Course Descriptions: Program of African Studies

Course Descriptions

AF AM ST 245-0-20, 11151 – The Black Diaspora and Transnationality

Examination of events, movements, theories, and texts that have shaped development of the African diaspora. Topics include slavery, abolitionism, pan-Africanism, the culturepolitics nexus, hip-hop, AIDS, and linkages among gender, sexuality, and diasporic sensibilities.

AF AM ST 348-0-20, 11168 – Africans in Colonial Latin America

History of Africans and African-descended people throughout Latin America from 1492 to 1800, emphasizing the varied experiences of slavery and freedom struggles, the emergence of race and colonial categories of difference, and the gendered lives of racialized colonial subjects.

AFST 390-0-20 – Biocultural Perspectives on Water Insecurity (sec. 20, also GBL_HLTH 390-0-22, ANTHRO 390-0-28, ANTHRO 490-0-25)

The first objective of this course is to introduce students to the many ways that water impacts our world. We will discuss what the international recommendations for safely managed water are and the health and social consequences of water insecurity. The second objective is explore why there is such variety in water insecurity worldwide. These discussions will be guided by the socio-ecological framework, in which dimensions ranging from the individual to the geopolitical are considered. Influences on access to water will be broadly considered; we will draw on literature in global health, ethnography, the life sciences, and public policy. The third objective is to develop critical thinking and writing abilities to reflect on the multi-dimensional causes and consequences of water insecurity and the appropriateness of potential solutions.

AFST 390-0-20 – Constitutional Challenges in Comparative Perspective (sec. 20, also LEGAL_ST 356, POLI_SCI 356)

In this course we will be thinking about how and whether constitutions shape national values and offer a framework for legitimacy and governance to hold together diverse societies and resolve deeply rooted social tensions and ethnic divisions. We will consider the constitutional responses of other democratic countries such as the U.S., Canada, India, France, Germany, Great Britain, South Africa and Australia to the challenges of capital crimes, right to life/abortion, terrorism, racism, gender disparities, religious discrimination. In learning about the varying traditions of written and unwritten constitutions, civil and common law and the foundations and structures of separation of powers and judicial review of the constitutionality of laws in these countries, students will learn to think critically about the U.S. Constitution and the different ways in which constitutional democracies provide for public order, counter-majoritarian governance, equality and protection of the rights of minorities through rule of law and question whether constitutional solutions can address the kinds of social and political problems we have today.

AFST 390-0-21 (27472) – Politics of Africa (also POLI SCI 359-0-1)

This class will consider some key questions about politics in Africa at the present time. This will not be a survey. The primary focus will be the nation state: governance, democracy, and development. A second theme, sometimes explicit, sometimes implicit, is what happens when an African state fails and when international intervention such as humanitarian aid appears necessary. Our case studies will be Ethiopia and Rwanda (genocide/post genocide) and famine). Sub-themes will include the strength of internal institutions and government effectiveness.

AFST 483-0-20 – African Studies Seminar

This course is for graduate students who have attended at least 90% of the sessions throughout the year of the Africa Seminar (AfriSem) through the Program of African Studies. For more information, contact african-studies@northwestern.edu

ANTHRO 101-6-21 (24218) – Modern Plagues

At the height of the 2013-2016 West African Ebola epidemic, it was often said that the fears of the disease globalized more quickly than the disease itself. These kinds of statements - and the proliferation of official efforts to control Ebola outbreak in West Africa and elsewhere - show the significance of cultural, social, political and economic dimensions of epidemics. This first-year seminar privileges a critical medical anthropology perspective on the dynamics of epidemics: from disease transmission to prevention and control. Together, we will investigate how complex interactions among social, cultural, political, economic, and environmental factors influence the natural history of infectious disease and public health efforts to understand and address them. The seminar focuses on contemporary problems and issues with the explicit purpose of addressing questions of equity and justice.

ANTHRO 214-0-1, 10319 – Archaeology: Unearthing History 1

The evolution of culture from its earliest beginnings through the development of urbanism and the state. Principles of archaeological research.

ANTHRO 320-0-1, 10326 – Peoples of Africa

A survey of the cultures of Africa and the significant similarities and differences among the indigenous societies of the continent.

