Search Results
Your search for courses · during 25FA, 26WI, 26SP · tagged with MEST Studies Foundation · returned 10 results
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ARBC 148 The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 6 credits
This course will provide students with the knowledge and tools to engage productively and respectfully with current events in the Middle East. It will do so by situating the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its broader historical context. In addition to studying key events in the history of the conflict, we will examine the conflicting narratives formed by different actors within the Israeli and Palestinian communities, as well as those produced within other related populations. Our discussions will be based on readings of primary sources, academic studies from multiple disciplines, and portrayals of the conflict in music, cinema, and literature.
ARBC 148 is cross listed with MEST 148.
- Spring 2026
- IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
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ARBC 148.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Yaron Klein 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 244 11:10am-12:20pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 244 12:00pm-1:00pm
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ARBC 185 The Creation of Classical Arabic Literature 6 credits
In this course we will explore the emergence of Arabic literature in one of the most exciting and important periods in the history of Islam and the Arab world; a time in which pre-Islamic Arabian lore was combined with translated Persian wisdom literature and Greek scientific and philosophical writings to form the canon of learning of the new emerged Arab-Islamic empire. We will explore some of the different literary genres that emerged in the New Arab courts and urban centers: from wine and love poetry, historical and humorous anecdotes, to the Thousand and One Nights, and discuss the socio-historical forces and institutions that shaped them. All readings are in English. No Arabic knowledge required.
ARBC 185 is cross listed with MEST 185.
In Translation.
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ARBC 185.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Yaron Klein 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 243 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 243 2:20pm-3:20pm
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CCST 220 East/West in Israeli, Palestinian Fiction & Film 6 credits
As a crossroads of diverse perspectives in such a multicultural, but fraught Middle Eastern environment, Israeli and Palestinian fiction and film offer significant opportunities for comparative, cross-cultural learning. We will focus on how mental pictures of home, self, and other have been created, perpetuated, and/or challenged in local fiction since the 1940s and in film since the 1950s. Including authors and film directors of Middle Eastern, North African, and Ethiopian Jewish heritage alongside Palestinian artists will allow us to explore community, inter-generation, and gender-relevant responses to locally popular projections of post/colonial history and national life in Israel/ Palestine.
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CCST 220.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Stacy Beckwith 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WWeitz Center 133 11:10am-12:20pm
- FWeitz Center 133 12:00pm-1:00pm
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HIST 165 A Cultural History of the Modern Middle East 6 credits
This course provides a basic introduction to the modern history of the Middle East from the late eighteenth century to the present. We will focus on the enormous transformations the region has witnessed in this period, as a world of empires gave way one of nation-states and new political and cultural ideas reshaped the lives of its inhabitants. We will discuss the cultural and religious diversity of the region and its varied interactions with modernity. We will find that the history of Middle East is inextricably linked to that of its neighbors and broader currents of modern history. We will read both the works of historians and literary and political texts from the region itself.
- Winter 2026
- HI, Humanistic Inquiry IS, International Studies
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HIST 165.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Adeeb Khalid 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THLeighton 304 10:10am-11:55am
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MEST 110 Introduction to the Middle East 6 credits
In this introduction to Middle East Studies, we will embark on an interdisciplinary exploration of a region that spans from Central Asia to North Africa. We will study the Middle East as a multilingual, multireligious, multicultural space that, because of its unique cultural geography connecting peoples and governments from Africa, Asia, and Europe, has developed distinguishing characteristics over time. We will build familiarity with the diversity of this region and explain its multiple cultural and sociopolitical crossroads through analysis of storytelling, food, music, religious practices, governments, economies and more.
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MEST 110.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Kambiz GhaneaBassiri 🏫 👤 · Summer Forester 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- T, THHasenstab 105 1:15pm-3:00pm
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MEST 148 The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict 6 credits
This course will provide students with the knowledge and tools to engage productively and respectfully with current events in the Middle East. It will do so by situating the contemporary Israeli-Palestinian conflict in its broader historical context. In addition to studying key events in the history of the conflict, we will examine the conflicting narratives formed by different actors within the Israeli and Palestinian communities, as well as those produced within other related populations. Our discussions will be based on readings of primary sources, academic studies from multiple disciplines, and portrayals of the conflict in music, cinema, and literature.
ARBC 148 is cross listed with MEST 148.
- Spring 2026
- IS, International Studies SI, Social Inquiry
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MEST 148.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Yaron Klein 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 244 11:10am-12:20pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 244 12:00pm-1:00pm
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MEST 185 The Creation of Classical Arabic Literature 6 credits
In this course we will explore the emergence of Arabic literature in one of the most exciting and important periods in the history of Islam and the Arab world; a time in which pre-Islamic Arabian lore was combined with translated Persian wisdom literature and Greek scientific and philosophical writings to form the canon of learning of the new emerged Arab-Islamic empire. We will explore some of the different literary genres that emerged in the New Arab courts and urban centers: from wine and love poetry, historical and humorous anecdotes, to the Thousand and One Nights, and discuss the socio-historical forces and institutions that shaped them. All readings are in English. No Arabic knowledge required.
ARBC 185 is cross listed with MEST 185.
In Translation.
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MEST 185.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Yaron Klein 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLanguage & Dining Center 243 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLanguage & Dining Center 243 2:20pm-3:20pm
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RELG 120 Judaism: Text, History, Practice 6 credits
What is Judaism? Who are Jewish people? What are Jewish texts, practices, ideas? What ripples have Jewish people, texts, practices, and ideas caused beyond their sphere? These questions will animate our study as we touch on specific points in over three millennia of history. We will immerse ourselves in Jewish texts, historic events, and cultural moments, trying to understand them on their own terms. At the same time, we will analyze them using key concepts such as ‘tradition,’ ‘culture,’ ‘power,’ and ‘diaspora.’ We will explore how ‘Jewishness’ has been constructed by different stakeholders, each claiming the authority to define it.
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RELG 120.01 Spring 2026
- Faculty:Chumie Juni 🏫 👤
- Size:30
- M, WLeighton 330 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 330 1:10pm-2:10pm
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RELG 122 Introduction to Islam 6 credits
This course is a general introduction to Islam as a prophetic religious tradition. It explores the different ways Muslims have interpreted and put into practice the prophetic message of Muhammad through analyses of varying theological, legal, political, mystical, and literary writings as well as through Muslims’ lived histories. These analyses aim for students to develop a framework for explaining the sources and vocabularies through which historically specific human experiences and understandings of the world have been signified as Islamic. The course will focus primarily on the early and modern periods of Islamic history.
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RELG 122.01 Fall 2025
- Faculty:Kambiz GhaneaBassiri 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 301 12:30pm-1:40pm
- FLeighton 301 1:10pm-2:10pm
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RELG 162 Jesus, the Bible, and Christian Beginnings 6 credits
Who was Jesus? What’s in the Bible? How did Christianity begin? This course is an introduction to the ancient Jewish texts that became the Christian New Testament, as well as other texts that did not make it into the Bible. We will take a historical approach, situating this literature within the Roman Empire of the first century, and we will also learn about how modern readers have interpreted it. Along the way, we will pay special attention to two topics of enduring political debate: (1) Whether the Bible supports oppression or liberation and (2) What the Bible says about gender and sexuality.
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RELG 162.01 Winter 2026
- Faculty:Sonja Anderson 🏫 👤
- Size:25
- M, WLeighton 330 1:50pm-3:00pm
- FLeighton 330 2:20pm-3:20pm
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