Near East Studies

The class focuses on learning how to look at and to analyze Egyptian art and to place it in its historical, artistic, and cultural context. It focuses on Egyptian art from the end of the Middle Kingdom into the Ptolemaic Period (a review of earlier periods is provided) and includes: modes of representation, role of Egyptian art, reliefs, statuary, architecture, and minor arts, illustrated with images. Elements of Egyptian art that have influenced modern art are also discussed. This course involves a certain amount of memorization, which improves students’ memory capacity, so that each student has a "database" of images and can use it to situate monuments and artifacts within Egyptian history, as well as to develop visual awareness and memory. There is a focus on oral and written communication. Field trips include the Cairo Museum and pyramid sites such as Sakkara and Dahshur.

This course covers the history of Egypt from the Middle Kingdom to the end of Pharaonic history. The course focuses on the "official" history of Egypt rather than the cultural/social history that is covered in a separate course. The scope of "official" history includes: the different rulers of Egypt and their contributions to the state in terms of buildings, religious changes and foreign policy, the economy, social organization, and Egypt’s foreign relations. Literary sources are augmented by archaeological evidence. Field trips to archaeological sites are an important component of the course.

This course focuses on the practicalities of acquiring, processing, and curating archives as well as issues concerning access and research. It also introduces the different archival material available that is relevant to the study of Egyptology and its history. In addition to readings on the history of archives, their significance, and best practice, the course provides hands-on experience with the Selim Hassan archives from his excavation at Giza housed in the American University in Cairo’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library. Students catalogue the material (both photographic and textual), learn about conservation, and documentation (scanning and photography), and the upkeep and organization of digital archives. They then also work on the material (the extent depends on time permitting) to see what was published and what was not, and learn how to categorize the material for future use. In addition to the practical work, there are a series of assignments associated with archives. Thus, this course not only expose students to archival work and best practices, but also archival research and its role in publications. Field trips to Giza to visit the areas of Hassan’s excavations as well as to the archives of other archaeological institutes form part of the course, as well as guest lectures by archivists and scholars who use archives to further archaeological work.

This course introduces the settlements and daily life of the ancient Egyptians, including the material culture. It concentrates on the archaeological evidence from settlements of the three most important periods of ancient Egyptian civilization: the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The course first discusses urban settlement patterns in ancient Egypt, and secondly the processes by which material assemblages form in settlements. The plans and structure of dwellings is also considered along with the material evidence found within them.

How has the media covered the war on Gaza and what are the underlying political, cultural and business imperatives that have shaped this coverage? What narratives are being foregrounded by legacy Western and Arab media respectively? What role is alternative media playing and what controls are different Social Media platforms imposing on permissible content? What is it like to be a Palestinian journalist in Gaza when journalists are being killed by Israel at an unprecedented rate? These are some of the questions that students critically engage with throughout this course, through a combination of theoretical readings, case studies, multimedia analysis, documentary screenings and guest speakers from the field. The course encourages students to connect scholarship with practice through writing, media monitoring, and creative projects that interrogate the relationship between communication and power in one of the most mediatized conflicts of our time.

Utilizing both academic research and literary/artistic expression, this course contributes towards gaining critical and dynamic analytical perspectives on urban transformations in the Arab region, especially in newly formed cities-turned-capitals like Amman and Kuwait. The course visits precolonial societies in the region, their precolonial interactions and modes of communal existence, and then considers the effects of colonialism, border-drawing, and postcolonial identity construction and its enduring effects in modern cities whose inhabitants go through various degrees of identity questioning, alienation, and conflict. The course also looks at the effects of authoritarianism, neoliberalism, commodification, and self-centered consumerism on urban transformations and malformations.

This course examines the region of Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean between 1500 BCE to 100 CE. Topics include an introduction to Mesopotamia and the Mediterranean world, the Neo Assyrians and their Empire – 900 to 600 BCE, the Neo Babylonians and their rule – 600 to 537, and the Achaemenid Persian Empire – 537-333BCE. The Hellenistic Empires, Seleucid and Ptolemaic Empires, and the Romans and Parthians are also covered.

This course is the first semester of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, one of the oldest languages in the world. This class focuses on Middle Kingdom hieroglyphs (2055-1650 BC), when many scribes were trained and the writing was notably clear and grammatical. Students begin by learning the ancient Egyptian alphabet and how to write the letters, and go on to learning vocabulary, writing and translation. By the end of this class, students are able to understand, read, and write basic ancient Egyptian sentences; understand basic ancient Egyptian grammar; and read ancient Egyptian historical and biographical texts.

This course is an anthropological account of the culture and social organization of the people of the Middle East, with a special focus on the Arab world. Drawing on ethnographic accounts, visual representations and fieldtrips, it looks into how anthropologists have analyzed the transformation of the various structures – economic, political, social, and cultural – that are taking place in the contemporary period. The course analyzes of contemporary debates in anthropological engagements with and in the Middle East and North Africa. It explores the histories of ethnographic research in the Middle East and North Africa, colonialism and post-independence experiences, power and representation, performance and the arts, religious sensibilities, gender and kinship networks.

This course consists of further reading of Egyptian texts with an introduction to the new Egyptian language of the later periods of Pharaonic history. In order to introduce students to epigraphy, they are required to copy and study texts from the Cairo Museum. This is the fourth installment of the two-year sequence spent learning the signs, vocabulary, and grammar of Ancient Egyptian. Regular class attendance, active participation, and weekly assignments are crucial for grasping the material. Students are encouraged to familiarize themselves with the material before coming to class.