ANTHRO 390-0-22 (24238) – Anthro of Food Security and Sustainability

Food security is one of the wicked problems of our time, an issue so complex that it seems to defy resolution. One camp suggests that if only the world could produce more food, everyone could be fed. The other camp claims that we already produce more than enough food to feed the world's growing population, and that food insecurity arises from unequal access to resources. At the crux of these perspectives are different understandings of how we might achieve social and environmental sustainability?should we produce more or consume less? In this class, we'll approach these complex issues from a social and historical perspective rooted in anthropology. The class is divided into three parts. The first will consider the different definitions of food security, the ways hunger is measured, and the commonly discussed causes of food insecurity. We will historically situate the emergence of chronic food insecurity to show the different situations in which insecurity arises, and show how a long-term view complicates traditional understandings of the causes of food insecurity. This portion will also help students develop skills to think about long-term consequences, which is essential for evaluating the sustainability of solutions proposed to ameliorate food insecurity. The third portion of the class will review some of these proposed solutions. Finally, the last portion of the class will examine how we can achieve long-term food sustainability, ending with student-designed research proposals and ideas on how to realize that goal.

ANTHRO 390-0-23, 17576 – Methods in Anthropology/Global Health

Advanced work in areas of developing interest and special significance. May be repeated for credit with different topic.

ARABIC 111-1-20, 12797 – Arabic I

This first segment of the three-quarter first-year course facilitates students' learning of the alphabet and sound system, and helps them develop basic speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills. It also introduces students to the diglossic sociolinguistic environment of the Arab World, and provides exposure to basic, high frequency regional spoken variety elements. This course is designed for true beginners with no previous background in the language. Students with any background must take a placement test and consult with the Coordinator before enrolling.

ARABIC 111-1-21, 12798 – Arabic I

ARABIC 111-1-22, 12799 – Arabic I

ARABIC 111-1-23, 12800 – Arabic I

ARABIC 111-2-21 (25100) – Arabic I

First-Year Arabic, Arabic 111, is a three-quarter sequence, focusing on developing basic proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in reading, writing, speaking and listening as well as in cultural knowledge. After an introduction to the Arabic letters and sounds (through Alif Baa, the first volume of the Al-Kitaab Arabic language program), students will begin to work with Al-Kitaab fii Tacallum al-cArabiyya, a textbook for Beginning Arabic (Part One) which comes with a DVD with audio and video materials, and a companion website with interactive exercises.

Arabic 111-2, taught in the Winter Quarter, is the second quarter of first-year Arabic. The course builds on material learned in the first quarter by introducing additional fundamental sentence structures, by presenting new vocabulary, and by providing students ample opportunities to practice and expand all skills. We will continue to use videos and texts centered around topics in Al-Kitaab Part One as well as work with material from the companion website and the DVD. The course covers chapters 2-6 in Al-Kitaab, Part One.

ARABIC 111-2-22 (25101) – Arabic I

ARABIC 111-2-23 (25102) – Arabic I

ARABIC 114-0-1, 17569 – Conversation and Culture in the Arab World

Speaking and understanding the way Egyptians speak in everyday life is a major goal of this course. In this course students will intensively practice speaking and master the use of colloquial Arabic for everyday oral communication. They will learn about the intricacies of diglossic sociolinguistic situations through the specific example of Egypt. Students will become familiar with important cultural themes in Egyptian society that inform individual and collective behavior. Students will learn to analyze similarities and differences between formal, written Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and the spoken regional Egyptian dialect. They will also gain valuable insights into Egyptian language and culture, laying important groundwork for more successful study abroad or work abroad experiences. Although the focus of the course is building verbal and conversational skills in Egyptian Arabic, a "contrastive analysis" and "comparative dialectology" between spoken dialects and MSA will be discussed in a systematic way.

ARABIC 121-1-20, 12801 – Arabic II

This first part of the three-quarter second-year course is a continuation of Arabic I, and moves students forward in all modes of language use, including additional exposure to representative regional spoken varieties, work on more sophisticated written expression and reading abilities for higher level/more abstract types of texts.

ARABIC 121-1-21, 12802 – Arabic II

ARABIC 121-1-22, 17583 – Arabic II

ARABIC 121-2-20 (25103) – Arabic II

This is the second part of a three-quarter course (121) which continues the path of Arabic I (111-1,2,3). This course deals with the next level of essential topics for daily and literary use of the Arabic language. This course will teach students the basics of Arabic grammar and case markings as well as have students master the verbal pattern system. This course will further develop listening comprehension with students listening to longer stories and dialogues. Students will also be exposed to cultural norms of the Arab world through culture pieces and interviews. The emphasis of this course will be on training students to read and understand a wider variety of Arabic texts and to work toward more efficient reading, to discuss orally text content, and to write short paragraphs and translation (English/Arabic/English).

