Courses

Spring 2019

Language Courses | Core Courses | Other Courses

Language Courses:

HNDI 120/520
Elementary Hindi II
Seema Khurana, Swapna Sharma
MTWThF 10.30-11.20, MTWThF 1.30-2.20
Continuation of HNDI 110 / HNDI 510

HNDI 140/540
Intermediate Hindi II
Seema Khurana, Swapna Sharma
MTWThF 11.30-12.20
Continuation of HNDI 130/ HNDI 530. Focusing on further development of proficiency in the four language skill areas.

HNDI 142/542
Accelerated Hindi II
Swapna Sharma
TTh 4- 5.15
Continuation of HNDI 132/ HNDI 532. Development of increased proficiency in the four language skills. Focus on reading and higher language functions such as narration, description, and comparison. Reading strategies for parsing paragraph-length sentences in Hindi newspapers. Discussion of political, social, and cultural dimensions of Hindi culture as well as contemporary global issues.

HNDI 157 /557
Hindi in the Diaspora
Seema Khurana
TTh 4-5:15
An advanced language course designed to develop overall language skills through selected readings in Hindi literature and the study of popular culture in the Indian diaspora. Works by Suaham Bedi, Sunita Jain, and Umesh Agnihotri; theater, films, and other art forms; news articles and television programs related to political, social, and cultural debates. Prerequisite: HNDI 150/ HNDI 550 or permission of instructor.

HNDI 198/598
Advanced Tutorial
Seema Khurana, Swapna Sharma
For students with advanced Hindi language skills who wish to engage in concentrated reading and research on material not otherwise offered by the department. Work must be supervised by an adviser and must terminate in a term paper or the equivalent. Permission to enroll requires submission of a detailed project proposal and its approval by the language studies coordinator. Prerequisite: HNDI 150/ NHDI 550 or equivalent, and submission of a detailed project proposal and its approval by the language studies coordinator.

SKRT 120/520, LING 125/525
Introductory Sanskrit II
Aleksandar Uskokov
MTWThF 9.25-10.15
Continuation of SKRT 110, SKRT510/LING 515. Focus on the basics of Sanskrit grammar; readings from classical Sanskrit texts written in Devanagari script. After SKRT 110

SKRT 140/540, LING 148/548
Intermediate Sanskrit II
Aleksandar Uskokov
MWF 8.20-9.10
Continuation of SKRT 130/530, focusing on Sanskrit literature from the kavya genre. Readings include selections from the Jatakamala of Aryasura and the opening verses of Kalidasa’s Kumarasambhava. After SKRT 130/530 or equivalent.

SKRT 150/550
Advanced Sanskrit: Readings in Indian Philosophy and Aesthetics
Aleksandar Uskokov
F 1.30-3.20
This advanced language course introduces the jargon of the philosophical disciplines (theory of knowledge, metaphysics, philosophy of mind and language, philosophical theology, hermeneutics) and aesthetics in the several systems of learning in ancient and classical India, across the traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism. Additionally, the course introduces topics of philosophical significance in foundational texts such as the Upaniṣads, portions of the Mahābhārata and the Purāṇas, and the Buddhist sūtra literature. Special attention is given to matters of style, scholastic techniques, and advanced morphology and syntax. The course, thus, combines advanced language instruction with learning intellectual and cultural content, and it facilitates training in primary research in one of the classical languages of South Asia. Prerequisite: SKRT 140 or equivalent, or instructor permission.

Core SAS Courses

SAST 224 / HIST 396
India and Pakistan since 1947
Rohit De
TTh 1.00- 2.15
Introduction to the history of the Indian subcontinent from 1947 to the present. Focus on the emergence of modern forms of life and thought, the impact of the partition on state and society, and the challenges of democracy and development. Transformations of society, economy, and culture; state building; economic policy.

SAST 258 / RLST 133 / PHIL 223
Indian Philosophy: Beginnings and Foundations
Aleksandar Uskokov
TTh 11.35- 2.50
In this course, we introduce prominent themes that preoccupied the doctrinal communities of Ancient India—Brahmanism, Buddhism, and Jainism. These include first principles (or their absence), notions of personhood and soul (or their absence), the human good, and the means by which this human good is known. The primary objective is to survey in some depth philosophical ideas in Ancient India as they were advanced not by systematic philosophers but rather in foundational texts such as the Upaniṣads, the epics, and the Buddhist suttas. We occasionally read modern writings that attempt to engage the sources in their wider philosophical significance while keeping in mind their historical context. Knowledge of Indian languages is not required.

SAST 281 / ECON 325
Economics of Developing Countries: Focus on South Asia
Zachary Barnett-Howell
MW 9.00-10.15
Analysis of current problems of developing countries. Emphasis on the role of economic theory in informing public policies to achieve improvements in poverty and inequality, and on empirical analysis to understand markets and responses to poverty. Topics include microfinance, education, health, agriculture, intrahousehold allocations, gender, and corruption. Prerequisites: introductory microeconomics and introductory econometrics.

