Spring 2022

Bengali 1B: Introductory Bengali

This is a beginner’s course for learning Bengali language. The students learn the fundamentals of the language, including the alphabet and basic grammar. They acquire familiarity with common sentence structures, the ability to read and understand simple texts, and the ability to express their feelings.

Burmese 1B: Introductory Burmese

This introductory course in modern Burmese is a sequel to Burmese 1A, and aims to build upon the core competencies in the Burmese spoken language and writing system acquired in 1A. The course further develops speaking, reading, and writing proficiency using a mix of pop…

Filipino 1B Section 2: Introductory Filipino

This is the continuation of the beginners’ class with emphasis on the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The course uses the functional approach in learning a language. The students focus on basic conversational skills in Filipino. A review of basic grammar rules…

Filipino 1B Section 3: Introductory Filipino

Filipino 1B. Introductory Filipino. Five hours a Week. Prerequisites -1A or consent of instructor. Do you know the words nanay (mother), sinigang (sour soup), and kawawa (poor you)? You may be a heritage learner, or a person who has a proficiency in or a cultural…

Filipino 1B Section 4: Introductory Filipino

Filipino 1B. Introductory Filipino. Five hours a Week. Prerequisites -1A or consent of instructor. Do you know the words nanay (mother), sinigang (sour soup), and kawawa (poor you)? You may be a heritage learner, or a person who has a proficiency in or a cultural…

Filipino 100B Section 1: Intermediate Filipino

This is an intermediate class with emphasis on the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The course uses the functional-situational approach in learning a language.The students will learn four necessary skills in the effective use of Filipino: paglalahad (defining and explaining); paglalarawan (describing…

Filipino 1B Section 1: Introductory Filipino

This is the continuation of the beginners’ class with emphasis on the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The course uses the functional approach in learning a language. The students focus on basic conversational skills in Filipino. A review of basic grammar rules…

Filipino 100B Section 2: Intermediate Filipino

This is an intermediate class with emphasis on the four basic skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. The course uses the functional-situational approach in learning a language.The students will learn four necessary skills in the effective use of Filipino: paglalahad (defining and explaining); paglalarawan (describing…

Filipino 101B: Advanced Filipino

Filipino 101B. Advanced Filipino. Three hours of lecture per week. Prerequisites. Two years of Filipino/Tagalog or consent of instructor. Have you successfully completed Filipino 100 A and B (Intermediate Filipino)? Are you a heritage learner who may have left the Philippines during your middle school…

Hindi 1B: Introductory Hindi

Hindi 1B is designed for students with Novice High proficiency in Hindi. It will help you develop communicative skills in Hindi, refresh your knowledge of Indian cultures, and broaden your linguistic horizons. In Hindi 1B, you will develop: • An ability to communicate at an…

Hindi 100B: Intermediate Hindi

Intermediate Hindi 100B is designed for students with Intermediate Medium proficiency in Hindi. It will help you deepen your communicative skills in Hindi and your knowledge of Indian cultures and broaden your linguistic horizons. In Hindi 100B, you will develop: • An ability to communicate…

Indonesian 1B: Introductory Indonesian

Indonesian 1B is the continuation of Indonesian 1A. This is the second semester of the introductory Indonesian level. In Indonesian 1B, students are expected to be able to satisfy routine social verbal and written demands and be able to handle routine work-related interactions that are…

Indonesian 100B: Intermediate Indonesian

Indonesian 100B is the continuation of Indonesian 100A. In the second year of Indonesian, the emphasis is on the further development of all the communicative skills such as intensive review of grammar, development of writing skills, reading of contemporary prose, expansion of vocabulary and reading…

Indonesian 210B: Seminar in Malay Letters and Oral Traditions

Various aspects of Malay language and literature, history and development of the language, classical literature, drama, oral literature, modern literature of Indonesia and Malaysia, and dialect studies. Applies various theoretical approaches to the study of the language and literature.

Khmer 1B: Introductory Khmer

Students complete their study of everyday standard Khmer to a “survival” level. While the memorization of vocabulary and common personal exchanges practiced in 1A will make up the majority of material studied, students will have some opportunity to learn to improvise and talk about personal…

Khmer 100B: Intermediate Khmer

Students continue their study of Khmer literacy and formal speaking begun in the fall. Topics include current events in Cambodia, Cambodian history and politics, and a basic overview of Khmer literature. Much of this study will be accomplished by working on projects in groups with…

Punjabi 1B: Introductory Punjabi

This course is designed for those with very little Punjabi proficiency and will focus on building the student’s knowledge in reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Students will begin to master the basic grammatical formations and will build a base of vocabulary essential for everyday communication….