ARABIC 121-2-21 (25104) – Arabic II

ARABIC 211-1-20, 12805 – Arabic III

This is a high intermediate level course in Modern Standard Arabic. Our goal is to enhance the student's ability to read, understand and discuss Arabic writings utilizing a variety of newspaper, magazine and journal articles, documents, short stories and other materials of interest to the students and relevant to their field of study. In addition to focusing on developing reading and writing skills, a special emphasis is placed on listening and speaking:
Listening:
Improve your listening comprehension of: authentic audio/video texts both in Ammiya and MSA. By the end of this quarter I expect you to comprehend main points / ideas. By the end of the school year ( the three class sequence of 211), I expect you to understand thoroughly the more familiar topics and recognize main ideas of news bulletins.
Speaking:
have enough spoken and MSA Arabic vocab and idioms that make you able to hold conversations with native Arabic speakers on basic topics and some cultural topics. By the end of the course you will have improved your pronunciation ( clarity and intonation ) as well. You will also be more familiar with the differences between the few formal settings of using MSA as spoken Arabic and everyday spoken Arabic dialects.

ARABIC 211-2-20 (25106) – Arabic III

This is a high intermediate level three-quarter course in Modern Standard Arabic in which students will continue to advance their proficiency in the Arabic language and learn more about the culture and the people of the Middle East. Based on Alkitaab Part II and its companion website, the course will enhance learners' ability to read, write, understand and discuss challenging authentic Arabic text from different sources. This will include a variety of textual resources from newspapers, magazines, journal articles, audio and video clips, short stories and other relevant material to the students' field of study.

This quarter we will discuss travelling and trips in the past and during the modern era, the most famous world explorers in Islamic history and the world. We will navigate through celebration norms and how people prepare for the most important holiday season in the Arab world for Muslims and Christians. We will learn about holidays for Qopts and "Amazigh". We will also learn about the issues of media and journalism in the Middle East. We will work on chapters 7-9 of "Alkitaab" Part II, and our work will be communicative based (role plays, presentations, interviews, and discussions).

ARABIC 311-1-20, 12810 – Arabic IV

During this class, we will be working on developing students' reading and comprehension abilities, as well as on improving their speaking and writing abilities.

Students will be trained to use the grammatical concepts discussed through the drills in their writing assignments. Although Al-Kitab III is the benchmark/ principal textbook of the course, we will examine different genres from sources other than Al-kitaab. Examples include short stories , cotemporary poetry , Turath literature such as Alf Layla wa Layla, and Quranic Suras. An emphasis will be given to media news both written and visual.

By the end of this quarter you will:

have mastered the grammatical concepts covered in Al-Kitaab and learnt how to integrate them in your writing.
be more confident when you hold conversations with native Arabic speakers on basic topics and certain advanced topics (e.g. Politics, Culture, etc...).
be more familiar with the differences between the few formal settings of using MSA as spoken Arabic and everyday spoken Arabic dialects.
comprehend authentic literary texts currently in circulation in the Arab World ( e.g. Bahaa Tahir, Youssef Idris, Tawfik Al-Hakim).
comprehend authentic audio/video texts: i.e. comprehend main points / ideas and understand thouroughly the more familiar topics. tentative topics: the Arabic media, Arab - Israeli conflict, Arab- American relations and Globalization and the Arab World.
improve your ability to comprehend rapid speech.
improve your writing ability to write accurate and idiomatic texts.

ARABIC 311-2-20 (25111) – Arabic IV

Fourth-Year Arabic (311) is comprised of three quarters. The goal of Arabic 311 is to cover and practice almost all of the advanced grammar points so that students can read a variety of authentic Arabic material on their own. Throughout the three quarters, students will be exposed to authentic reading texts from which new vocabulary and grammar concepts are drawn.

This is the second part of a three-quarter course (311). The goal of Arabic 311-2 is to equip students with the skills to start working with Arabic materials on their own. This class will focus on strengthening students' knowledge of grammar, sentence structure, expressions and idioms, and culture. Arabic 311-2 will use excerpts from different advanced Arabic authentic text sources. All materials will be provided by the instructor.

ARABIC 316-1-20, 12811 – Reading Arabic Poetry

This course offers a valuable chance to students who want to explore Arabic literary prose in depth. It also provides foundational skills for students who want to pursue graduate careers in Arabic literature or Middle Eastern Studies. The course will survey excerpts and selections of Arabic literary prose with emphasis on different styles of writing and editing of literature from the early 20th century to the present. The emphasis will be on studying elements, forms, writing styles, characteristics, development and prominent authors of essays, reflections, short stories, biographies, novels, and plays. The linguistic textual analysis of each reading will focus on: (1) understanding advanced grammatical structures, syntax and style; (2) rapid acquisition of vocabulary and popular idioms (e.g. gender manifestations) through in-class discussions and oral presentations; (3) writing assignments that reflect students' abilities to understand and assimilate the texts. We will work intensively on improving reading-for-comprehension skills, composition, listening and speaking through in-class oral discussions and presentations. Special exercises will be developed to improve understanding and use of essential elements of rhetorical analysis of literary works and applying them to the texts we read in class.

