Undergraduate Courses
Winter 2021
Ancient Near East
AN N EA 12W – Jerusalem: Holy City
Seminar: Sem 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Smoak, J.D.
Course Description Seminar, four hours. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 10W. Survey of religious, political, and cultural history of Jerusalem over three millennia as symbolic focus of three faiths: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Transformation of sacred space as reflected by literary and archaeological evidence through examination of testimony of artifacts, architectural monuments, and iconography in relation to written sources. Study of creation of mythic Jerusalem through event and experience. Development of advanced writing skills and critical thinking. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.
AN N EA M50B – Origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Bakhos, C.A.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Middle Eastern Studies M50B and Religion M50.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Examination of three major monotheisms of Western cultures–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam–historically and comparatively. Development, teachings, and ritual practices of each tradition up to and including medieval period. Composition and development of various sacred texts, highlighting key themes and ideas within different historical and literary strata of traditions, such as mechanisms of revelation, struggle for religious authority, and common theological issues such as origin of evil and status of nonbelievers. Letter grading.
Arabic
ARABIC M155 – Al-Andalus: Literature of Islamic Spain
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Slyomovics, S.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Comparative Literature M119.) Lecture, three hours. Study of literature of Islamic Spain to learn about interaction of Arabic and Western and Arabic and Jewish cultures and to recognize Islamic culture as vital force in European life and letters. P/NP or letter grading.
Architecture and Urban Design
ARCH&UD 10A – History of Architecture and Urban Design: Prehistory to Mannerism
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Icev, M.; Osman, M.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour; outside study, 11 hours. Exploration of developments in global architecture and urban design from prehistory to 1600 and critical reflection on terms such as building, architecture, city, history, and culture. Focus on world context, construction and technology, and history of architectural ideas. P/NP or letter grading.
Art History
ART HIS 21 – Medieval Art
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Gerstel, S.E.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; quiz, one hour. Early Christian, Byzantine, Islamic, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic art and architecture. P/NP or letter grading.
ART HIS M119C – Introduction to Islamic Archaeology
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Burke, K.S.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Islamic Studies M111 and Middle Eastern Studies M111.) Lecture, three hours. From earliest monuments of Islam in Arabia and Jerusalem to humble remains of small Egyptian port, broad focus on archaeological and standing remains in central Islamic lands (primarily Syria, Egypt, and Iraq), Turkey, Iran, North Africa, and Spain. Profound cultural transformations occurred from birth of Islam in 7th century to early Ottoman period in 16th and 17th centuries, which are traceable in material records. Assessment of effectiveness of tools afforded by historical archaeology to aid understanding of past societies. P/NP or letter grading.
ART HIS C151 – Selected Topics in Japanese Art: Graphic Arts of Japan
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Kersey, K.W.
Class Description Covers graphic arts of Japan, with primary focus on print media from 1600 CE to present. Topics include: ukiyo-e, moveable type, printed books, Hokusai, 20th-century woodblock prints, postwar photobooks, and graphic design. Also includes discussion of some fundamental theoretical texts.
ART HIS 185 – Undergraduate Seminar: Emaki: Scrolls and Stories in Arts of Japan
Seminar: Sem 2
Units 4
Instructor(s) Kersey, K.W.
Course Description Seminar, three hours. Designed for juniors/seniors. Selected aspects of art history explored through readings, discussion, research papers, and oral presentations. May be repeated twice for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description Close look at one of Japan’s most celebrated art forms: emaki. These premodern films are long horizontal bands that use sophisticated combinations of text and painting to convey narrative. Focus on some of most exciting examples. Includes discussion of essential theoretical texts on word and image relationships.
Chinese
CHIN 139 – Gardens in China
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Mai, H.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Recommended preparation: course 50. Interdisciplinary survey of historic and literary gardens in China, with focus on English translations of texts by native writers and recent Western scholarship. Letter grading.
CHIN 191A – Variable Topics Research Seminars: Classical China
Seminar: Sem 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Mai, H.
