur'an and Sunnah, and legal maxims. Students will be introduced to the main classical texts for the sciences of fiqh (jurisprudence), us'ul al-fiqh (legal theory), maqasid (divine objections), and al-qawa'id al-fiqhiyyah (legal maxims). The chapters ofal-'ibadat (legal rulings pertaining to acts of worship) will be studied with the hanbali legal school being the frame of reference. Varying opinions from other legal schools will also be presented. Finally, we will look at Islamic law in contemporary and Western contexts.
Topics in Islamic Thought and Institutions
Course Number: NES 140 (CCN 19851)
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Moffitt 102, T/TH 2:00PM-3:30PM
Selected topics from Islamic intellectual history. The course provides the student with a broad survey of late 18th to 20th century Muslim intellectual, institutional and political history with a focus on key personalities, major events and movements shaping the emergence of modes of religious practices and modern engagement as well as the materialization of tensions emerging from local, regional and global conflicts.
Islam (Near Eastern Studies)
Course Number: NES 146B (CCN 31504)
Instructor: Faruque (UCB)
Location and Time: Cory 241, M/W 5:00PM – 6:30PM
This course seeks to introduce topics on Islamic thought and civilization, including modes of popular piety and spirituality (Sufism), the development of Islamic art, architecture, and literature, and major theological and philosophical debates. In addition, this course examines Islam in the modern period in order to explain the current Muslim world and its relation to the West, especially in the context of historical processes that have ultimately given rise to “fundamentalism” that is often presented in American public discourse. This course will also introduce modern movements such as Pan-Islamism, Islamic modernism, reformist Islam, and the revival of traditional Islam and discuss ways the religion confronts or embraces the challenges of modernity. Furthermore, attention will be given to a number of important themes such as love, imagination, selfhood, and subjectivity that have captured the Muslim mind over the centuries. Lectures will be supplemented with visual materials, music, and movies where appropriate.
The Qur'an and Its Interpretation
Course Number: NES 180 (CCN 19855)
Instructor: Ahmed (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 122, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
The course introduces students to Qur'an and to methods of its interpretation, as adopted in the exegetical (tafsir) literature. In addition to being exposed to secondary academic literature on the Qur'an and its exegesis, students will be offered a high dose of primary exegetical texts in translation. Passages from a number of periods and denominations will be selected, so that students may develop an appreciation of the interpretive range of a constantly-evolving tradition.
Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness
Course Number: ASAMST 132AC (CCN 13053)
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Latimer 120, M/W 5:00PM-6:30PM
This course will examine and attempt to understand Islamophobia, as the most recently articulated principle of otherness and its implications domestically and globally. The course will also closely examine the ideological and epistemological frameworks employed in discourses of otherness, and the complex social, political, economic, gender-based, and religious forces entangled in its historical and modern reproduction.
Related Courses in Islamic Studies
Religion & The Atlantic World
Course Number: HRRS 3800
Instructor: Whelan (GTU/CIS)
Location and Time: GTU: HDCO, F 9:40AM-12:30PM
The expansion of Europe in the colonial era brought global cultures and Faith traditions into contact, often in highly problematic and hierarchical conditions. Focusing on Christianity, Judaism, Islam, African and indigenous traditions, students will come to understand the way that religious beliefs and institutions shaped and were shaped by the colonial experience from the Age of Discovery to the French Revolution. This course is taught by PhD student Todd Whelan with a Newhall Award, under the supervision of Naomi Seidman.
Visual Arts and Religion
Course Number: RA-1156
Instructor: Schroeder (PSR/CARE)
Location and Time: MUDD: 102, T 2:10PM-5:00PM
This lecture course will explore the ways in which people across time and space visualized their religious beliefs. We will begin with religious art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, then consider the temples and cult statues of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and move on to study the rise of Christianity and Islam and their artistic traditions up to the present day. The course will cover a wide geographical span—from the Near East to North America and from the British Isles to Ethiopia. There will be three papers pertaining to a single object with religious subject matter as well as a midterm and a final exam. Intended audience: MDiv. [Auditors with faculty permission]
Religions of Asian America
Course Number: ASAMST 144 (CCN 13058)
Instructor: Chen (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 151, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
This course will examine how Asian American communities engage religion and how, in turn, they are shaped by the different facets of religious life. Religion is examined in the form of major traditions-Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity-and readings will introduce students to key concepts, practices, and institutions which help to define these trajectories.
Arabic Literature in Translation
Course Number: NES 150B (CCN 31528)
Instructor: Diab (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 185, T/TH 3:30PM-5:00PM
Spring in the Ashes. This course offers a literary and artistic exploration of "the Arab spring", its preludes and its events. The course explores themes of representation, memory, political commitment and (collective/individual) identity. It investigates these themes through the analysis of short stories, novels, essays, social media posts, poems, poster art, graphic novels and films. Knowledge of Arabic is not required.
Fall 2016
Texts/Contexts: Judaism/Islam
Course Number: HRRS-1400
Instructor: Aranoff (GTU/CJS), Fonrobert (GTU/CJS)
Location and Time: GTU Library Dinner Boardroom, 3rd floor, at 2400 Ridge Road, SU 1:00PM-6:00PM
This course will consist of five day-long seminars in which participants will explore sacred texts and contexts from the Jewish and Islamic traditions. Classes will include intensive beit midrash/madrasa method of study using primary texts and secondary sources. Course meets 1 pm-6 pm in the GTU Library Dinner Boardroom, 3rd floor, at 2400 Ridge Road. Please see course flier.
Sept. 18 SCRIPTURE AND COMMENTARY: Studying Torah and the Qu'ran
Oct. 9 EMBODIMENT, GENDER and SEXUALITY
Nov. 6 RITUAL and FOOD
Nov. 13 MYSTICISM and SPIRITUALITY: Kabbalah and Sufism
Dec. 4 INSIDERS and OUTSIDERS
Students will also be required to attend events outside the class totaling 15 hours. A list of various events will be available on the first day of class. Some events might include: mosque and synagogue visits, Islamic art and Jewish art and museum visits, film nights, guest lectures on Islamophobia and Antisemitism, migration, religion and elections, and sustainability and the environment. Auditors are welcomes to join but need to register. Please see auditing registration information here: /academics/communityeducation.
Introduction to Islam
Course Number: HR-1902
Instructor: Yildiz (GTU/CIS)
Location and Time: MUDD 103, TUE 2:10PM-5:00PM
This course is an introduction to the Islamic tradition from pre-Islamic Arabia before the revelation to Prophet Muhammad to the modern period through the lens of sacred scriptures and traditions, theological, philosophical, and devotional writings, and multi-media resources. The first half of the course will focus on the rise of Islam focusing on its contextual and scriptural foundations and the formation of fundamental teachings and practices of Islam. The second half will focus on the main disciplines of religious scholarship with the aim of introducing various legal and theological schools in both Sunni and Shi'i Islam, including Sufism as a spiritual discipline within Islam. Finally, we will discuss political and intellectual movements in the modern period, addressing contemporary issues in the study of Islam and diverse Muslim societies. Intended audience: MDiv, MA/MTS, PhD, ThD [Moral Theology or General Ethics; 15 max enrollment; PIN code required; Auditors with faculty permission]
Topics in Islamic Studies
Frames, Theories, Methodologies in Contemporary Islamic Studies
Course Number: HRRS-5785
Location and Time: MUDD 103, TUE 6:10-9pm
This is an advanced seminar in which we will discuss frames, theories, and methodologies, in the study of Islam and Muslims in contemporary contexts. Topics covered include: conceptual frameworks in the study of Islam; public Islam in secular contexts; modernity and power; Muslim majorities and minorities; citizenship and identity; and Islamophobia. Case-studies in the global media representation of Islam will serve to expand theoretical concepts, and students will have an opportunity to apply some of these frames, theories and methodologies to their own research projects.