ARABIC 316-2-20 (25112) – Reading Classical Arabic Texts (in Arabic)

This course is for undergraduate and graduate students as well as post doc researchers who are interested in exploring contemporary Arabic poetry and how it has become a tool for forming national identities. Under the theme of "I am an Arab", the course offers an invaluable opportunity to engage with literary works of the Modern Middle East (roughly spanning the period from 1910-1980) cohesively examining the power of the written word within the historical, political, and cultural breadth of the region. The readings represent the region's best writers: poets who are bound together not by the borders and nationalities that separate them, but by a common experience of colonial domination and Western imperialism.

ART HIST 470-0-1, 11773 – Architecture & Territorial Planning Global South

This research seminar examines the relationship between architecture, resources, and territory in 20th century modernization projects in Latin America, the Middle East, South East Asia, and Africa. We will explore the conditions in which architecture has become a tool of development (a concept which we will address critically), and the functions it assumed in the ordering and managing of labor, natural resources and industry. While modernization projects are usually considered in terms of engineering and large-scale infrastructure, the architectural lens will offer a tool for a nuanced social-cultural analysis of the epistemological assumptions and value systems that undergird these projects. We will examine the role architecture played in the consolidation of "development thinking" in the shift from late colonial projects to the Cold War, specifically in reformulating the colonial relations between resource extraction and production, and the new emphasis placed on the maintaining of the "smallness" of small scale societies in terms of village habitation and vernacular forms of production.

BMD ENG 391-SA-01 (26519) – South Africa: NU Gbl Health Tech (Study Abroad)

No description available.

COMP LIT 306-0-20, 17537 (also ENGLISH 369-0-20) – Studies in Race & Ethnicity: African Lit & Race

This course uses interdisciplinary and intersectional methods to study the representations of race in African literatures from different linguistic and racial backgrounds. The role of translation (inter-lingual and cultural) in the depiction of race will be central to our discussions. We will read texts originally written in Arabic, English, French, and Portuguese and indigenous African languages to examine how writers come to terms with the idea of race. Who is an African and who is not? Is race biological or socially constructed? How are non-black races (e.g. Arabs, white, Indians etc.) represented in African writing? How is the "black" in Africa different or similar to "black" in other parts of the world? How do "black aesthetics" and "black arts" in Africa differ from similar concepts in black-diaspora cultures? How does racism intersect with other forms of oppression in African societies? How are internal racisms represented in African contexts? How are representations of race in canonical writing (e.g., Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice) treated in African translations and allusions to those texts? Performing both distant and close readings of African writers, we will read primary texts in terms of the techniques individual artists use to treat race matters. Theory texts will include excerpts from well-known works on the black race by Hegel, Descartes, Kant, Fanon, Memmi as well as newer African and African-diaspora engagements with these texts by such scholars as Charles Mills, Emmanuel Eze, Achille Mbembe, Toni Morrison, Kwame Anthony Appiah, and Stuart Hall.

ECON 326-0-20, 10310 – The Economics of Developing Countries

Structure, performance, and problems of developing economies. Topics may include land use, labor, migration, credit, insurance, and famine. Prerequisites: 281; 310-1,2.

ECON 327-0-20 (20971) – Economic Development in Africa

This course will examine the central issues of development economics with a geographical focus on Sub-Saharan Africa. Our methodological approach will be to use primary data and rigorous empirical methods to examine patterns of economic activity and to evaluate the effectiveness of development policies and programs. The class will be organized around weekly presentations of student research on 9 key questions of development in Africa.

ENGLISH 313-0-20 (24713) – Postcolonial Noir (also HUM 370-6-22, MENA 390-6-20)

This course looks at crime fiction in colonial and postcolonial contexts, beginning with reading Conan Doyle's stories in their colonial contexts, and then working through several case studies including Anglophone stories set in British India, Francophone novels that portray the Algerian War of Independence and Civil War, and contemporary Egyptian novels and graphic novels that explore the "Arab Spring." In doing so, we will explore the genre's narrative conventions as keys to understanding the relationships between coloniality, literary interpretation, and political authority. We will also track the social histories of the crime fiction genre as it registers the affective reactions to metropolitan heterogeneity, political oppression and violence, and revolution.

ENGLISH 369-0-20, 13445 (also COMP LIT 306-0-20) – Studies in African Literature: Africa & Race

20th-century African literature in English. Content varies. May be repeated for credit with different topic.

FRENCH 362-0-20, 13172 – The Detective African Novel in French

Major issues, trends, and authors from francophone Africa. Content varies; may include Shahrazade, narratives of gender relations, law and literature, violence, and writing. Prerequisite: 271, 272, or 273 or consent of instructor.

