GISRAM Courses 2016-2017

 

Autumn 2016


NELC 5125 and 5126
Syriac (two-semester sequence)
Professor Van Bladel
By the end of the year, you will have read Syriac texts from manuscript and be able to use Syriac for research.
 
Hebrew 5100
Intro to Biblical Hebrew
Professor Lynn Kaye
 
NELC 5130
Ugaritic
Professor Sam Meier
 
Arabic 8891
Seminar in Arabic Studies
To be taught by the new Sofia Chair of Arabic Studies.
 A graduate-level introduction to the methods and materials of traditional Arabic scholarship.
 
NELC 5101
Intro to the Field of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures
Professor Van Bladel.
This is a 1-unit intro to the field of Near Eastern Studies.
 
Comp Studies/English 5980
Ancient and Modern Narrative: Cognition, Affect, Ethics, Belief
Professor Sarah Iles Johnston and James Phelan
This interdisciplinary, team-taught course (Sarah Iles Johnston from Comparative Studies and James Phelan from English) will juxtapose narratives from ancient Greece with ones from modern and contemporary United States and Great Britain as it explores the hypothesis that the power of narrative arises from its capacity to affect the lives of audiences by engaging their beliefs, cognition, affect, ethics. By juxtaposing narratives from two different eras, we will consider what has changed and what has remained constant in the techniques, effects, and purposes of storytelling across the centuries. By studying research drawn from multiple disciplines on belief, cognition, affect, and ethics, we will set up a dialogue between the primary narratives and theoretical claims about engaging with narrative. Students will write agenda settings and two papers.