Courses

For information about placement exams, contact the program coordinator.

Language Courses

PERS 0390: Persian for Heritage Speakers

Semester: Fall
Prerequisite: Proficiency in Persian (Farsi or Dari) without literacy

Persian for Heritage Speakers is conducted in Persian and designed to help you strengthen your skills by learning not only to read and write, but also to engage in more complex forms of discourse in Persian. In this course, we will begin to address a variety of topics in order to increase your proficiency in linguistic as well as cultural terms. Emphasis is placed on actively using the language for interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes of communication. Therefore, English is restricted. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are integrated into the course, as are culture, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Note: Students can complete the language requirement by taking PERS 017 in the fall and PERS 014 in the spring.

Taught by: Entezari

 

PERS 0100: Elementary Persian I

Semester: Fall
Prerequistie: None

Elementary Persian I is an introductory-level course designed to help you start learning Persian and to give you the necessary tools to continue your study of Persian. This course introduces the Persian alphabet alongside grammar and vocabulary. Emphasis is placed on actively using the language for interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication. The four language skills (i.e., listening, speaking, reading, and writing) as well as pronunciation and culture are integrated into the curriculum.

Taught by: Entezari

 

PERS 0200: Elementary Persian II

Semester: Spring
Prerequisite: PERS 0100 or equivalent with placecement exam

Emphasis is placed on using the language for interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational modes of communication. Therefore use of English is restricted. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing—as well as culture, vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation—are integrated into the course.

Taught by: Entezari

 

PERS 0300: Intermediate Persian I

Semester: Fall
Prerequisite: PERS 0200 or equivalent with placement exam

In this course, we will begin to address a broader variety of topics in order to increase your proficiency in linguistic as well as cultural terms. Emphasis is placed on actively using the language for interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes of communication. Therefore use of English is restricted.

Taught by: Entezari

 

PERS 0400: Intermediate Persian II

Semester: Spring
Prerequisite: PERS 0300 or PERS 0390 or equivalent with placement exam

In this course, we will continue to address a broader variety of topics in order to increase your proficiency in linguistic as well as cultural terms. Emphasis is placed on actively using Persian for interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes of communication. Therefore the use of English is restricted. Listening, speaking, reading, and writing are integrated into the course, as are culture, grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation.

Taught by: Entezari

 

PERS 2000: Advanced Persian I: Modern Persian Press and Literature

Semester: Fall
Prerequisite: PERS 0400 or equivalent with placement exam

This course is for undergraduate and graduate students who have successfully completed Intermediate Persian II or taken the placement exam. It teaches students the monāzereh (debate) skills in Persian academic settings by focusing on short press commentaries and literary excerpts. Students will improve their translation skills by working on primary modern Persian poetry and short stories as well as original press excerpts of the most well-known newspapers and magazines of modern Iran. The course is designed to improve students’ skills in comprehending, reading, and translating formal, written Persian.

Taught by: Shams

 

PERS 2100: Advanced Persian II: Music, Media, and Film

Prerequisite: PERS 2000
Semester: Spring

This advanced Persian content course is a highly interactive, media-based seminar for students who have successfully completed Advanced Persian I (PERS 2000). Throughout this course, students will dive deep into the history of Persian media, music, and cinema by reading secondary sources in Persian about their inception and evolution, as well as close reading and analysis of the movies and media productions in Persian. The course is designed to improve students’ ability to understand and practice everyday conversations and spoken Persian used in Persian social media platforms, movies, broadcasting service.

Taught by: Shams

Content Courses Taught in English

NELC 0700: Iranian Cinema: Gender, Politics, and Religion

Language of Instruction: English
Instructor: Entezari
Also Offered As: CIMS 0700, COML 0700, GSWS 0700, NELC 5700
Spring

Iranian cinema is world-renowned not only because of its unique aesthetics, but also for its social commentary. In this course we explore various topics related to gender, politics, and religion in Iranian society through the medium of film. We watch acclaimed Iranian films made before and after the 1979 revolution, as well as a few films made outside of Iran. In order to be able to analyze the films’ aesthetics, students learn basic cinema studies terminology. So as to be able to situate the films within their historical contexts, students learn about gender, politics, and religion in Iran, as well as about the history of Iranian cinema. Additionally, we treat other topics such as censorship, transnational film production, and the representation of women and minorities. Note: No prior knowledge about Iran or cinema is necessary. All films are subtitled in English.