Course Description Seminar, three hours. Designed for juniors/seniors. Research seminar on selected topics in premodern Chinese literature, thought, and culture. Reading, discussion, and development of culminating project. May be repeated for credit. Letter grading.
Clusters
CLUSTER 27B – Global Islam
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 6
Instructor(s) Sayeed, A.; Chism, C.N.; Guhin, J.J.; Slyomovics, S.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Enforced requisite: course 27A. Introduction to Islam, immensely diverse global tradition which is second largest religion. Study of Islam and Muslims within framework of study of global religious traditions and emphasis on profound diversity of localized belief and practice found across world. Examination of Islam’s evolution across 15 centuries, from late antiquity–when it emerged as localized religion in Central Arabia–to modern era where it is practice from US to Indonesia. Concentration on broad analytical categories in study of religion such as text, culture, history, and prophecy. Students transition to more complex analyses through chronological overview of Islamic history. Study also of case studies of Muslim global networks in arenas such as art, music, literature, and political thought. Letter grading.
Comparative Literature
COM LIT 2BW – Survey of Literature: Middle Ages to 17th Century
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Stahuljak, Z.
Course Description Lecture, two hours; discussion, two hours. Enforced requisite: English Composition 3 or 3H or English as a Second Language 36. Not open for credit to students with credit for course 1B or 4BW. Study of selected texts from Middle Ages to 17th century, with emphasis on literary analysis and expository writing. Texts may include works by authors such as Chaucer, Dante, Cervantes, Marguerite de Navarre, Shakespeare, Calderón, Molière, and Racine. Satisfies Writing II requirement. Letter grading.
COM LIT M119 – Al-Andalus: Literature of Islamic Spain
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Slyomovics, S.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Arabic M155.) Lecture, three hours. Study of literature of Islamic Spain to learn about interaction of Arabic and Western and Arabic and Jewish cultures and to recognize Islamic culture as vital force in European life and letters. P/NP or letter grading.
English
ENGL 90 – Shakespeare
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Watson, R.N.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Enforced requisite: satisfaction of Entry-Level Writing requirement. Not open for credit to English majors or students with credit for course 150A or 150B. Survey of Shakespeare’s plays, including comedies, tragedies, and histories, selected to represent Shakespeare’s breadth, artistic progress, and total dramatic achievement. P/NP or letter grading.
ENGL 140A – Chaucer: “Canterbury Tales”
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Chism, C.N.
Course Description Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Introductory study of Chaucer’s language, versification, and historical and literary background, including analysis and discussion of his long major poem, “Canterbury Tales.” P/NP or letter grading.
ENGL 147 – Medieval Histories, Chronicles, and Records: Inventing History in Medieval Britain: Foundational Stories
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Fisher, M.N.
Course Description Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Investigation of medieval history writing as literary tradition. Medieval histories survive in every language of medieval Britain, including Latin, Old English, Welsh, Irish, Anglo-Norman French, and Middle English. Multilingual ubiquity of history writing points to pressures of history on history writing–histories are always shaped by political, cultural, linguistic, and textual pressures of present tense. Texts may include histories, chronicles, material records, and historiographically engaged texts. May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description It can be argued that to write history is to write about inaccessible past, in midst of unknowable present, in order to shape unknown future. Consideration of stories told about past in medieval Britain, from many different legendary founders of island, to strange two-headed creatures in Wales and Ireland. Study looks at how tradition of insular medieval history-writing claimed privileged access to beginnings of things–whether geographies, texts, or identities; and how that privilege was deployed to write bodies of faith and color (Jewish, Muslim, black) into and out of insular history.
ENGL 150C – Topics in Shakespeare: Shakespeare’s Major Plays
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Little, A.L.
Course Description Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Introduction to or advancement of student knowledge of Shakespeare’s works through broad or specific topics set by instructor. May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description Introduction to Shakespeare’s plays by surveying some recognized as his most significant, both historically and contemporarily. Drawing on works from entirety of Shakespeare’s career, study emphasizes formal and historical properties of his plays (and stage); and ways his plays engage questions of race, gender, sexuality, and class, as well as those of religion, philosophy, and politics. How all these questions are embodied–put into bodies–signals way Shakespeare’s dynamic poetry (and language) has become essential hallmarks for modern and global. Some possible texts are Hamlet, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Othello, and The Tempest. Includes term paper, and midterm and final exams.