FRENCH 465-0-20, 13199 – "Purloining” the Francophone African Novel

Edgar Allen Poe's famous short story "The Purloined Letter" provided the impetus for a fascinating theoretical and philosophical debate in the late 70s between Jacques Lacan, Jacques Derrida, and Barbara Johnson. At the center of the polemic were the questions of reading, of teleology, of destiny, and of signification. In other words, the ways in which crime, detecting, the law, and meaning circulate in this story made for a fertile ground for thinking literature and the enterprise of interpretation. The debate is revealing not only because of the ways in which each theorist reads the short story but also how each reads the other's reading and engages with its implications. In this course, we will begin by reading the texts of this polemic together with Poe's story as a kind of portal that will orient us in our own acts of reading as we make our way through a number of works by Francophone writers from Africa. Our readings will by no means be limited by the terms of this debate, nor will we merely apply its conceptual framework to them. Instead, we will allow the debate to provide us with a certain vocabulary as well as the opening questions that we will then pursue through the vicissitudes of each literary works. The organizing principle of the course is therefore not thematic. Rather, the debate about Poe's story will help us attend to literature as a question and reflect on practices of reading.

GBL HLTH 301-0-20, 11041 – Introduction to International Public Health (sec. 20)

Social, economic, ethical, and cultural influences on variation in human health and well-being in populations worldwide; the continuum between health and sickness and the related impact of distal, chronic, and acute forces.

GBL HLTH 301-0-20 (22643) – Introduction to International Public Health

This course introduces students to pressing disease and health care problems worldwide and examines efforts currently underway to address them. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, the course identifies the main actors, institutions, practices and forms of knowledge production characteristic of what we call "global health" today, and explores the environmental, social, political and economic factors that shape patterns and experiences of illness and healthcare across societies. We will scrutinize the value systems that underpin specific paradigms in the policy and science of global health and place present-day developments in historical perspective. Key topics will include: policies and approaches to global health governance and interventions, global economies and their impacts on public health, medical humanitarianism, global mental health, maternal and child health, pandemics (HIV/AIDS, Ebola, H1N1, Swine Flu), malaria, food insecurity, health and human rights, and global health ethics.

GBL HLTH 301-0-21, 11042 – Introduction to International Public Health (sec. 21)

GBL HLTH 314-SA-20 (22653) – Health and Community Development in South Africa - South Africa: NU Gbl Health Tech (Study Abroad Course)

No description available.

GBL HLTH 321-0-1, 17514 – War and Public Health

Comparative overview of the impact of armed conflict on public health and healthcare delivery worldwide. Historical and contemporary case studies. Specific health needs of refugees and vulnerable populations.

GEN LA 280-6-20 (26626) – Residence-Linked Seminar - VI (Literature and Fine Arts)

No description available.

HISTORY 250-1-20 (25748) – Global History: Early Modern to Modern Transition

In this course, we will examine the rise of global structural interconnection during the "Early Modern" period of history between approximately 1500 and 1800 CE. During this period, and for the first time, a world system of truly planetary scope arose that included all of the Earth's major populated landmasses in continuous political, economic, military, technological and cultural exchange - though seldom evenly, easily, or equally. Topics will include the beginnings of colonialism and imperialism, as well as resistance to them; the growth of global capitalism, including competing explanations of what caused it and why it started where it did; the elaboration of new cultural, national and personal identities in response to the historical transformations of this crucial epoch; and the implications that these transformations continue - for good or ill - to have for the world order of our own day.

History Area of Concentration: Global; Americas, European, Asia/MIddle East, Africa/MIddle East

HISTORY 255-3-20 (24759) – Background to African Civilization and Culture: 1875-1994

Contemporary Africa's social and political problems are often portrayed as holdovers from a "traditional" past. The continent's poverty is usually explained as the absence of "modernity"; ethnic tensions are assumed to be a continuation of ancient tribalism; famines are said to be similar to those in the Bible. In contrast, this course will focus on the processes of modern history that have shaped the continent, emphasizing those that first emerged during the period of colonial rule (ca. 1890 to ca. 1960). Although we will not minimize the significance of Africa's older historical inheritances, particularly in the realms of religion, family institutions, and political culture, we will see that the presence of such long-standing cultural traditions does not imply the absence of change. On the contrary, one of our central themes will be how traditions have been adapted, transformed, and innovated over the course of the century. Throughout the quarter we will focus on how ordinary men and women struggled to shape their lives. To that end, the imaginative insights provided by African novelists are important complements to the broader historical trends outlined in the lectures and other texts.

History Area of Concentration: African/Middle East

HISTORY 356-2-20, 13723 – History of South Africa

Emphasis on the 20th century, the rise of African nationalism, and the clash with the apartheid state.