Faith in Human Rights
Course Number: PHCE-4960
Instructor: Farina (DSPT)
Location and Time: DSPT 3, TH 12:40PM-3:30PM
This seminar course will explore concepts of justice and specifically principles for peacebuilding in several world religions and philosophies, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, in order to discover the way these notions can inform universal human rights discourse. We will investigate how philosophical and religious teachings help to form leadership dedicated to peacebuilding. Through case studies we will also examine human rights struggles in local and global contexts and the various ways these concerns are addressed by religious traditions and political entities. At the end, we want to answer the question: Given different ethical expressions, are there common values shared by various religious and philosophical traditions that allow or even urge them to greater efforts in peacebuilding? Weekly papers and Final Research Paper or Project depending on the student's degree program. Intended audience: MDiv, MA/MTS, PhD, ThD [Moral Theology or General Ethics; 15 max enrollment; PIN code required; Auditors with faculty permission]
UC BERKELEY COURSES
Muslims in America
Course Number: Asian American Studies 128AC
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Hearst Mining 390, MON/WED 5:00-6:30PM
The course traces Islam's journey in America. It will deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the U.S. and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, gender dynamics, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. The course will spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities since they constitute the largest groupings. It also examines in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued by a number of them, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. The course seeks an examination of gender relations and dynamics across the various Muslim groupings, and the internal and external factors that contribute to real and imagined crisis. The course seeks to conduct and document the growth and expansion of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater Bay Area. Finally, no class on Islam in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on Muslim communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the ongoing war on terrorism.
Sufism: The Mysticism of Islam
Course Number: Near Eastern Studies 144
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Moffitt Library 145, TUE/TH 12:30-2:00PM
This course explores the phenomenon of Sufism in the Islamic tradition. Topics include Sufi foundations, the sources upon which it is based, ritual practices, themes, and doctrines developed during its formative period and its eventual systemization. The course investigates the lives of several key Sufi figures including, As-Sadiq (d.765), Rabia (d. 801), al-Junayd (d. 910), al-Hujwiri (d. 1077), al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240) and Rumi (d. 1273) among others. Also covered are central Sufi concepts as annihilation (fana), love (mahabba), knowledge ('ilm), gnosis (ma'rifa), intellect ('aql), reality (haqiqah), and unity (tawhid).
Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Arabic. Click here for a complete list of courses.
January Intersession 2016
Understanding & Countering Islamophobia
Course Number HRRS 3932
Instructors: Bazian (UC Berkeley)
Jan 5-8, 11, 2016, GTU Library
A Public Engagement Course taught by Dr. Hatem Bazian, director of the Islamophobia Research Documentation Project, Center for Race and Gender, UC Berkeley. Download Flyer
Spring 2016
Can Eschatology Be Saved?
Course Number: ST-3462
Instructor: Jacobson (PLTS)
Location and Time: PLTS: GH2, TUE 12:40-3:30PM
An examination of the history and contemporary importance of Christian eschatological and apocalyptic theological understandings as they apply to both the practices of ministry and academic religious scholarship. Beginning with a brief introduction to the eschatological/apocalyptic understandings contained in Islam, Mormonism, Judaism and Evangelical Fundamentalism (from practitioners), this course takes up the work of Barbara Rossing, Jurgen Moltmann, and others who seek to offer an eschatology that emphasizes divine "adventus" over against those eschatologies that emphasize mere "futurum." Lecture and discussion, with a project/paper. Students preparing for ministry are encouraged to prepare either a sermon series or education curriculum project. MA and PhD students are encouraged to prepare a research paper in consultation with the professor. [Any intro course in systematic theology]
Visual Arts and Religion
Course Number: RA-1156
Instructor: Schroeder (PSR/CARE)
Location and Time: PSR 6, TUE 8:10AM-11:00AM
This lecture course will explore the ways in which people across time and space visualized their religious beliefs. We will begin with religious art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, then consider the temples and cult statues of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and move on to study the rise of Christianity and Islam and their artistic traditions up to the present day. The course will cover a wide geographical span—from the Near East to North America and from the British Isles to Ethiopia. There will be three papers pertaining to a single object with religious subject matter as well as a midterm and a final exam. Intended audience: MDiv. [Auditors with faculty permission]
Understanding Islamophobia
Course Number: HRRS-3932
Location and Time: MUDD 104, MON 2:10PM-5:00PM
Students will be introduced to the study of Islamophobia, its history, the uses of the term,and the particular ways in which it manifests in different contexts in Europe and the United States. From the myth of a "clash of civilizations" between Islam and the West, to the focus on terrorism and Muslim women, we analyze, provincialize and decolonize the normative and "universal" Western epistemologies and frames through which Islam and Muslims are represented in history, academia, media, law, public policy and the arts. In addition to discussions on the "Enlightenment" and Western Christianity,
liberalism, secularism, modernity, Orientalism, and Euro/US-centric knowledge/power production,
we focus on the politics and economics of militarism and imperialism, the Islamophobia
industry, Islamophilia, projects on "reforming" Islam and Muslims, and the structural violence
and rhetoric against immigrants and refugees. Studying Islamophobia comparatively, we also focus on coalition building in order to counter the racism and fear that impacts institutions, governance, social relations and everyday life. Students will be introduced to various projects, programs and publications, including the Islamophobia Research and Documentation Project and the Islamophobia Studies Journal at the Center for Race and Gender at UC Berkeley. Students will also be required to attend two conferences on Islamophobia held at UC Berkeley Feb 5-6 and April 22-23.
UC BERKELEY COURSES
Sufism: The Mysticism of Islam
Course Number: Near Eastern Studies 144
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows, TUE 5-8PM
This course explores the phenomenon of Sufism in the Islamic tradition. Topics include Sufi foundations, the sources upon which it is based, ritual practices, themes, and doctrines developed during its formative period and its eventual systemization. The course investigates the lives of several key Sufi figures including, As-Sadiq (d.765), Rabia (d. 801), al-Junayd (d. 910), al-Hujwiri (d. 1077), al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240) and Rumi (d. 1273) among others. Also covered are central Sufi concepts as annihilation (fana), love (mahabba), knowledge ('ilm), gnosis (ma'rifa), intellect ('aql), reality (haqiqah), and unity (tawhid).
