English

This advanced seminar course critically examines theories and practices of racism, racialization, ethnicity, and nationalism. The course evaluates both anthropological and wider social theoretical literatures to investigate their contributions and limitations to understanding these historically and conceptually interlinked problematics across different times and spaces. 

Students learn to teach basic volleyball skills to middle and high school students. The course covers volleyball rules and basic strategies. Topics include volleyball configuration and basic rules, how to warm up, underhand and overhand, types of serves, defense, attack, and referee hand signals. 

This course examines the interplay of external and internal factors in inflaming conflict and tension in the Middle East. It covers the role of foreign powers in a number of case studies: the Arab/Israeli conflict, Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War of 1990-1991, the war on Terror, the Arab Uprisings, and the rise of the Islamic State. These case studies illustrate the difficulties in separating national from international politics and provide a nuanced appreciation of international relations in this vital region.

This course introduces mindfulness as a psychological construct, presenting and discussing ways to understand and describe the concept. It presents theoretical perspectives that seek to illuminate the origin, development, potential, and limitations of mindfulness. The course examines clinical and cognitive empirical studies that demonstrate various operationalizations and effects of mindfulness interventions. It also contains a smaller practical part where select mindfulness exercises are exemplified to provide a practice-based understanding of the concept of mindfulness. Assessment is based on an individual or group written assignment of 12-18 pages. 

This course examines the Arabic language and the history and culture of the Arabic-speaking people. It covers the philosophy, music, religions, literature, poetry and art of the Arabic-speaking communities; cultural products and customs; values important to the Arabic people; and important features of the main dialects.