ENGL 151 – Milton
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Shuger, D.K.
Course Description Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Study of major works of Milton, with emphasis on “Paradise Lost.” P/NP or letter grading.
ENGL 156 – Devotion and Dissent: Reading Witch in Early Modern England
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Bonnici, K.B.
Course Description Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Enforced requisites: courses 10A, 10B. Examination of religious thought and practice associated with Reformation and Counter-Reformation enterprises in early modern period and consideration of how various types of writing–poems, prayer books, sermons, historical chronicles, essays, travel narratives, trial records–reflect and assess religious ferment of era. Coverage of either broad historical range such as from Henry VIII’s break with Rome to execution of Charles I or one specific topic such as varieties of martyrdom, art of confession, or conversion narratives. May be repeated for credit with topic or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description Exploration of depictions of witchcraft, witch beliefs, and witch trials in 16th- and 17th-century England and Scotland. Readings include true-crime pamphlets on particular cases; treatises on witchcraft, magic, and ritual (including alleged blood pact between witch and devil); and literary representations of witches in contemporary drama and poetry. Study also considers concerns such as gender, sexuality, age, disability, class, race, religion, and political power.
ENGL 184 – Capstone Seminar: English: Writing Digital Archive: Old Books in New Worlds
Seminar: Sem 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Fisher, M.N.
Course Description Seminar, three hours. Requisites: courses 10A, 10B, and 10C, or 11 and 87, and completion of at least four upper-division courses required for major. Limited to senior English or American Literature and Culture majors. Students use knowledge from prior coursework to address current topics in discipline and work with faculty members on focused topic of research. Culminating paper or project and class presentation required. May be repeated once for credit with topic or instructor change. Letter grading.
Class Description What do old books look like now? Originally designed to work hands-on with manuscripts, printed books, and archived primary materials held in UCLA Special Collections, study now focused on processes of discovery and encounter with items in archive. Students work with digital surrogates as they explore implications of old, rare, unusual, or just weird books in digital age. Study of how special collections are assembled (and what’s excluded); how digital archives are curated and presented (and what voices are silenced); and how books are bought and sold. Emphasis on variety of writing practices, from writing tombstones and introductions to curate digital galleries, to critical and bibliographical essays, to grant proposals. Final project involves writing grant proposal and pitch to acquire rare book or archive actually for sale. Young Research Library has promised to provide funding for item(s) identified and proposed by winning proposal.
French
FRNCH 115 – Studies in Medieval French Culture and Literature
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Burns, R.J.
Course Description Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 5. Taught in French. Study of medieval French culture and literature, including lyric poetry and narrative romance, history of medieval warfare, comedy, and class structures. May be repeated for credit with topic change. P/NP or letter grading.
History
HIST 1B – Introduction to Western Civilization: Circa 843 to circa 1715
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Mcclendon, M.C.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Introduction to history of the West and its connections to rest of world from 843 to 1715. Profound social, political, cultural, and intellectual changes that affected development of modern world. Topics covered include economic, social, and cultural aspects of feudal system; relationship between Church and empire; new religious movements (including the Reformation); formation of nation-states; relationship between Western Europe and non-European and non-Christian people and traditions. P/NP or letter grading.
HIST M10A – History of Africa to 1800
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Lydon, G.E.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as African American Studies M10A.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Exploration of development of African societies from earliest times to late 18th century. P/NP or letter grading.
HIST 21 – World History, circa 600 to 1760
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Aslanian, S.D.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, two hours. Outline of world history from rise of Islam to start of Industrial Revolution, structured around a broad chronological narrative of salient developments. Use of thematic and comparative approaches, with certain recurring themes and institutions that modulate from culture to culture. Reading of variety of contemporary accounts to look at way people perceived cultures outside their own. P/NP or letter grading.