Topics in Islamic Thought and Institutions
Course Number: 61545
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Moffitt 102, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
Selected topics from Islamic intellectual history. The course provides the student with a broad survey of late 18th to 20th century Muslim intellectual, institutional and political history with a focus on key personalities, major events and movements shaping the emergence of modes of religious practices and modern engagement as well as the materialization of tensions emerging from local, regional and global conflicts.
Women in the Muslim and Arab Worlds
Course Number: Gender and Women’s Studies 142
Instructor: Moallam (UCB)
Location and Time: Davis 534, TUE/TH 3:30-5:00PM
Elementary, Intermediate, and Advanced Arabic. Click here for a complete list of courses.
Fall 2015
Christian-Muslim Dialogue
Course Number: HRST-2083
Instructor: Farina (DSPT)
Location and Time: DSPT 2, TH 12:40-3:30pm
Christian-Muslim Dialogue: Theory and Practice is a seminar course exploring important elements and critical issues of dialogue. The study will include an examination of theories supporting and challenging interreligious dialogue and the history of Christian-Muslim relations. There will be a special focus on the recent development of "A Common Word" initiative begun in 2007 (http://www.acommonword.com), the upcoming 50th anniversary of the Vatican II document on the Catholic Church's engagement with world religions: Nostra Aetate, and The World Council of Churches. Throughout the semester scholars from Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions will join us for various sessions as "dialogue partners." [15 max enrollment; PIN code required; Auditors with faculty permission]
Christian-Muslim Relations
Course Number: ABSW
Instructor: Grandison (ABSW)
Location and Time: ABSW, See below
This course will focus on Christian-Muslim relations in America. It will provide a historic overview of American religious pluralism in a Christian-Muslim context. Beyond religious diversity, religious pluralism requires understanding religious communities in context and considers the open engagement of believers from different faiths. For Christian ministers, this course offers an opportunity to consider ministry in communities that include an Islamic presence. A visit to a mosque on a Friday afternoon may be included. Class meets Saturdays: 9/19, 10/17, 11/7 & 12/12/2015 from 9:00am-5:00pm. Class will visit local mosques on 10/23 and 11/16/2015, times for these visits TBD.
Topics in Islamic Studies
Frames, Theories, Methodologies in Contemporary Islamic Studies
Course Number: HRRS-5785
Location and Time: PSR 6, TUE 6:10-9pm
This is an advanced seminar in which we will discuss frames, theories, and methodologies, in the study of Islam and Muslims in contemporary contexts. Topics covered include: conceptual frameworks in the study of Islam; public Islam in secular contexts; modernity and power; Muslim majorities and minorities; citizenship and identity; and Islamophobia. Case-studies in the global media representation of Islam will serve to expand theoretical concepts, and students will have an opportunity to apply some of these frames, theories and methodologies to their own research projects.
Introduction to Islam
Course Number : HR-1902
Instructor: Pourfarzaneh (GTU/CIS)
Location and Time: PSR MUDD 204, TUE 2:10-5pm
This course will give an introduction to the Islamic tradition in its religious, historical, and cultural contexts, paying particular attention to the diversity of expressions of Islam within each of these categories. The course will discuss the theological foundations of the tradition, the history of its development, and different expressions of its praxis that have evolved out of Muslim cultures and societies. It will also present contemporary issues related to Islam and Muslims, particularly in their representation throughout different types of media. Course format and evaluation: seminar, with final research paper/presentation on a specific topic or theme
Islamic Education
Course Number: HRED-3030
Instructor: Javed (GTU)
Location and Time: PSR MUDD 206, M/TH 11:10AM – 12:30PM
The goal of this course is to introduce students to Islamic Education, theoretically and contextually. In our journey through Islamic Education, we will begin by briefly contextualizing Islam through the "5 Media Pillars of Islam" and contextualizing Education through our shared experiences and conversation. We will then journey to the first station , where we will explore and engage Islamic Educational Philosophy as presented in the Quran and Hadith, as well as through the work of Muslim scholars such as Al-Ghazali (past) and Al-Attas (present). We will then journey through the development of Islamic schools in North America as a specific example of Islamic Education, focusing on Indigenous and Immigrant Muslims. The development of Islamic schools will be examined in relation to each group's specific sociocultural reality within the United States, as well as in conversation with Islamic Educational Philosophy as presented in the first half of the course. We will culminate our journey by examining issues in Islamic Education, specifically focusing on women. Students of other faith traditions are welcome to take the course as there are several opportunities for interfaith parallels and conversations throughout this journey. Format: Seminar and Mini-Lectures. Evaluation Method: Class Participation, Regular Moodle Posts, Research Paper or Revised Syllabus Presentation. Intended Audience: MA/MTS, MDiv. This course is taught by PhD student Reem Javed with Newhall Award, under the supervision of Judith Berling. [10 max enrollment; Auditors excluded]
UC BERKELEY COURSES
Muslims in America
Course Number: Asian American Studies 128
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: LeConte Hall, MW 4-5:30PM
The course traces Islam's journey in America. It will deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the U.S. and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, gender dynamics, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. The course will spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities since they constitute the largest groupings. It also examines in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued by a number of them, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. The course seeks an examination of gender relations and dynamics across the various Muslim groupings, and the internal and external factors that contribute to real and imagined crisis. The course seeks to conduct and document the growth and expansion of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater Bay Area. Finally, no class on Islam in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on Muslim communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the ongoing war on terrorism.
Sufism: The Mysticism of Islam
Course Number: Near Eastern Studies 144
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows, TUE 5-8PM
This course explores the phenomenon of Sufism in the Islamic tradition. Topics include Sufi foundations, the sources upon which it is based, ritual practices, themes, and doctrines developed during its formative period and its eventual systemization. The course investigates the lives of several key Sufi figures including, As-Sadiq (d.765), Rabia (d. 801), al-Junayd (d. 910), al-Hujwiri (d. 1077), al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240) and Rumi (d. 1273) among others. Also covered are central Sufi concepts as annihilation (fana), love (mahabba), knowledge ('ilm), gnosis (ma'rifa), intellect ('aql), reality (haqiqah), and unity (tawhid).
Themes in the Anthropology of the Middle East and Islam
Instructor: Mahmood
Course Number: Anthropology 181
Location and Time: McCone Hall 141 MW, 4-530pm
Cultures of the contemporary Near East, with special emphasis upon Arab populations.
Topics in Islamic Art
Instructor: Lenssen
Course Number: History of Art C121A
Location and Time: Moffitt 103, TUE/TH 12:30- 2:00pm
This course introduces students to the art, architecture, and visual and material cultures in Islamic contexts, from the 7th through the 19th centuries. The course will examine the aesthetic manifestations of Islam within the context of institution development, in particular the 'formative' negotiations of the Umayyad, Abbasid, Fatimid, Seljuk, and Mamluk periods between visual idioms and new spiritual and political programs. Cross-listed with Near Eastern Studies C121A.