Punjabi 100B: Intermediate Punjabi

This course focuses on building the student’s knowledge of reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Selected readings will be assigned depending on the interest of the students. These begin the starting point to stimulate the student’s own writings, which might include poetry, short stories, drama or…

Sanskrit 100B: Elementary Sanskrit

Elements of Sanskrit grammar and practice in reading Sanskrit texts. Sanskrit 100A, followed by 100B, introduces students to Sanskrit grammar, with the goal of developing the skills necessary to speak and read basic, simple Sanskrit texts. Sanskrit 100A covers lessons 1–12 of the Devavāṇīpraveśikā [Robert…

Sanskrit 101C: Intermediate Sāhitya (Literary Sanskrit)

Sanskri101C introduces students to classical literary Sanskrit (sāhitya) and commentary, where available. An extended passage of a kāvya and/or an entire play (nāṭaka) is read. Works of Kālidāsa, Bhāsa, and the like are normally read. Developing strong reading skills is the focus of the class….

Sanskrit 200B: Sanskrit Literature

Advanced readings in Sanskrit texts of various genres, including Sanskrit ornate poetry with emphasis on the canons of poetic analysis of the Indian aesthetic tradition. The course is designed for advanced Sanskrit students at the graduate level and focuses on readings in various critical genres…

South and Southeast Asian 39 Sec 3: Philippine Film and the Decolonized Lens

Have you ever watched a foreign language film? This seminar course focuses on Philippine films, most of which are in the Filipino language with English subtitles. The course is divided into three main topics: 1) popular culture, film genres and formulas; 2) history, class dynamics,…

South and Southeast Asian 39 Sec. 4: Society in the Mirror of Indian Film

This seminar will focus on problems and dilemmas of contemporary society as they transpire in recent Indian films and TV shows. TV shows will be of special interest to us as a medium that often escapes scholarly attention due to its perceived low content quality…

South and Southeast Asian Studies C145: Buddhism in Contemporary Society

A study of the Buddhist tradition as it is found today in Asia. The course will focus on specific living traditions of East, South, and/or Southeast Asia. Themes to be addressed may include contemporary Buddhist ritual practices; funerary and mortuary customs; the relationship between Buddhism…

South and Southeast Asian Studies C220: Seminar in Buddhism and Buddhist Texts

Content varies with student interests. The course will normally focus on classical Buddhist texts that exist in multiple recensions and languages, including Chinese, Sanskrit, and Tibetan.

South and Southeast Asian Studies C275: Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha: History and Modernity in Theravada Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka

This graduate seminar introduces students to the study of Buddhism in Theravada Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka through a critical survey of recent scholarship in such fields as religious history, cultural history and literary history, focusing on the modern era. Once dismissed as Buddhism of…

South Asian 1B: Introduction to the Civilization of Medieval and Modern India

This course offers a broad historical and cultural survey of the civilizations of the Indian subcontinent from the 12th century to Partition in 1947. Attention will be paid to the geography and ethnography of the region, its political history, and the religious, philosophical, literary, and…

South Asian R5B: India in the Writer’s Eye

Reading and composition in connection with eastern and western representations of India, and other Asian cultures, in great works of modern literature. Satisfies the second half of the reading and composition requirement.

South Asian C224: Readings in Tibetan Buddhist Texts

This seminar provides an introduction to a broad range of Tibetan Buddhist texts, including chronicles and histories, biographical literature, doctrinal treatises, canonical texts, ritual manuals, pilgrimage guides, and liturgical texts. It is intended for graduate students interested in premodern Tibet from any perspective. Students are…

South Asian C113: Buddhist Thought in India

This course is an advanced introduction to the major teachings of Indian Buddhism and their philosophical elaborations. We will cover the core tenets attributed to the Buddha, and the later doctrinal and scholastic developments that turned Buddhism into one of the principal philosophical traditions of…

South Asian C114: Tibetan Buddhism

This course is a broad introduction to the history, doctrine, and culture of the Buddhism of Tibet. We will begin with the introduction of Buddhism to Tibet in the eighth century and move on to the evolution of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism, Tibetan…

South Asian 122: The Novel in India

Lecture and discussion on the novel as it arose on the Indian subcontinent during the 19th and 20th centuries, using English translations and original works in English. Critical discussion of the novel as a modern genre adapted to local conditions and coexisting with older traditions…

South Asian 131: Introduction to Contemporary Tamil Literature

Offered completely in English translation, this course aims to introduce modern literatures in the Tamil language written in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaysia and other Tamil diasporic spaces. During the course, students will encounter a wide variety of literary aesthetic practices that shape contemporary…