HIST 97C – Introduction to Historical Practice: Variable Topics in European History: Philosophy and Utopia in Early Modern Europe
Seminar: Sem 2
Units 4
Instructor(s) Stacey, P.J.
Course Description Seminar, three hours. Discussion classes of no more than 15 students. Introduction to study of history, with emphasis on historical theory and research methods. Variable topics courses; consult Schedule of Classes for topics to be offered in specific term. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description Introduction to discipline of intellectual history, with detailed introduction on how to practice it in order to make sense of key text in early modern political philosophy: Thomas More’s Utopia (1516). Readings about intellectual history in general–and early modern political, moral, and social theory in particular–are included. But focus is on exploration of imaginative and intellectual world of Thomas More’s famous text, title of which pioneered new genre of European political writing. Endlessly enigmatic, profoundly imaginative, and often very funny indeed, More’s text also remains intensely controversial. Study tries to explain why.
HIST 102A – Iran and Persianate World
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Green, N.S.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Development of model of Persianate world to bring together histories of Iran, India, and central Asia (including Afghanistan) between circa 1200 and 2000. Movement and interaction of different peoples between major cultural centers where Persian was used as common language of intellectual, religious, social, and political exchange. Weekly focus on one particular theme, with lecture material supplemented by translations of writings of princes, poets, tribesmen, travelers, and mystics who created Persian republic of letters between Shiraz, Samarqand, and Delhi, and even as far as Siberia and China. Examination of why and how various ethnic and professional groups made Persian into one of most important languages in world history. P/NP or letter grading.
HIST 119D – Topics in Medieval History: Communities of Faith and Profit: Jews, Christians, and Muslims in Medieval Mediterranean, 500 to 1500
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) The Staff
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Special topics in history of Middle Ages, including religion in society, justice and law, politics of war and diplomacy, economic upheaval and renewal, and cultural representations. May be repeated for maximum of 16 units with topic and/or instructor change. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description What is God’s plan for economic justice; can rich people go to heaven; and what are our responsibilities to the poor? Medieval people thought deeply about these questions. Examination of medieval history through intersection of religious and economic life in Mediterranean basin. Students analyze and discuss attitudes of Christians, Muslims, and Jews towards wealth, poverty, trade, and relationships with religious other. In addition to reading primary sources (laws, treatises, administrative documents, literature) in which medieval people addressed these and other concerns, discussion of major historiography of medieval trade and religion. Choices of historians is constant theme: why scholars focus on some problems and not others; why certain sources are emphasized in historian’s interpretation. Students gain deeper appreciation for how religious convictions influenced economic life in medieval world, and better understanding of medieval influence on modern moral economy.
HIST 122A – Cultural and Intellectual History of Modern Europe, 15th Century
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Stacey, P.J.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Climates of taste and climates of opinion. Educational, moral, and religious attitudes; art, thought, and manners of time in historical context. Renaissance cultural and intellectual history of Europe. Central themes include comparative history of ideas, theory and practice of art and architecture, civic and religious humanism, religious experience, and new cultural genres of history and philological scholarship. P/NP or letter grading.
HIST C191N – Topics in History: India: Histories of Indian Ocean, 1400 to 1900: Ports, Networks, and States
Seminar: Sem 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Subrahmanyam, S.
Course Description (Formerly numbered 191N.) Seminar, three hours. Designed for seniors. Limited to 15 students meeting with faculty member. Reading and discussion of selected topics, and development of culminating project. May be repeated once for credit. May be concurrently scheduled with course C201K. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description Examination of history and historiography of Indian Ocean over some 500 years. Study alternates between largely chronological focus, such as 16th century; and certain themes are dealt with more transversally. Study deals with Indian Ocean as zone in which series of European states made their presence felt over these centuries, but also to gives due importance to non-European actors, whether states and empires or other agents.
Italian
ITALIAN 42A – Italy through Ages in English: Saints and Sinners in Early Modern Italy
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Moudarres, A.