Islamic History and Historiography (600-1050)
Instructor: Ahmed
Course Number: Near Eastern Studies
Location and Time: Barrows 275, WED 2-5pm
The course introduces students to Islamic history and challenges of Islamic historiography from the rise of Islam (ca.600 CE) to the coming of the Seljuks (1050CE). Students will gain an understanding of the religious, social, and political institutions of Islam in their historical contexts. Throughout the course, they will be exposed to various primary and secondary sources that help them develop a sense of how the historical narrative was produced.
Islamic Legal Theory (Usul al-Fiqh)
Instructor: Ahmed
Course Number: Near Eastern Studies 298
Location and Time: Barrows 275, WED 11am-2pm
UC Berkeley elementary, intermediate, and advanced Arabic. Click here for complete list.
Spring 2015
Women & Gender in Judaism & Islam
Course Number: HR-2041
Instructor: Seidman (CJS/GTU)
Location and Time: Mudd 102, M 6:10PM-9:00PM
Women, Gender, Sexuality in Judaism and Islam.This course will focus on women, gender roles,marriage and related questions in Judaism and Islam, studying the primary sources as well as modern developments, contemporary critical debates, anthropological views, and media representations. The course will be co-taught and bring in experts in both Jewish Studies and Islamic Studies. Students are expected to participate in the Day of Learning on these topics, to be held on a Sunday afternoon in the spring semester.
Islamic Texts and Contexts
Course Number: HR-2970
Instructor: Bazian (PSR)
Location and Time: PSR 6, T 5:40PM-8:30PM
This course is intended to provide graduate students with a survey of selected Islamic texts and approach each within the specific historical, geographical, cultural, socio-political and religious contexts they emerge from. The readings are intended to approach Islam and its rich tradition within the scope of global history, in the past and present periods with a disruptive, critical and de-colonial pedagogy working to disentangle the constant otherization and problematization of Islam and its rich and diverse tradition. The course will employ a lecture and discussion format revolving around the selected readings. Students will be evaluated on the basis of a research paper that addresses one or more aspects of the themes covered in the course and submitted at the end of the semester.
Muslim Minorities
Course Number: HRRS-4251
Instructor: Yildiz (GTU)
Location and Time: Mudd 204, T 11:10AM-2:00PM
This course introduces students to the diverse range of Muslim religious expressions through the category of "Muslim minorities." Instead of using the orthodox/heterodox binary so often used pejoratively to mark communities in Western scholarship, or the indigenous equivalents of this terminology in medieval Islamic literature,we use the term Muslim minorities to express the diversity and complexity of Muslim religious life we seek to understand. The term at first glance refers to the Muslim community living in Muslim-minority contexts but we specifically use this term for the groups who regard themselves as Muslim, but who have often struggled for theological legitimacy within the Islamic tradition. Studying Muslim minorities both in the broader Muslim world and in Muslim-minority contexts (the United States, Canada and Europe) will help us understand how different contexts affect the formation and development of these groups. Using an anthropological approach, this course introduces these various communities through their own self-understanding, and situating these communities historically will allow us to understand the similarities and differences within and across time, and to account for their dynamism. Though we focus on religious expressions of Muslim minorities, we will also discuss the concept of minority marked by identities intersecting with the religious/theological, including, markers of nationality, ethnicity, race, gender, and language.
The format of the course will include weekly discussions of assigned readings and presentations. Critical reading of assigned materials and engagement in the discussions are essential for successful work in this course. Students are expected to post their reflections on the readings on Moodle. Each class will begin with an overview of the readings by the instructor and class discussion, followed by a presentation given by a guest speaker who is a member of one of the Muslim minority communities under study. Students will write a final paper on a comparative analysis of two or more Muslim minorities.
Muslims in America
Course Number: HRRS-4841
Instructor: Pourfarzaneh (CIS/GTU)
Location and Time: PSR 6, TH 2:10PM-5:00PM
This course will present an overview of the history of Islam and Muslims in the United States, from the presence of African Muslims in the antebellum era to the multiethnic contemporary milieu. Specific focus will be given to the African American and immigrant populations that have helped shape this history, as well as the various contemporary communities and organizations that are active in the U.S.
public square. Course format and evaluation: seminar, with reflection papers and final research paper/presentation on a specific topic or theme.
Intro to Islam or equivalent strongly recommended.
Visual Arts and Religion
Course Number: RA-1156
Instructor: Schroeder (PSR/CARE)
Location and Time: PSR 6, TH 9:40AM-12:40PM
This lecture course will explore the ways in which people across time and space visualized their religious beliefs. We will begin with religious art of the Neolithic and Bronze Age, then consider the temples and cult statues of the ancient Greeks and Romans, and move on to study the rise of Christianity and Islam and their artistic traditions up to the present day. The course will cover a wide geographical span—from the Near East to North America and from the British Isles to Ethiopia. There will be three papers pertaining to a single object with religious subject matter as well as a midterm and
a final exam. Intended audience: MDiv. [Auditors with faculty permission]
Faith in Human Rights
Course Number: PHCE-4960
Instructor: Farina (DSPT)
Location and Time: DSPT 1, TH 7:10PM-9:40P
This seminar course will explore concepts of justice and specifically principles for peacebuilding in several world religions and philosophies, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism, in order to discover the way these notions can inform universal human rights discourse. We will investigate how philosophical and religious teachings help to form leadership dedicated to peacebuilding. Through case studies we will also examine human rights struggles in local and global contexts and the various ways these concerns are addressed by religious traditions and political entities. At the end, we want to answer the question: Given different ethical expressions, are there common values shared by various religious and philosophical traditions that allow or even urge them to greater efforts in peacebuilding? Weekly papers and Final Research Paper or Project depending on the student's degree program.
Intended audience: MDiv, MA/MTS, PhD, ThD [Moral Theology or General Ethics; 15 max enrollment; PIN code required; Auditors with faculty permission]
Themes in the Anthropology of the Middle East
Course Number: 02780
Instructor: Towghi (UCB)
Location and Time: Wheeler 213, MW 4:00PM-5:30PM
Cultures of the contemporary Near East, with special emphasis upon Arab populations.
Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness
Course Number: 05524
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Kroeber 160, M/W 4:00PM-5:30PM
This course will examine and attempt to understand Islamophobia, as the most recently articulated principle of otherness and its implications domestically and globally. The course will also closely examine the ideological and epistemological frameworks employed in discourses of otherness, and the complex social, political, economic, gender-based, and religious forces entangled in its historical and modern reproduction.
**
Requires enrollment in accompanying discussion section. Complete listing can be found here.
Topics in Islamic Thought and Institutions
Course Number: 61545
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Moffitt 102, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
Selected topics from Islamic intellectual history. The course provides the student with a broad survey of late 18th to 20th century Muslim intellectual, institutional and political history with a focus on key personalities, major events and movements shaping the emergence of modes of religious practices and modern engagement as well as the materialization of tensions emerging from local, regional and global conflicts.
Islamic Religious and Philosophical Texts in Arabic
Course Number: 62136
Instructor: Hayes (UCB)
Location and Time: Evans 31, T/TH 3:30PM-5:00PM
Readings in the basic texts of Islam (Qur'an, Huran, Hadith, Sira, commentary) and in theological, mystical, and philosophical texts.