South Asian 142: India’s Great Epics

The course entails substantial selected readings from the great Sanskirt epic poems–the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in translation, selected readings from the corpus of secondary literature on Indian epic studies as well as lectures on salient issues in both. Readings will be supplemented with selected…

South Asian 240: The Realist Novel in South and Southeast Asia

This course examines the histories and the contexts of the realist novel through a comparative literary focus on South and South East Asia. Through novels published in South and South East Asia from the 1900’s to the present, this course will look at how the…

Southeast Asian R5B: Under Western Eyes

In this course, the student will read selections from the large body of scholarly texts that have been written about Southeast Asia. Expository and argumentative essays by premier scholars such as Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, Margaret Mead, Clifford Geertz, and Benedict Anderson will be examined….

Southeast Asian 10B: Introduction to the Civilization of Southeast Asia

Readings, lectures, and discussion of the culture and civilization of Southeast Asia. Insular Southeast Asia: Covers the modern-day nations of Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines. Special emphasis on the arts and their social and political context, with discussions on the impact of the colonial experience…

South and Southeast Asian 39 Section 1: Filipino Spirituality: Influences of Catholicism, Islam, and Indigenous Beliefs in Philippine Art and Literature

Have you ever wondered why the homes of Filipino families in the United States display religious statues or celebrate Christmas and Lent in a different way from other Christians? Have you read Filipino poems, stories, songs, and festivals that focus on or mention Babaylan spritual…

South and Southeast Asian Studies 250 Section 1: Seminar

Southeast Asian 165: Introduction to the History and Culture of the Philippines

This course is a cultural history of the Philippines, from the birth of the nation in the nineteenth century to the present. It outlines the major events in Philippine history through cultural texts that reflect the salient attitudes and ideas of key periods. Not only…

South and Southeast Asian Studies 250 Section 2: Seminar

Southeast Asian 190: Love Craft: Epic Romance of Southeast Asia

This course offers an advanced introduction to the literary history, cultural norms, poetic forms and textual traditions of 17th to 19th century Southeast Asia through a comparative study of three epic poems: Tum Teav (Cambodia), Khun Chang Khun Phaen (Thailand), and Tale of Kieu (Vietnam)….

Tamil 1B: Introductory Tamil

This course focuses on progressive acquisition of language skills to communicate effectively in Tamil. It facilitates development of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing competence along with basic grammar. Course Description & Course Goals: Language skills focused: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing. This course focuses on progressive…

Telugu 1B: Elementary Telugu

This elementary level course focuses on progressive acquisition of language skills to communicate effectively in Telugu. It facilitates development of Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing competence along with basic grammar. Course Description & Course Goals: Language skills focused: Listening, Speaking, Reading, Writing. This course focuses…

Thai 100B: Intermediate Thai

Intermediate Thai 100B continues to integrate cultural awareness into language education. In Spring 2022, we will emphasize the shift from the concrete to the abstract in Thai language and culture. Students will learn to read longer and more abstract writing, advertisements from newspapers, articles from…

Urdu 1B: Introductory Urdu

The course concentrates on developing skills in reading, writing, speaking, and aural comprehension. Evaluation is based on attendance, written homework assignments, quizzes, dictations, and examinations. Conventional teaching materials may be supplemented by popular songs and clips from contemporary Indian cinema.

Urdu 100B: Intermediate Urdu

Introduces various types of written and spoken Urdu; vocabulary building, idioms, and problems of syntax; and conversation. Reading of selected fiction and nonfiction in modern Urdu, including fables, short stories, and poetry. Exercises in grammar, conversation, and composition.

Vietnamese 1B: Introductory Vietnamese

Second semester Vietnamese for beginners. A continued introduction to modern spoken and written Vietnamese, based on intensive drill of phonology and grammar structures for everyday topics. By the end of the second semester, students should be able to function successfully in ordinary Vietnamese conversation and…

Vietnamese 100B: Intermediate Vietnamese

Fourth semester Intermediate Vietnamese with emphasis on Reading and Writing. A second-year course in Vietnamese vocabulary and syntax with intensive drills on short colloquial expressions and auditory recognition of speech patterns. Students will research authentic text in academic and cultural topics. By the end of…

Vietnamese 101B: Advanced Vietnamese

Vietnamese 101A & 101B serves as an introduction to Vietnamese language, literature and culture. A continuation of 101A, with the goal of conversational fluency, advanced reading competence, and facility in writing. This course also provides an introduction to the literature and culture of Vietnam through…