Course Description Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour. Examination of issues of cultural hegemony, political and religious freedom, and doctrinal conflict through Italy’s early modern literary and artistic production. Texts may include Dante’s Divine Comedy, Boccaccio’s Decameron, Saint Catherine’s letters, Machiavelli’s The Prince, and Galileo’s scientific writings. Artworks may include those of Raphael and Michelangelo, as well as Bernini’s sculptures. P/NP or letter grading.
ITALIAN 103A – Introduction to Classic Italian Literary and Cultural Studies
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Ciavolella, M.
Course Description Lecture, three hours. Enforced requisite: course 100. Taught in Italian. Selected classic works of Italian literature, theater, art, and culture from medieval era to Renaissance and baroque. Emphasis on critical methods and skills for analyzing and interpreting wide range of Italian texts and cultural formations in their historical context and in comparison to contemporary and transnational views. Representative authors may include Saint Francis of Assisi, Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Saint Catherine of Siena, Machiavelli, Giotto, Botticelli, Michelangelo, Leonardo, Caravaggio, Gaspara Stampa, Veronica Franco, Ariosto, Tasso, and Galileo. P/NP or letter grading.
ITALIAN 124 – Food and Literature in Italy
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Tognozzi, E.A.
Course Description Lecture, three hours. Profile of Italian history and culture through analysis of gastronomic documents, food traditions, and literary and visual works. Emphasis on late Middle Ages, Renaissance, and Risorgimento, or modern and contemporary movements such as Cucina futurista and slow food. Examination of relation of Italian traditions of food and eating with health, body, gender, community, politics, biodiversity, and environment. P/NP or letter grading.
ITALIAN 140 – Italian Novella from Boccaccio to Basile in Translation
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Burns, R.J.
Course Description Lecture, three hours. Analysis of development of Italian novella in its structure, historical context, and folk material. Special emphasis on how Italian novella influenced other European literatures. P/NP or letter grading.
ITALIAN 191 – Variable Topics Research Seminars: Italian Studies
Seminar: Sem 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Ciavolella, M.
Course Description Seminar, three hours. Research seminar with focus on themes and issues outside uniquely Italian literature topics covered in regular departmental undergraduate courses. Reading, discussion, and development of culminating project. May be repeated once for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
Japanese
JAPAN 108FL – Special Studies: Readings in Japanese
Seminar: Sem 1
Units 2
Instructor(s) Bodiford, W.M.
Course Description Seminar, two hours. Requisite: course 100C or 100S with grade of C or better or Japanese placement test. Students must be concurrently enrolled in affiliated main course. Additional work in Japanese to augment work assigned in main course, including reading, writing, and other exercises. May be repeated for credit. P/NP or letter grading.
JAPAN CM160 – Japanese Buddhism
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Bodiford, W.M.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Religion M161B.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Knowledge of Japanese not required. Development of Buddhism in Japan in its cultural context, with emphasis on key ideas and teachings. Concurrently scheduled with course C260. Letter grading.
Philosophy
PHILOS 100B – Medieval and Early Modern Philosophy
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Normore, C.G.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Preparation: one philosophy course. Strongly recommended requisite: course 100A. Survey of development and transformation of Greek metaphysics and epistemology within context of philosophical theology, and transition from medieval to early modern period. Special emphasis on Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, and Descartes. P/NP or letter grading.
PHILOS 107 – Topics in Medieval Philosophy: Ockham’s Manifesto: Language and Ontology in The Summary of Logic
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Crimi, M.J.
Course Description Lecture, four hours; discussion, one hour. Preparation: one philosophy course. Recommended requisite: course 105 or 106. Study of philosophy and theology of one medieval philosopher such as Augustine, Anselm, Abelard, Aquinas, Scotus, or Ockham, or study of one single area such as logic or theory of knowledge in several medieval philosophers. Topic announced each term. May be repeated for credit with consent of instructor. P/NP or letter grading.
