Lower Division
MSA 2Y / ECH 2Y: World Coffee Cultures
Instructors: Nicole Ranganath and Bill Ristenpart
Meets: Virtual Lecture, Multiple Labs available
Units: 3
GE: Arts & Humanities (AH); Science & Engineering (SE); World Cultures (WC)
New course! Brew and taste different coffee styles from around the world, including Chinese, Cuban, Egyptian, Ethiopian, Indian, Indonesian, Mexican, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Yemeni coffee.
Questions? Contact the ME/SA Studies program at [email protected].
RST 032: History of Yoga
Instructor: Lynna Dhanani
Lecture: TR 1:40–3:00pm
Discussion sections:
- 39353: R 4:10–5:00pm
- 39354: R 5:10–6:00pm
GE: Arts & Humanities (AH); Domestic Diversity (DD); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE)
This class examines the many texts, beliefs, images, and practices associated with the single term yoga, in contexts “religious” and “secular,” past and present. The all-pervasive images of yogis in fixed posture or deep contemplation permeate South Asian art and the modern imaginaries. Throughout the more than 2,000 years of past yogic practice, Muslims, Buddhists, Jains, Hindus, Sikhs, Jews, Christians, atheists and other communities have all adapted yoga to their belief systems. Throughout the quarter, we will trace the expansion and transformation of yoga through its interactions with Hindu, Buddhist, Jain, and Islamic traditions. We will examine orientalist representations of yoga, as well as the influence of colonialism and modern physical cultures on the evolution of modern yoga. The course concludes by looking at modern debates around questions such as “Is Yoga a religion?” and “Is Yoga Hindu?”.
Upper Division
COM 172 / MSA 121C / ARB 140: A Story for a Life: The Arabian Nights
Instructor: [Name]
Meets: TR 1:40–3:00pm
GE: Arts & Humanities (AH); World Cultures (WC); Writing Experience (WE)
Fulfills: Upper Division Writing Requirement for College of Letters and Science
This course investigates storytelling and truth, fiction and fantasy in the Thousand and One Nights, also known in the translation of the earliest version as The Arabian Nights, a premodern frame tale in Arabic. The events in our stories take place such as Baghdad, Damascus, Cairo, Southeast Asia, India, Central Asia, Iran and China. This work circulated in many other languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Turkish, French, English and German. Students will investigate how these stories create and explore ideas about trauma, justice, desire, ambition, adventure, comedy and wisdom. Discussion will include perspectives in our stories on similar narratives, which will be briefly introduced, from sources such as the Bible and Qurʾan, The Odyssey, al-Tabari’s world history and The Tales of a Parrot. We will analyze the frame tale about the legendary narrator Shahrazad, a wise daughter of a minister who marries her king to save the women of her kingdom from the king’s murderous obsession that develops in the wake of his wife’s infidelity. The stories that she tells to distract the king from his obsession provide emotional insight and ethical perspectives on relationships for audiences past and present. Students will interpret the artistic, ethical, emotional and social dimensions of stories about characters such as as sisters who own businesses, a fisherman who catches a demon who leads him to surprising discoveries, a king of China who serves as a judge, a caliph and his minister who tour their city in disguise, a world-travelling merchant who explores strange customs in distant cultures, and a loquacious barber who brings a man back to life.
HIS 102X: Histories of Campus Protest: Academic Freedom from Below
Instructor: Dr. Stacy D. Fahrenthold
Meets: MW 2:10–3:30pm
Format: Seminar, guided research project
Open to: History majors
GE: Writing Experience (WE)
How do student movements reshape the university from within? This Winter, join a collaborative research project investigating the powerful legacy of campus activism at the University of California. We discuss the history of insurgent knowledge traditions, study campus social movements, and write about student mobilizations past and present. Students will: conduct hands-on research in our Archives Lab; meet social movement historians; write new histories of campus life and student protest; and participate in the Academic Freedom from Below Sawyer Seminar.
Questions? Contact Dr. Fahrenthold at [email protected].
HIS 113: History of Modern Palestine/Israel
Instructor: Dr. Stacy D. Fahrenthold
Meets: MWF 10:00–10:50am
Format: Lecture, exams, term paper
GE: Arts & Humanities (AH) or Social Sciences (SS); World Cultures (WC)
What does it mean to decolonize history? This course examines the modern history of Palestine and Israel, challenging representations of the region as mired in conflict to consider how these histories have been thought about and constructed for a century. We explore Palestinian and Israeli histories in the 20th-21st centuries, including settler colonialism, nationalism, exile, refugees, sectarianism, diaspora politics, and genocide. The course consults first-hand accounts from Palestinian and Israeli archives and scholars to situate the land, its past, and its present in context.
Questions? Contact Dr. Fahrenthold at [email protected].
MSA 181B: An Introduction to Sikh Philosophy and Literature
Instructor: Dr. Kuldeep Singh
Meets: MW 1:40–3:00pm
Location: Walker Hall 1320
CRN: 40225
Units: 4
This seminar examines the philosophy and texts of Sikhi, a faith founded by Guru Nanak in the fifteenth century in Punjab, South Asia. Today, Sikhi is the fifth largest world religion. We explore the origins and development of the core teachings in Sikhi through a careful reading of the Guru Granth Sahib and many other Sikh poems, essays, and interpretations. We will also examine Sikh devotional practices, as well as its rich aesthetic traditions in music and art. We also will discuss the ethical, social, cultural, and political worldview of the Sikh community and its importance historically and in the contemporary world.
No prior knowledge of Sikhi or Punjabi is required.