History of Arabic
Course Number: 62145
Instructor: Hayes (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 275, M 2:00PM-5:00PM
The history of Arabic from its Semitic antecedents through the formation of the modern dialects.
Islam in South Asia
Course Number: 84027
Instructor: Faruqui (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 182, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
The aim of this course on the culture and history of Muslim communities and institutions in South Asia is to introduce students to the broad historical currents of the expansion of Islam in the Indian subcontinent, the nature of Muslim political authority, the interaction between religious communities, Islamic aesthetics and contributions to material culture, the varied engagements and reactions of Muslims to colonial rule, and the contemporary concerns of South Asia's Muslims. While this is a lecture course, ample time will be set aside for discussion and the active engagement of participants will be expected. Lectures will be supplemented with visual material, music, and movies where possible.
Mughal History
Course Number: 83389
Instructor: Faruqui (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 211, W 3:00PM-6:00PM
This graduate seminar is designed to introduce students to the Mughal Empire (c. 1500-1750). As well as interrogating the larger question of early-modernity and the empire's place in a global context, we will also -- among others -- explore debates focused on state-formation, Islam, elite women, male comportment, Persian and other languages, relations with the Ottomans and the Safavids, the imperial city, and decline/decentralization.
The Qur'an and Its Interpretation
Course Number: 61560
Instructor: Ahmed (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 122, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
The course introduces students to Qur'an and to methods of its interpretation, as adopted in the exegetical (tafsir) literature. In addition to being exposed to secondary academic literature on the Qur'an and its exegesis, students will be offered a high dose of primary exegetical texts in translation. Passages from a number of periods and denominations will be selected, so that students may develop an appreciation of the interpretive range of a constantly-evolving tradition.
Fall 2014
Christian Islamic Interactions in the Visual Arts
Course Number: RAHS-4610
Instructor: Schroeder (PSR/CARE)
Location and Time: Mudd 103, T 8:10AM-11:00AM
In this class we will study the artistic interactions between Muslims and Christians. The
chronological and geographic span of the class will be wide--from the 7th to the 16th century
and from the Near East via Constantinople and Venice to Spain. We will explore how trade, pilgrimage, politics, crusades and religious differences and/or similarities contributed to the creation of a specific visual language that could appeal both to Christian and Muslim audiences.
Pilgrimage in World Religions
Course Number: HSHR-3100
Instructor: Schlager (PSR)
Location and Time: Mudd 102, T 6:10PM-9:00PM
Intended for MDiv, MA, and PhD students, this course will explore the phenomenon of pilgrimage in a variety of historical settings (from ancient to contemporary cultures) and religious contexts (including Greco-Roman religions, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism). The concept of "sacred journey" will be considered geographical journey, ritualistic transformation, and inner spiritual quest in a variety of contexts. Several class presentations and a final research paper will be required.
Indonesia Theological Immersion
Course Number: STRS-4217
Instructor: Tran (JST), Farina (DSPT), McChesney (JST)
Location and Time: JSTB 217, TH 7:10PM-9:40PM
This contextual theology course offers JST students the opportunity to encounter the world of Islam as it is lived and practiced in Indonesia. The course will investigate the religious heritage of Indonesia and explore the contemporary issues among national and regional faith groups in Indonesia, especially in the local Christian communities. We will also study principles of inter-religious dialogue and engage in practical experiences of this dialogue during our travel and study in Indonesia. The course begins in Fall 2014 and continues in Indonesia January 2015. Students must apply in the Spring of 2014 for the program. Students then will preregister for the Fall 2014 (and with some exception, Intersession 2015). The course is restricted to JST students who were enrolled in the MDiv, MA, MTS, ThM, STL and STD programs.
Comparative Indian Ethics
Course Number: RSHR-4520
Instructor: Bilimoria (GTU)
Location and Time: TBA, M 2:10PM-5:00PM
DHARMA, JUSTICE, GENDER AND ECOLOGY
The course focuses on major founding insights, principles and practical applications of moral theology and ethical thinking - or Dharma – in India, from classical to contemporary times. It critically engages Hindu, Buddhist, Jaina, Sikh and Indian Muslim ideas of duty, right conduct,
women and social ethics, ecological attitudes, and justice, negotiating personal law, constitutional rights, Gandhian responses and postcolonial with secular challenges. In the first section, students will read primary literature on competing ethical theories, Western and Indian. The next section will focus on practical moral issues, notably the dialectic of communitarian constrains versus individual autonomy, hierarchic governance vs. democratic/liberal processes, religious proclivity vs secular ideals, rights trumping rites (duties), patriarchy vs gender justice,
virtues vs instrumental rationality, as well as bioethical, animal, ecological and environmental
challenges in a rapidly globalizing world. How modern India before and after Gandhi has
responded to these challenges, amidst diversity and plurality of communities, is a question that will also inform the inquiry throughout. One short paper, one term paper, and class presentations. Advanced masters and doctoral students from all areas are welcome.
Mysticism & Social Change
Course Number: RSSP-8410
Instructor: Rankow (SKSM)
Location and Time: Online
This course explores the powerful synergy between mystic spirituality and social activism. Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, "Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit." In the urgent context of current world concerns, we will look to the example of "mystic-activists" from diverse
cultures and faith traditions for insight and inspiration. Readings and class explorations will
include Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, and Indigenous sources. Through a holistic approach of both head and heart, we will consider specific tools and practices to nourish and sustain us in our ongoing commitment to anti-oppression work and ministerial service.
Christian-Muslim Dialogue
Course Number: HRST-2083
Instructor: Farina (DSPT)
Location and Time: DSPT 2, M 2:10PM-5:00PM
This a seminar course exploring important elements and critical issues of dialogue. The study will include an examination of theories supporting and challenging interreligious dialogue and the history of Christian-Muslim relations. Throughout the semester scholars from the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faith traditions will join us for various sessions as "dialogue partners."
Salvations & Redemptions
Course Number: STIR-4829
Instructor: Grau (CDSP)
Location and Time: CDSP Tucson, M 2:10PM-5:00PM
This course examines the Christian doctrine of soteriology in an interreligious context. While
approached from a Christian Trinitarian perspective, this course will explore the connections with other religious traditions by engaging in readings across religious difference. We will explore the varieties ideas and metaphors of soteriology, redemption, and atonement that compound historic and contemporary theological expressions of Christian, Jewish, Islamic, and
other relevant religious traditions. How might we make sense of what redemption, healing, the overcoming of division and death is expressed in the experience of animistic and indigenous
religious context and compare and contrast them to Jewish and Christian elaborations of redemption as personal, social, cosmic, relational, mutual force. Seminar format. Final paper. Audience: All audiences.
Sufism: The Mysticism of Islam
Course Number: 61608
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 20, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
This course explores the phenomenon of Sufism in the Islamic tradition. Topics include Sufi foundations, the sources upon which it is based, ritual practices, themes, and doctrines developed during its formative period and its eventual systemization. The course investigates the lives of several key Sufi figures including, As-Sadiq (d.765), Rabia (d. 801), al-Junayd (d. 910), al-Hujwiri (d. 1077), al-Ghazali (d. 1111), Ibn al-Arabi (d. 1240) and Rumi (d. 1273) among others. Also covered are central Sufi concepts as annihilation (fana), love (mahabba), knowledge ('ilm), gnosis (ma'rifa), intellect ('aql), reality (haqiqah), and unity (tawhid).