HISTORY 379-0-20 (25762) – Biomedicine and World History

Global health has justifiably become a popular buzzword in the twenty-first century, but too often its multifaceted origins are allowed to remain obscure. This lecture course is designed to provide students with an historical overview of four developments pivotal to the field's consolidation: the unification of the globe by disease; the spread of biomedicine and allied disciplines around the world; the rise of institutions of transnational and global health governance; and the growth of the pharmaceutical industry. In order to place global health in its widest possible context, students will learn about the history of empires, industrialization, hot and cold wars, and transnational commerce. We will analyze the political and economic factors that have shaped human health; the ways in which bodies, minds, and reproduction have been medicalized; and the socio-cultural and intellectual struggles that have taken place at each juncture along the way. Above all, this course should give students tools to assess the benefits, dangers, and blind spots of existing global health programs and policies.

History Area of Concentration: Global; Americas, European, Asia/Middle East, Africa/Middle East

HISTORY 392-0-20, 13726 (also HISTORY 395-0-20, MENA 301-1-1) – Topics in History: Egypt under Nasser & Sadat

Advanced work through reading, research, and discussion in an area of special significance. Graduate students permitted in some courses with consent of instructor.

HISTORY 392-0-30 (27705) – Hitchhiking the Atlantic (also HUM 325-4-20, PORT 396-0-1)

"Hitchhiking the Atlantic" charts the history of the Atlantic World through the biographies of individuals on the move. Some of these travelers were world historical figures, while others were ordinary, common people nearly forgotten to history. All of them had cross-cultural encounters and made connections that fundamentally altered their own lives and shaped historical processes much larger than themselves. We will focus on Atlantic travelers who effected and reflected historical change relating to three themes: racism and American slavery, industrial capitalism, and anti/colonialism. These themes are not isolated to the past; they continue to unfold in the present, shaping societies across the globe in the twenty-first century. Students will gain an understanding of how disparate histories in Africa, the Americas, and Europe were (and remain) interconnected on multiple scales, from individual to empire. We will examine individuals' journeys and life experiences through autobiographical source material and situate figures in various contexts through supplementary readings. The class will produce original biographies of Atlantic World travelers and use a digital mapping application to trace their movements. No prior experience with digital mapping is necessary; students interested in learning programming basics in a supportive and structured environment are welcome.

History Area of Concentration: Americas, European, African/MIddle East

HISTORY 393-0-26 (25766) – Islamic Political Thought and Activism in the Modern Middle East

This seminar explores the ways in which historians strive to understand the political ideas and practices of Islamic activists since the early 20th century. While the course will allow students to familiarize themselves with various Muslim intellectuals and modern currents of thought (Islamic modernism, Islamism, post-Islamism, Wahhabism and Salafism), our primary goal will be to reflect on how scholars approach the history of mental constructs. How underlying assumptions about modernity, religion in general, and Islam in particular shape the narratives that scholars produce; and how these narratives may determine the judgments we make about the "evolution" of Islamic thought and activism (often described in terms of progress and regress).

HISTORY 395-0-20, 13728 (also HISTORY 392-0-20, MENA 301-1-1) – Topics in History: Egypt under Nasser & Sadat

Students research and complete a term paper on a topic of choice. Required of majors.

HISTORY 405-0-22 (24822) – Comparative Race

One prevailing approach to the comparative study of race identifies it with a form of Western thought that arose in the modern or early modern age and subsequently spread with the expansion of the West in the post-Columbian era. Yet historians of the Western idea of race offer vastly different accounts of its genealogy, tracing its origins to classical antiquity, to the rise of modern biological science, or to some era in between. Other scholars approach race as way of categorizing human difference that has taken myriad iterations throughout global history, intersecting in later eras with the discourses of white supremacy introduced by Western empire. We will sample a variety of approaches, including works by anthropologists, sociologists, philosophers, and historians of science. Topics will include: race, nation, and progress; the history of whiteness; sexuality and colonial metissage; the ideological legacies of slavery; "communal" violence and racial thought in South Asia; Hamiticism and racial thought in central Africa.

HUM 325-4-20 (25085) – Hitchhiking the Atlantic (also HISTORY 392-0-30, PORT 396-0-1)

HUM 370-5-20, 14994 (also MENA 301-3-20) – Special Topics in the Humanities: Islamic Law

Intensive seminars in cutting-edge research on interdisciplinary issues. Course number indicates distribution requirement area in which a course counts. May be repeated for credit with change in topic.

HUM 370-5-20, 14994 (also MENA 390-3-1, RELIGION 351-0-20) – Islamic Law

HUM 370-6-22 (25088) – Postcolonial Noir (also ENGLISH 313-0-20, MENA 390-6-20)

Crime fiction is where questions of law, justice, and community are investigated, but only rarely resolved. This course will explore this problem in a transnational context, so as to expose the fundamental issues of power and difference that have underlain the genre from its very beginning. We will start with the imperial foundations of Sherlock Holmes' investigations, and then work our way through texts produced in colonial and postcolonial settings including in colonial India, post-independence Algeria, and contemporary Egypt. Surveying over 150 years of detection, we will use these texts to understand the relationship between criminal investigation and literary interpretation, between history and the present, and between literary style and political authority.

