MUSLIMS AND JEWS

SPANISH 490

Drawing mainly from early modern Spanish and Colonial texts, covers encounters and relations with different forms of "otherness". Move from America to Spain and across the Mediterranean world to Istanbul, from the late 15th century to the 17th. Discuss issues of race, ethnicity, and religious affiliation. Spain's long history of relations between Muslims, Jews and Christians will form a backdrop to interactions with Amerindians, sub-Saharan Africans, Jews, Moriscos, Gypsies, North African Muslims and Turks. One of the millions of slaves during this period was Miguel de Cervantes, author of Don Quixote. He and many other writers would reflect profoundly on questions of "otherness" in works that would have universal implications and continue to connect with our concerns in the 21st century.

AFRICAN/RELIGST 414

Explore African Muslim communities and Black Muslim communities in the US as an under-examined archive of Islamic authenticity and authority. Involves close readings of ethnographies, fiction, films, and other forms of cultural expression and examination of the practice of Islam and representation of Muslims in Africa and Muslims of African ancestry in the US. Through both primary and secondary sources, explore themes of not just authenticity and authority but also related issues of representation, positionality, difference, otherness, essentialism, and normativity. Ultimately, form a deeper understanding of the diversity and complexity of Islam and Muslims of African ancestry.

JEWISH 225

Takes a comparative look at the multiple intersections between Jewish history and histories of racism. Covers relevant case studies ranging from the Bible to the present, in order to analyze the long, global trajectory that has shaped issues of race and racial inequality in the United States and beyond. Topics include the so-called "curse of Ham"; the role of "the Jew" in medieval Christian theology; the demonization of Jews and Muslims during the Crusades; the interaction between Jews, European colonialism, and transatlantic slavery; nineteenth-century debates about "Semites"; the racialization of Jews during the Holocaust; the role of race and racism in the development of Zionism and the history of the Palestinian Nakba; debates about Black-Jewish relations in the United States; the question of Jews and whiteness; as well as historical encounters between Jews and Native Americans.

HISTORY/MEDIEVAL/RELIGST 309

An examination of the Crusades from both Christian and Islamic perspectives; the historical, social, and religious context and significance of the Crusades for both Christians and Muslims.

HISTORY/JEWISH 518

A critical review of major theories of anti-Semitism and a history of modern anti-Semitism.