Class Description The Summary of Logic by William of Ockham (circa 1287-1347) has been called manifesto masquerading as textbook. In addition to teaching revamped system of Aristotelian logic based on semantic properties of signification and supposition, Ockham’s Summary also outlined metaphysical program that revolutionized late medieval philosophy. This program came to be known as nominalism, with realism being its adversary. Ockham’s own brand of nominalism recognizes only particulars–as opposed to universals–belonging to Aristotelian categories of substance and quality. This ontological reduction is grounded in innovative linguistic analysis involving semantics of connotation and theory of mental language. Students investigate relationship between language and ontology in Summary, reading much of Book I; supplementary material from Ockham’s other works; and works from other philosophers in Ockham’s context.
Political Science
POL SCI 111B – Early Modern Political Theory
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Pagden, A.R.
Course Description Lecture, three or four hours; discussion, one hour (when scheduled). Designed for juniors/seniors. Exposition and critical analysis of major thinkers such as Machiavelli, More, Montaigne, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Smith, Condorcet, and Kant and questions such as representation, property, autonomy, and political economy. P/NP or letter grading.
Religion, Study of
RELIGN M40 – Christianities East and West
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Vroon, R.W.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Slavic M40.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Survey of three major historical branches of Christianity–Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism, contrasting how history, dogma, culture, and community structures develop in those three traditions. P/NP or letter grading.
RELIGN M50 – Origins of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Bakhos, C.A.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Ancient Near East M50B and Middle Eastern Studies M50B.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Examination of three major monotheisms of Western cultures–Judaism, Christianity, and Islam–historically and comparatively. Development, teachings, and ritual practices of each tradition up to and including medieval period. Composition and development of various sacred texts, highlighting key themes and ideas within different historical and literary strata of traditions, such as mechanisms of revelation, struggle for religious authority, and common theological issues such as origin of evil and status of nonbelievers. Letter grading.
RELIGN M155 – Angels, Demons, and End of World: Magic, Mysticism, and Apocalypse in Jewish Traditions
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Bonesho, C.E.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Jewish Studies M155.) Lecture, three hours. Focus on popular Jewish traditions of magic, mysticism, apocalypse, and various contours of Judaism’s textual and material traditions in antiquity. Examination of texts and objects from Hebrew Bible to modern discussions of Kabbalah and end of world, concentrating on Jewish antiquity. Discussion of texts, including Hebrew Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, extra-biblical Jewish texts, New Testament, and rabbinic and later Jewish literature. Discussion of sociohistorical context in order to decipher features and functions of magic, mysticism, and apocalypse in antiquity and modernity. P/NP or letter grading.
RELIGN M161B – Japanese Buddhism
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Bodiford, W.M.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description (Same as Japanese CM160.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Knowledge of Japanese not required. Development of Buddhism in Japan in its cultural context, with emphasis on key ideas and teachings. Letter grading.
Scandinavian
SCAND 138 – Vikings
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Ball, K.A.
Course Description Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Survey of history, anthropology, and archaeology of Viking Age society. Readings draw on medieval sagas as well as secondary material, focus on impact of Vikings on northern Europe, and consider ways in which European and Scandinavian societies evolved in response to Viking incursions. P/NP or letter grading.
SCAND 172A – Nordic Folk and Fairy Tales
Seminar: Sem 1
Units 4
Instructor(s) Ball, K.A.
Course Description Seminar, three hours. Exploration of Nordic version of classic tale-types such as Dragon Slayer, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel, and King Lindorm in historic and cultural contexts. Reading of important works of Nordic and international folktale scholarship, representing historical-geographic, structuralist, psychological, feminist, disability-theory, and queer-theory approaches. Development of critical thinking and close textual analysis skills, and understanding and appreciation of genre that continues to pervade popular culture. Readings in English translation. P/NP or letter grading.
Slavic
SLAVC M40 – Christianities East and West
Lecture: Lec 1
Units 5
Instructor(s) Vroon, R.W.
Multiple-Listed Class
Course Description Same as Religion M40.) Lecture, three hours; discussion, one hour. Survey of three major historical branches of Christianity–Eastern and Oriental Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism, contrasting how history, dogma, culture, and community structures develop in those three traditions. P/NP or letter grading.