INTL ST 390-0-20, 11794 (also POLI_SCI 380-0-20) – Refugee Crises & Human Rights

Topics vary. Augments offerings of departments.

JOUR 372-0-20 (21576) – International Journalism: South Africa

South Africa anchors the poorest continent on the globe. Its?history, not to mention contemporary social upheavals, makes it a rich environment for considering the role of media, business, politics and public health in an emerging democracy. Just 25 years since the end of Apartheid, an extreme form of racial segregation and oppression, the country is in swift transition culturally, politically, and economically. This is so partly because democracy and globalization, not to mention HIV, arrived there more or less simultaneously. This course covers the contemporary history of South Africa, with a special focus on the country's newspapers, magazines, and broadcast outlets. It prepares journalism students for the Residency Program, and global public health students headed for South Africa in spring, but is not limited to them. The course is designed, too, for any student interested in international reporting and/or health reporting. Assignments mimic the steps any journalist might take in preparing to cover stories across lines of geography, language, culture, race, class and ethnicity.

LEGAL ST 356-0-20 (22642) – Constitutional Challenges in Comparative Perspective (also AFST 390-0-20, POLI SCI 356, previously POLI SCI 390/LEGAL ST 376 - cannot receive credit for both)

MENA 301-1-1, 17580 – Egypt under Nasser & Sadat

Interdisciplinary approaches to the study of the Middle East and North Africa. Content varies with annual theme. May be repeated for credit with a change in topic. Courses need not be taken in sequence.

MENA 301-3-20, 11835 (also HUM 370-5-20) – Seminar in Middle East & North African Studies: Islamic Law

MENA 390-3-1, 17581 (also HUM 370-5-20, RELIGION 351-0-20) – Islamic Law

Content and prerequisites vary. Course number indicates distribution requirement area in which a course counts. May be repeated for credit with change of topic.

MENA 390-6-20 (25121) – Postcolonial Noir (also ENGLISH 313-0-20, HUM 370-6-22)

POLI SCI 250-0-20, 14489 – Introduction to Comparative Politics

Emphasis may be on industrialized and/or developing states. Major issues include regime-society relations, political change and conflict, and policy making.

POLI SCI 348-0-20, 14641 – Globalization

Analysis of changes in the world economy and their implications for politics, economics, and society. Politics of multinational production, finance, and trade in the context of governance problems in a globalizing world. Prerequisite: 240 or equivalent.

POLI SCI 356-0-20 (22507) – Constitutional Challenges in Comparative Perspective (also AFST 390-0-20, LEGAL ST 356, previously POLI SCI 390/LEGAL ST 376 - cannot receive credit for both)

POLI SCI 359-0-1 (22333) – Politics of Africa (combined with AFST 390-0-21)

POLI SCI 376-0-20, 14668 – Global Development

This course explores the economic and social changes that have constituted "development," and that have radically transformed human society. The course focuses on both the historical experience of Europe and the contemporary experience of countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In the historical discussion, we explore the birth of the "nation state" as the basic organizing unit of the international system; the transition from agrarian to industrial economic systems; and the expansion of European colonialism across the globe. In our discussion of Africa, Asia, and Latin America, we consider the legacies of colonialism for development; the ways in which countries have attempted to promote economic development and industrialization; and issues of inequality and human welfare in an increasingly globally connected world.

POLI SCI 380-0-20 (22486) – Refugee Crises & Human Rights

No description available.

POLI SCI 380-0-20, 14681 (also INTL_ST 390-0-20) – Refugee Crises & Human Rights

Development of international human rights. Comparative state and regional responses to forced migration due to war, conflict, and generalized violence. Humanitarian intervention, international law, and policy issues, such as gender-based violence, migrants at sea, and human trafficking.

POLI SCI 390-0-23, 14525 – Global Development

POLI SCI 390-0-24, 14526 – Reporting Islam

This course will bring together Medill and Weinberg students with an interest in the politics and practices of reporting on Islam and Muslims in the United States and in U.S. foreign policy. Through a combination of readings, site visits, individual and group projects, and critical writing assignments, the goals of this course are, first, to empower students to recognize the pitfalls of how Islam and Muslims are reported and represented in U.S. print media and other formats, and second, to innovate new ways of writing about Islam and Muslims that do not replicate the Islamophobic or Islamophilic tropes that dominate much of this reporting. To these ends, the course will include a ?master class' on reporting religion led by by Manya Brachear, religion reporter for the Chicago Tribune. The course is part of the "Talking ?Religion': Publics, Politics and the Media" project which is co-directed by the instructors, and students will have an opportunity to participate in project related activities including lectures and a spring 2019 workshop.

