HSAR 306/SAST 274
Art and the British Empire
Timothy Barringer
The visual culture of the British Empire on four continents, with reference to themes such as exploration, conquest, slavery, orientalism, commerce, and settlement. Focus on questions of race and representation. Study of original paintings, works on paper, and photographs in the Yale Center for British Art.
HSAR 728a/ SAST 460
Craft in Colonial and Independent India
Edward Cooke, Jr
This seminar focuses upon South Asian craftsmen and their products from the eighteenth century to the present. Looking closely at materials, techniques, forms, and decoration and paying attention to the training of craftsmen and the function and circulation of their work, the course probes the full complexity of textiles, metalwork, ceramics, and woodworking in regard to issues of colonialism, hybridity, and control of work.
HUM418/RLST130/SAST367
Asian Classics: Indian, China and Japan
Phyllis Granoff
Introduction to literary works that shaped the great civilizations of Asia. Focus on traditional literature from India, China, and Japan. Readings range from religious and philosophical texts to literature of the court, poetry, drama, and epics.
SAST 220/HIST 311
Women in Modern India
Rochisha Narayan
This course maps a history of women and the public sphere in modern India, from eighteenth century to the present. Topics include social reforms, education, participation in national movements, partition and its impact on women’s bodies, caste, class, law, popular cultures, sexuality and development of women’s organizations and movements.
SAST 237
South Asia and the Gulf
Sana Haroon
Study of the seas around South Asia has been well defined in the field of Indian Ocean studies. This course focuses on South Asia and the Arabian Gulf as a sub-region within the wider Indian Ocean world, charted by the processes of trade and human migration. The arrival of the British in the sub-continent and the efforts of the Government of India to control and secure sea-routes through the Arabian Sea brought the Arabian Gulf into the colonial administrative system of the British Empire as a ‘frontier of the British Raj’. Our enquiry traces the rise of the modern Arab Gulf states within a system of imperial, cultural and economic relations with South Asia from the 1700s into the 20th century.
ENGL343 /SAST 371
Postcolonial Studies
Shital Pravinchandra
Introduction to key writers, literary works, concepts, and issues in the field of postcolonial studies. Questions include what is meant by the term “postcolonial” and to whom it can be applied; the cultural, psychological, and political consequences of colonization; and opinions of non-Western writers about our current cultural times and the historical processes that shaped them.
HSAR 266 SAST 266
Introduction to Islamic Architecture
Kishwar Rizvi
This course is an introduction to the theory and practice of architecture in the Islamic world, starting from the early foundational years in the 7th century and continuing up until the present. Cities and monuments from India to North Africa are studied within their social and historical contexts. Supplemented by a guided tour to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to view the Islamic collection as well as collections in the YUAG.
HSAR 383A/ SAST 256A
The Art of India, c. 300 BC-1650 AD
Tamara L. Sears
Introduction to the art and architectural history of the Indian subcontinent between c. 300 BC and 1650 AD. The course traces the development of early Buddhist and Jain art, the development of Hindu temples and icons, and the efflorescence of Islamic visual culture under the Mughal Empire.
HSAR/ SAST 370
Visualizing Stories and Picturing Epics in Southern Asia
Tamara L. Sears
Taking storytelling as its central theme, this seminar examines the many ways in which India’s epic and narrative traditions became visualized in various media. Through a series of case studies drawn from Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain traditions, it looks at how stories both transformed, and became transformed by, artistic renderings, which often followed non-linear patterns and visual logics that functioned differently from textual telling.
HIST 310/ SAST 220
History of Modern South Asia
Juned Shaikh
Survey of the Indian subcontinents history from colonial rule, through nationalist resistance, to postcolonial history. Topics include the establishment of British dominion; colonial transformation of Indian politics, society, economy, and culture; nationalism before and after Gandhi; the partition of India; and recent developments in South Asia.
ANTH276/SAST 219
Contemporary South Asia
Sara Shneiderman
Study of a series of texts that introduce anthropological and critical approaches to South Asia’s peoples and cultures while questioning the historical and political possibility of understanding such a diverse region.
ANTH322/EVST 322/SAST306
Environment, History and Society in India
K. Sivaramakrishnan
The course is intended as a systematic discussion and analysis of the most important environmental conflicts and concerns as they arise in modern India from the mid-nineteenth century and leading into present times. It will consider environmental history and ideas about nature while examining the social effects of environmental change as well as the environmental consequences of modern state formation and social transformations in India. Through cases dealing with forests, agriculture, wildlife, marine resources, and urban ecology, the course will engage abiding questions around environment and development, nature and nation-building, environmental law and justice, green politics, relations between city and country, and the relationship between social stratification and environmental policies and outcomes.
PLSC351/SAST 243
Democracy in South Asia
Tariq Thachil
Study of the development and difficulties of democratic politics in South Asia. Topics covered will include colonial legacies for democracy, the evolution of caste politics, the effects of a growing middle class, as well as the nature of prominent social movements ethnic conflict in structuring political life.
PLSC461/SAST242
India and Pakistan: democracy, conflict and development
Steven Wilkinson
This course introduces students to the important countries of India and Pakistan, and also offers an opportunity to explore the issue of why these two countries, which emerged from the same state in 1947, have had such different experiences since then, in terms of their success with democracy, in moderating ethnic and religious conflicts, and in their levels of stability and economic development.