Islam and Society in Southeast Asia
Course Number: 84112
Instructor: TBA
Location and Time: Dwinelle 247, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
This seminar will be an investigation into key discourses on Islam in Southeast Asia, focusing on history, literature, and culture. We will trace the processes through which Islam entered the Malay world in the 13th century, and explore the European colonial encounters with Islam in Southeast Asia and the ways that Islam interacted with and resisted colonialism. We will discuss the role of mysticism and of reformists and will also explore the struggles of Islam as a minority religion in the Philippines and Thailand. Readings will include primary sources in translation, literary texts, ethnographic works, and writings by colonial and local scholars.
Muslims in America
Course Number: 05542
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 145, M/W 4:00PM-5:30PM
The course traces Islam's journey in America. It will deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the U.S. and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, gender dynamics, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. The course will spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities since they constitute the largest groupings. It also examines in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued by a number of them, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. The course seeks an examination of gender relations and dynamics across the various Muslim groupings, and the internal and external factors that contribute to real and imagined crisis. The course seeks to conduct and document the growth and expansion of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater Bay Area. Finally, no class on Islam in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on Muslim communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the ongoing war on terrorism.
Arabic Historical and Geographical Texts
Course Number: 62142
Instructor: Hayes (UCB)
Location and Time: Kroeber 111, T/TH 2:00PM-3:30PM
Readings from the classical historians and geographers and from contemporary scholarship. Development of historiography.
Advanced Study in the Middle East
Course Number: 57009
Instructor: Bartu (UCB)
Location and Time: Hearst Annex B5, T/TH 3:30PM-5:00PM
Advanced research in current issues of Middle Eastern Studies. Seminars will focus on specific areas or topics with appropriate comparative material included. A major research project is required as well as class presentations. Topics to vary from semester to semester.
Scope and Methods of Research in the Middle East
Course Number: 57006
Instructor: Gottreich (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 125, M 2:00PM-5:00PM
Required for all students majoring in Middle Eastern Studies, open to all students in International and Area Studies Teaching Program focusing on the Middle East interdisciplinary research strategies for the collection, interpretation, and analysis of data. Course integrates the study of the fundamental theories of social science, with the practical techniques of social science research methods.
Perspectives in the Middle East
Course Number: 57003
Instructor: Issa (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 126, W 2:00PM-4:00PM
A weekly seminar including guest speakers on (1) ethnic perspectives (Persians, Arabs, Turks, Israelis); (2) religious perspectives (Islam, Christianity, Judaism); and (3) disciplinary perspectives (anthropology, sociology, etc.). The seminar introduces students to the work of several major Berkeley Middle East scholars. The class has no prerequisites and admission preference is given to lower division students and prospective Middle Eastern majors.
South Asian Studies
Course Number: TBA
Instructor: Faruqui (UCB)
Location and Time: TBA
Pakistan: An Introduction
Course Number: 84029
Instructor: Faruqui (UCB)
Location and Time: Wheeler 200, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
Whenever Pakistan comes up as a subject of sustained conversation in the US it usually is for all the wrong reasons: the worst nuclear proliferator in recent history, the refuge of Osama bin Laden, a major source of regional instability in South and Central Asia. Although Pakistan may be viewed with deep mistrust by US policy planners and the American public alike, this course seeks to remind us that it is also a country of great political, economic, religious, and social complexity. This course will situate Pakistan in its historical, political, literary, religious, economic and social contexts with the hope that students will develop nuanced and deeply grounded perspectives on a country that in fact defies easy stereotypes.
Fall 2013
General Ethics
Instructor: Farina (DSPT)
Location and Time: DSPT 1, M 7:10PM-9:40PM
This course will introduce students to the ethical theories of world philosophies. Through lecture and discussion, we explore writings from the ancient to contemporary periods, including readings from women philosophers, Chinese, Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, and Islamic thinkers. Three short papers, book review and class presentation are required. [Auditors with faculty permission]
Introduction to Sufism
Instructor: Markwith (GTU)
Location and Time: CDSP 113, TH 7:10PM – 9:40PM
This course will examine the origins, doctrines, history, and contemporary manifestations of Sufism or Islamic spirituality through reading translations of Sufi texts, lectures, and discussion. We will look at key leitmotivs in Sufism through reading selections from the Quran and Hadith, poetry from Hallaj, 'Attar and Rumi, and prose from Ghazzali, Suhrawardi, and Ibn 'Arabi, as well as secondary sources that shed light on historical, cultural, and religious context. In addition, the course also analyses Sufi texts in relation contemporary issues such as religious pluralism, war and non-violence, and Sufism in the West. The focus will be textual and historical allowing classical and modern sources to define Sufism according to its diverse doctrinal and ritual manifestations in Muslim cultures and the West. Assessments will be based upon attendance, engagement with the material, participation in class discussions, weekly reflections, a current event report, and final research paper. No previous knowledge of the subject is required. This course is taught by PhD student Zachary Markwith with a Newhall Award, under the supervision of Marianne Farina. [25 max enrollment; Auditors with faculty permission]
Religion and Peacebuilding
Instructor: Sunhwa (JST)
Location and Time: Mudd 103, W 7:10PM-9:40PM
The aim of the course is to examine religious and ethical perspectives on war and peacebuildng. The course will examine the role and limitation of religion in the process of peacebuilding. Such a perspective will illuminate appeals to religion both in generating conflict and in the process of peacebuilding and their implications in the rise of religious fundamentalism affecting security. The course will also evaluate the role of religious and political institutions and non-governmental organizations in addressing consequences of conflict and the search for lasting peace. The required readings for the course are mainly drawn from public theology, political philosophy, social science, and political science.
Topics to be explored include: 1) Foundation of public values; 2) Human rights and the common good; 3) Political of identity,inclusion, and multiculturalism; 4) Religious conscience, political responsibility, and social organization; 5) Christian pacifism and political realism; 6) Just war theory; 7) Islam ethics of war and peace; 8) The convergence of forgiveness, justice and politics; 9) Ambiguity and limitation of religion; 10) Methodologies of conflict resolution and social reconciliation; 11) Peacebuilding, democratization, and governance; 12) The role of non-governmental organizations in peacebuilding. Open to students in all programs; evaluation based on class participation, written summaries of readings, one 20-25 page paper. [25 max enrollment]
Topics in Islamic Studies
Location and Time: Mudd 101, T 6:10PM - 9:00PM
FRAMES, THEORIES, METHODS IN CONTEMPORARY ISLAMIC STUDIES
This is an advanced seminar in which we will discuss frames, theories, methods, approaches and themes in the study of Islam and Muslims in contemporary contexts. Topics covered include: conceptual frameworks in the study of Islam; public Islam in secular contexts; modernity and power; Muslim majorities/minorities; citizenship and identity; and Islamophobia. Case-studies in the global media representation of Islam will serve to expand theoretical concepts, and students will have an opportunity to apply some of these frames, theories and methods to their own research projects.