 

NELC 1700: Introduction to Persian Poetic Tradition

Language of Instruction: English
Instructor: Shams
Spring

This course introduces some of the major genres and themes of the millennium-old Persian poetic tradition from ancient to modern Iran. Epic and romance, love and mysticism, wine and drunkenness, wisdom and madness, body and mind, sin and temptation are some of the key themes that will be explored through a close reading of poems in this course.The course suits undergraduate students of all disciplines, as it requires no prior knowledge of or familiarity with the Persian language or the canon of Persian literature. All teaching materials are available in English translation. Students are expected to attend seminars and take part in discussions

 

NELC 2040: Ancient Iranian Empire

Language of Instruction: English
Also Offered As: ANCH 1103, RELS 2040
Not Offered Every Year

Iran – as a landmass and a political entity – was central to the ancient world in a variety of ways. Ancient Iranian Empires were of central importance to – and centrally located in – the ancient world. It was the successor kingdom to the Assyrians and Babylonians; the power against which Greece and Rome defined themselves; and the crucible in which various communities and models of rule developed. This course offers a survey of the history of the ancient Persianate world, focusing in particular on the political and imperial entities that rose to power, the cultural, political, mercantile, and other contacts they shared with their neighbors to the East and West, and the communities and religious groups that arose and flourished within their lands. Ancient Iranian empires rivaled the Greek and Roman Empires to their West, and the central and eastern Asian Empires to their east, and the ongoing history of diplomacy, cultural contact, and war between these regions was formative to each and to the ancient world as a whole. Iran was home to and similarly formative for a variety of religions, including Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Manichaeism, and Islam, and a central question Ancient Iranian political powers sought to address was how to negotiate and address the variety of populations under their control. The course will conclude by studying how, rather than a simplistic story of decline, the strategies, policies, institutions, and memory of the Iranian Empires continued to shape early Islam, medieval imagination, and modern political regimes.

 

NELC 2050: Art of Ancient Iran

Language of Instruction: English
Also Offered As: ARTH 2220
Not Offered Every Year

This lecture course offers a survey of ancient Iranian art and culture from the painted pottery cultures of the Neolithic era to the monuments of the Persian Empire.

 

NELC 2400 Faces of Love: Gender, Sexuality and the Erotic in Persian Literature

Language of Instruction: English
Instructor: Shams
Also Offered As: COML 2400, GSWS 2402, NELC 6310
Fall

Beloved, Lover and Love are three concepts that dominate the semantic field of eroticism in Persian literature and mysticism. The interrelation among these concepts makes it almost impossible to treat any one of the concepts separately. Moreover, there exists various faces and shades of love in the works of classical and modern Persian literature that challenges the conventional heteronormative assumptions about the sexual and romantic relationships between the lover and the beloved. A sharp contrast exists between the treatment of homosexuality and ‘queerness’ in Islamic law, on the one hand and its reflection in Persian literature, particularly poetry (the chief vehicle of Persian literary expression), on the other. This course introduces and explores different faces of love, eroticism and homoeroticism in the Persian literary tradition from the dawn of dawn of the Persian poetry in the ninth century all through to the twenty-first century. It offers a comprehensive study of representations and productions of heteronormativity, sexual orientation and gender roles with particular reference to the notion of love, lover and beloved in Persian literature.

 

NELC 2566 Israel and Iran: Historical Ties, Contemporary Challenges

Language of Instruction: English
Also Offered As: HIST 2352
Fall or Spring

Israel and Iran have longstanding ties and connections that predate the contemporary feuds in which they are currently engaged. Iranian Jews rank as some of the oldest communities of the Middle East, and their history dovetails with the ancient Iranian past. This course will explore the historical roots of Jewish communities in Iran, with a focus on the post-18th century period, and will end with conversations that contributed to the diplomatic impasses faced by both countries since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Films, novels, memoirs, and other historical accounts will be incorporated alongside secondary works to give students an opportunity to consider the complexities of this relationship.

 

NELC 2705 Media and Culture in Contemporary Iran

Language of Instruction: English
Instructor: Shams
Also Offered As: CIMS 2705, GSWS 2705, RELS 2180, NELC 6700
Not Offered Every Year

This course offers a comprehensive introduction to the culture and media of modern Iran, with a critical perspective on issues such as identity formation, ethnicity, race, and nation-building. It focuses on how these issues relate to various aspects of modern Iranian culture — such as religion, gender, sexuality, war, and migration — through the lens of media, cinema, and literature.