POLI SCI 452-0-20, 14578 – Democratization

The interrelationships between socioeconomic structures and democracy, the importance of political leadership, the historic relationship between capitalism and democracy, and contemporary tensions between market reform and democratization.

POLI SCI 490-0-20, 14579 – Islamic Political Thought

This graduate-level seminar explores contemporary Islamic political thought with a special focus on Islamic political thinkers and ideas from the early twentieth century to the present. The objectives of the course are to assist students to : (1) acquire advanced knowledge and understanding of the core themes and concepts of Islamic political thought and ideas and their recent reconfigurations ; (2) grasp the complexity and variety of islamic intellectual trends, debates and arguments and their contexts ; 3) engage in critical reading and analysis of primary and secondary sources of Islamic Thought ; 4) prepare a piece of original research.

PORT 396-0-1 (24157) – Hitchhiking the Atlantic (also HUM 325-4-30, HISTORY 392-0-30)

"Hitchhiking the Atlantic" charts the history of the Atlantic World through the biographies of singular individuals on the move. We will focus on the lives of Atlantic travelers who effected and reflected historical change relating to three core themes: racism and American slavery, industrial capitalism, and anti/colonialism. These themes are not isolated to the past; they continue to unfold in the present, shaping societies across the globe in the twenty-first century. Students will gain an understanding of how disparate histories in Africa, the Americas, and Europe have been interconnected on multiple scales, from individual to empire. The class will produce original biographies of Atlantic World travelers and use a digital mapping application to trace their movements. No prior experience with digital mapping is necessary; students interested in learning programming basics in a supportive and structured environment are welcome.

RELIGION 351-0-20, 14112 (also HUM 370-5-20, MENA 390-3-1) – Islamic Law

Evolution of Islamic law from the Prophet Muhammad to the contemporary world, focusing on Islamic law and the impact of colonialism. Prerequisite: 250 or consent of instructor.

SOCIOL 207-0-20, 10481 – Cities in Society

Introduction to issues of cities and metropolitan areas, including spatial, economic, and political trends; private and public decision making; class, race, and gender; and possible solutions to inequalities and planning challenges.

SWAHILI 111-1-20, 10001 – Swahili I

This is the first part of a three-quarter sequence of beginning Swahili. The course equips learners with the necessary listening, speaking, reading and writing skills so as to understand basic Swahili. We shall learn about the history of Swahili language, its place in East Africa, and discuss how to interact with Swahili speakers in culturally appropriate ways. Through a combination of lectures, lab sessions and performance of cultural and communicative activities, learners will gain an understanding of basic Swahili grammatical structures and cultural insights of the people of East Africa. No prior knowledge of Swahili is required to enroll in this course.

SWAHILI 111-1-21, 10002 – Swahili I

SWAHILI 111-2-20 (23565) – Swahili I

This is the second part of a three-quarter sequence of introduction to Swahili language and culture. The course is designed purposely to reinforce the acquisition of basic conversational Swahili through activities that enhance the four communicative skills (speaking, writing, listening and reading) that was started in the previous quarter. Through performance of cultural communicative activities, students will continue to gain an understanding of basic Swahili grammatical structures, and cultural insights about the people of East Africa.

SWAHILI 111-2-21 (23566) – Swahili I

SWAHILI 121-2-20 (23567) – Swahili II

This is the second part of intermediate Swahili. The course builds on the foundation established in beginning Swahili courses. It is designed to enhance students' communicative skills and a deeper cultural awareness about Swahili and East Africa.

SWAHILI 111-2-20 (23565) – Swahili I

THEATRE 140-2-20 (21965) – Theatre in Context: Analysis & Research

Including but not limited to Wakanda, Black writers of the African diaspora have long had an interest in writing about the continent of Africa. Africa in these texts is understood alternately as a homeland, as an allegory, as a hope for liberation, and as a place of mutual if violently fractured history. Black women dramatists in particular have taken up Africa as site of self-reflection and identity formation. This class revolves around one big question: What do the stories we tell ourselves about Africa have to teach us about Blackness in the diaspora and how has the continent been used in dramatic writing as both a window and a mirror to Black struggle globally? Over the course of the quarter we will spend time with Black woman playwrights and choreographers and question how as a Black woman identified people of the diaspora each is formulating an Africa in relationship to the US or Europe. What can we learn about Blackness by studying the work of woman identified diasporic writers? Like all Theatre 140-2 courses, this class introduces students to university-level research-paper writing that incorporates performance analysis and secondary sources. This course mixes lectures, discussion, and writing to explore methods for theatre history performance critique.