Topics in Islamic Art
Course Number: 04925
Instructor: Griebeler (UCB)
Location and Time: 104 Moffitt, W 4:00PM -5:00PM
This course will treat in depth topics in Islamic architecture and topics in Islamic art. Subjects addressed may include painting, calligraphy, and book production.
Introduction to Islamic Art and Architecture
Course Number: 61528
Instructor: Mostafa (UCB)
Location and Time: Moffitt 103, T/TH 2:00PM – 3:30PM
The course will treat in depth topics in Islamic architecture and topics in Islamic art. Subjects addressed may include painting, calligraphy, and book production.
Islam (Near Eastern Studies)
Course Number: 61558
Instructor: Ibrahim (UCB)
Location and Time: Le Conte 3, T/TH 3:30PM – 5:00PM
A comprehensive and detailed introduction to the sources, doctrines, practices, and institutions of Islam, together with their historical development and elaboration in a select number of ethnic and geographic environments and an overview of Islam in the world today.
Muslims in America (Asian American Studies)
Course Number: 05542
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Latimer 120, M/W 4:00PM – 5:30PM
The course traces Islam's journey in America. It will deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the U.S. and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, gender dynamics, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. The course will spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities since they constitute the largest groupings. It also examines in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued by a number of them, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. The course seeks an examination of gender relations and dynamics across the various Muslim groupings, and the internal and external factors that contribute to real and imagined crisis. The course seeks to conduct and document the growth and expansion of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater Bay Area. Finally, no class on Islam in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on Muslim communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the ongoing war on terrorism.
Women in the Muslim and Arab Worlds
Course Number: 32981
Instructor: Moallem (UCB)
Location and Time: Moffitt 101, T/TH 11:00AM – 12:30PM
Examines differences and similarities in women's lives in the Muslim/Arab worlds, including diasporas in Europe and North America. Analysis of issues of gender in relation to "race," ethnicity, nation, religion, and culture.
Introduction to Sources for the Academic Study of Islam
Course Number: 61798
Instructor: Ahmed (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 18, T/TH 12:30PM – 2:00PM
Seminar in South and Southeast Asian Studies
Course Number: 83347
Instructor: Faruqui (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 204, M 2:00PM – 5:00PM
Sensory history is an exciting and relatively new field of historical inquiry. It explores the roles of the senses, sight, touch, smell, hearing and taste, in shaping history. Drawing on a wide variety of readings, this seminar will introduce participants to the most interesting analytical insights and methodological approaches offered by the leading practioners in the field.
Mughal India through Memoirs, Chronicles and other Texts
Course Number: 84021
Instructor: Faruqui (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 223, T/TH 12:30PM – 2:00PM
This course is designed to provide a dual chronological and thematic approach to the study of one of the greatest empires in human civilization: the Mughal Empire. Although the bulk of this course will focus on the Mughal Empire during its heyday between the 1550s and the early 1700s, careful attention will be paid to the larger historical and geographical contexts that both enabled the emergence and, ultimately, decentralization of Mughal power. In so doing, this course will not only study South Asia's complex history on its own terms but also examine the intricate web of political, economic, and social links that connected South Asia to the rest of the world. Simultaneously, this course will also pay particular attention to a series of common misconceptions that dog the study of pre-modern Islamic polities. Among them, the supposedly lesser role played by women in politics; the dogmatic and central role of Islam in "Muslim" states; and the economic and political superiority of Western Europe. Crucial to these questions also is an examination of the historiography and historiographical traditions that have come to define contemporary understanding of the Mughal Empire.
Intermediate Arabic
Course Number: 62024
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 271, M/T/W/TH/F 10:00AM – 11:00AM
This course is proficiency oriented. Authentic reading in modern standard and classical Arabic and the understanding and application of grammatical and stylistic rules are emphasized. Students deliver oral presentations and write academic papers in Arabic.
Advanced Arabic
Course Number: 62033
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 187, T/TH 11:00AM – 12:30PM
Intensive reading and analysis of texts of different genres. Guest lectures, films, documentaries, oral presentations, research papers. Formal and informal styles of writing and correspondence. Extensive vocabulary building.
Spring 2013
Faith in Human Rights
Instructor: Farina (DSPT), Yuen (GTU)
Location and Time: DSPT: 1, TH 12:40PM-03:30PM
This seminar course will explore concepts of justice in several world religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Buddhism in order to discover the way these notions can inform universal human rights discourse. We will investigate how philosophical and religious teachings, especially in cultural contexts, such as Confucianism and Native peoples traditions challenge western contemporary human rights thinking by offering alternative interpretations to contractualistic visions of social engagement. Through cases studies we will also examine human rights struggles in local and global contexts and the various ways these concerns are addressed by the religions and the larger society. Three short reflection papers and a final research paper will be required. [20 max enrollment; PIN code required; Auditors excluded]. This course is co-taught by Dr. Marianne Farina and PhD student Mary Mee-Yin Yuen, with a Newhall Award.
Islam
Course Number: NEAR EASTERN STUDIES 146B P 001 LEC 9 (UCB Course Control Number 61595)
Instructor: Ahmed (UCB)
Location and Time: Barrows 166, T/TH 2:00PM-3:30PM
A comprehensive and detailed introduction to the sources, doctrines, practices, and institutions of Islam, together with their historical development and elaboration in a select number of ethnic and geographic environments and an overview of Islam in the world today.
Islam in the Public Sphere
Location and Time: Mudd 102, T 11:10AM-2:00PM
This course will introduce students to some of the frames. themes and theories in the stody and representation of Islam and Muslims in the public sphere, with a focus on Europe and the United States. Using interdisciplinary approaches and sources, the topics covered include: conceptual frameworks in the study of Islam/Muslims, the public sphere and public Islam in secular contexts; modernity and power; racialization of Muslims in America; Islamic feminist discourses on rights; cultural media, aesthetics; the production of Islamophobia; the politics of pluralism; interreligious relations and dialogue through theology, environment and humor.
Islamophobia and Constructing Otherness
Course Number: ASIAN AMERICAN STUDIES 132AC P 001 LEC (UCB Course Control Number 05436)
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: Cory 277, M/W 4:00PM-5:30PM
This course will examine and attempt to understand Islamophobia, as the most recently articulated principle of otherness and its implications domestically and globally. The course will also closely examine the ideological and epistemological frameworks employed in discourses of otherness, and the complex social, political, economic, gender-based, and religious forces entangled in its historical and modern reproduction.
Women in Chinese Islam
Instructor: Bruntz (GTU), Berling (GTU)
Location and Time: GTU HEDCO, T 2:10PM-05:00PM
This course is an advanced introduction to Islam in China, with specific focus on contemporary Muslim women. Using women as the subject, this course will trace the history of Islam in China, the diverse ethnic groups, and the unique experience of women. It emphasizes hybrid discourses of Islam and Confucianism that shape Muslim women's self perception, traditional mosques and Madrassas exclusively for women and women's education, and contemporary political situations - including global Islamic currents and debates - that affect women's religious agency. This course is intended for both MA and MDiv students. Prior knowledge of Islam will be useful but is not a requirement. [20 max enrollment]. This course is taught by PhD student Courtney Bruntz with a Newhall Award, under the supervision of Dr. Judith Berling.
Fall 2012
Christian-Muslim Dialogue
Course Number: HRST-2083
Instructor: Farina (DSPT)
Location and Time: DSPT 1, M 7:10PM-09:40PM
This seminar course explores important elements and critical issues about interreligious dialogue. The study will include an examination of theories of dialogue and the history of Christian-Muslim dialogue. The course includes site visits, attending events in Christian and Muslim communities, short papers, book reviews and a final project or research paper. Intended audience: MDiv, MA, MTS, PhD. [20 max enrollment; PIN code required]
Islam
Course Number: Near Eastern Studies 146A (UCB Course Control Number 61540)
Instructor: TBA
Location and Time: 126 Barrows, T/TH 2:00PM-3:30PM
A comprehensive and detailed introduction to the sources, doctrines, practices, and institutions of Islam, together with their historical development and elaboration in a select number of ethnic and geographic environments and an overview of Islam in the world today.
Islam and Society in Southeast Asia
Course Number: Southeast Asian 137 (UCB Course Control Number 84115)
Instructor: Hadler (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 215, T/TH 11:00AM-12:30PM
This undergraduate seminar will be an investigation into key discourses on Islam in Southeast Asia, focusing on history, literature, and culture. We will trace the processes through which Islam entered the Malay world in the 13th century, and explore the European colonial encounters with Islam in Southeast Asia and the ways that Islam interacted with and resisted colonialism. We will discuss the role of mysticism and of reformists and will also explore the struggles of Islam as a minority religion in the Philippines and Thailand. Readings will include primary sources in translation, literary texts, ethnographic works, and writings by colonial and local scholars.
Islam in South Asia
Course Number: South Asian 144 (UCB Course Control Number 84027)
Instructor: Faruqui (UCB)
Location and Time: Dwinelle 182, T/TH 12:30PM-2:00PM
The aim of this course on the culture and history of Muslim communities and institutions in South Asia is to introduce students to the broad historical currents of the expansion of Islam in the Indian subcontinent, the nature of Muslim political authority, the interaction between religious communities, Islamic aesthetics and contributions to material culture, the varied engagements and reactions of Muslims to colonial rule, and the contemporary concerns of South Asia's Muslims. While this is a lecture course, ample time will be set aside for discussion and the active engagement of participants will be expected. Lectures will be supplemented with visual material, music, and movies where possible.
Islamic Religious and Philosophical Texts in Arabic
Course Number: Arabic 108 (UCB Course Control Number 62036)
Instructor: Hayes (UCB)
Location and Time: 252 Barrows, M/W 3:00PM-4:30PM
Readings in the basic texts of Islam (Qur'an, Huran, Hadith, Sira, commentary) and in theological, mystical, and philosophical texts.
Muslims in America
Course Number: Asian American Studies 128AC (UCB Course Control Number 05445)
Instructor: Bazian (UCB)
Location and Time: 145 Dwinelle, M/W 4:00PM-5:30PM
The course traces Islam's journey in America. It will deal with the emergence of identifiable Muslim communities throughout the U.S. and focus on patterns of migration, the ethnic makeup of such communities, gender dynamics, political identity, and cases of conversion to Islam. The course will spend considerable time on the African American, Indo-Pakistani, and Arab American Muslim communities since they constitute the largest groupings. It also examines in depth the emergence of national, regional, and local Muslim institutions, patterns of development pursued by a number of them, and levels of cooperation or antagonism. The course seeks an examination of gender relations and dynamics across the various Muslim groupings, and the internal and external factors that contribute to real and imagined crisis. The course seeks to conduct and document the growth and expansion of mosques, schools, and community centers in the greater Bay Area. Finally, no class on Islam in America would be complete without a critical examination of the impacts of 9/11 on Muslim communities, the erosion of civil rights, and the ongoing war on terrorism.
Quranic Studies II
Course Number: HRBS-4828
Instructor: Anwar (SKSM)
Location and Time: SKSM, W 2:10PM-5:00PM
Quranic Studies II: Major Themes. In this course, in conjunction with scholarship on the major themes and narrative of the Quran, the students will also be reading the text of the Quran directly (through translations) and enacting some of the narratives for an embodied understanding of the texts. Gender analysis will be one of the ways that the Quranic stories will be read. The critical methods applied to the study of the narratives will include gender analysis. The course will taught within an Islamic context simulated through the sound of the Azhan (call to prayer) and exposure to Islamic art. PhD students will be required to write a 5,000 word research paper on a topic chosen by individual students and approved by the instructor. [15 max enrollment; PIN code required; Auditors excluded].
Rumi & deVitray-Meyerovitch
Course Number: HR-4811
Instructor: Farajajé (SKSM), Lipowitz (GTU)
Location and Time: SKSM, M 9:40AM-12:30PM
This course will examine the Sufi poet Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi's greatest text, the Masnavi. The Masnavi's key themes and ideas, including love and the spiritual evolution of the human being, the role of the Saykh or spiritual teacher, and the struggle to control (or "tame") the unruly lower self, the nafs, will be explored. Another aspect of the course will focus on the work of the French scholar Eva deVitray-Meyerovitch, who dedicated her life to the study of Rumi and Mevlevi culture. Using counter-oppressive and multireligious perspectives, this course will study Mevlana by moving beyond colonialist Orientalist constructions of "Sufism." Some reading knowledge of French would be helpful, but is not required for this course. Seminar; reflection papers and a 15-20 page research paper. Intended audience: MA, MDiv, PhD/ThD. This course is co-taught by PhD student Cassie Lipowitz with a Newhall Award, and Dr. Ibrahim Farajajé.
Themes in the Anthropology of the Middle East and Islam
Course Number: Anthropology 181 (UCB Course Control Number 02678)
Instructor: Pandolfo (UCB)
Location and Time: 9 Lewis, T/TH 3:30PM-5:00PM
Cultures of the contemporary Near East, with special emphasis upon Arab populations.
Topics in Islamic Art
Course Number: History of Art C121A (UCB Course Control Number 05211)
Instructor: Mostafa (UCB)
Location and Time: 106 Moffitt, T/TH 2:00PM-3:30PM
The course will treat in depth topics in Islamic architecture and topics in Islamic art. Subjects addressed may include painting, calligraphy, and book production. Also listed as Near Eastern Studies C121A.
Topics in Islamic Studies
Course Number: HRRS-5785
Location and Time: TBA
Theories and Methods in Contemporary Islamic Studies. This is an advanced seminar in which we will discuss research methods, approaches and themes in the study of Islam and Muslims in contemporary contexts. Topics covered include: conceptual frameworks in the study of Islam; public Islam in secular contexts; modernity and power; Muslim majorities and minorities/identity; and Islamophobia. Case-studies in the global media representation of Islam will serve to expand theoretical concepts and students will have an opportunity to apply some of these theories and methods to their own research projects.