SAST 322
India in the Age of Revolutions (ca. 1707-1857)
Naveena Naqvi
W 1.30-3.20
In the late eighteenth century, as the French and American revolutions unfolded in continental Europe and North America, the once imposing structure of the Mughal Empire (1526 - 1857) lay shattered, replaced by numerous successor polities and corporate power brokers. These geographically discrete developments across three continents were connected through channels of warfare and commerce. This course suggests some ways by which we can place the inqalāb (revolution) that spelled the end of the Mughal Empire and the formation of early colonial rule within a broader framework of the age of revolutions. We draw from primary sources in translation and current scholarship to situate the end of the ancien régime in South Asia within a wider landscape of revolution in the political orders of Western Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

SAST 334/ HIST 363J / ER&M 433
Mobile South Asians and the Global Legal Order
Rohit De
T 9.25-11.15
South Asians make up the largest population of overseas migrants in the world, close to 33 million in 2017 and a diaspora that is almost double that number. This course looks at the unprecedented mobility of South Asians from the mid-19th century until now as merchants, indentured labor, students, pilgrims, professionals, domestic workers, political exiles, refugees, and economic migrants, through the lens of state attempts to control movement and individual resistance, subversion, and adaptation to such controls. Focusing on the legal consciousness of South Asian migrants and the emergence of South Asian nations as political players on the global stage, this class traces how South Asian mobility led to the forging of a new global order, over migration, multiculturalism, Islamic law, civil liberties, labor law, and international law.

SAST 344 / PLSC 377 / WGSS 397
Political Economy of Gender in South Asia
Sarah Khan
W 3.30-5.20p
This course focuses on the political and economic underpinnings and implications of gender inequality in South Asia. We draw on evidence from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and India to guide our theoretical and empirical inquiry into the following broad questions: What is gender, and what approaches do social scientists use to study gender inequality? How does gender inequality manifest in different social, economic, and political spheres e.g. the household, the labor market, the electorate, the government? What are the cultural and structural drivers of gender inequality? How effective are different approaches to tackling gender inequality in South Asia? Previous course work in statistical data analysis is helpful, but not required.

SAST 366 / RLST 183
The Bhagavad Gita
Hugh Flick
W 1.30-3.20
An examination of the Bhagavad Gita in its historical and religious context. Exploration of the major interpretations of this important religious text. All readings in translation.

SAST 374 / HSAR 383
Sacred Space in South Asia
Subhashini Kaligotla
MW 10.30-11.20
“Sacred” space in the Indian subcontinent was at the epicenter of human experience. This course presents Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic, and Jain monuments and the gamut of social meanings and activities associated with them. Moving from the ritual spaces of the Indus Valley Culture to nineteenth-century colonial India, we learn how the organization and imagery of these spaces supported devotional activity and piety. We learn too how temples, monasteries, and shrines supported the pursuit of pleasure, amusement, sociability, and other worldly interests. We also explore the symbiotic relationship between Indian kingship and religion, and the complex ways in which politics and court culture shaped sacred environments. The course concludes with European imaginings of Indian religion and religious places.

SAST 440 / PLSC 424 / AFAM 195
Gandhi, King, and the Politics of Nonviolence
Karuna Mantena
MW 10.30-11.20
A study of the theory and practice of nonviolent political action, as proposed and practiced by M. K. Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr.  The origins of nonviolence in Gandhian politics and the Indian independence movement; Gandhian influences on the Civil Rights movement; King’s development of nonviolent politics; the legacies and lessons for nonviolent politics today.

SAST 461 / WGSS 355
Gender, Development, and Technology
Inderpal Grewal, Deepti Chatti
W 3.30-5.20
Will technology lift all boats? Can it help address global inequalities and solve social and environmental problems? From solar power in Puerto Rico, to biometric ID cards believed to efficiently deliver welfare, to new cookstoves in India that promise to help women, how is technology imagined to furthering the project of ‘development’ that is often seen as synonymous with progress and economic growth? This course surveys a wide range of perspectives, histories, and dilemmas with the goal of understanding how to think of ‘development’ and ‘technology for development’ as subjects of study. We examine the gendered targets of development projects, as well as those who create and imagine these projects. We are especially interested in examining relations between development and economy, development and politics, development and technology. In addition to examining gender (often understood to mean just women) as a key aspect of development, this course uses a critical feminist lens to explore a range of issues, including discourses and practices of development within struggles over power, history and culture, the relation between development projects of today in relation to colonial projects and ideologies of ‘improvement’ and ‘the civilizing mission’ that were built on particularly racialized, sexualized, and gendered ideas. We also consider how the issue of gender and development has changed over time to include questions of gay rights, disability, and protections for children. In this way, we explore how ‘macro’ agendas have shaped the lives of millions of men and women living across the globe.

SAST 486
Directed Study
Harry Blair
TBA
A one-credit, single-term course on topics not covered in regular offerings. To apply for admission, a student should present a course description and syllabus to the director of undergraduate studies, along with written approval from the faculty member who will direct the study.

SAST 492
Senior Essay
Harry Blair
TBA
A yearlong research project completed under faculty supervision and resulting in a substantial paper.

SAST 838 / HSAR 838
Arts of the Contact Zone
Subhashini Kaligotla
Th 1.30-3.30
Taking India and South Asia as the pivot of our explorations, this graduate seminar engages major scholarly approaches to the heterogeneous arts and cultures of the contact zone, a cultural sphere constituted by recourse to a plurality of visual styles, linguistic universes, religious systems, and political languages. We unpack, theoretically and methodologically, concepts such as cosmopolitanism, hybridity, transregionalism, mobility, globalism, and the intercultural. Our explorations encompass the visual productions of the Mauryan court, ancient Gandhara, the Delhi and Deccan sultanates, and both Sanskrit and Persian cosmopolises in South Asia. Weekly readings and discussions take a critical, in-depth look at one work that has had a far-reaching impact on writing the entangled histories of these contact zones. We read scholars writing from within the discipline of art and architectural history, and those grounded in history, the history of religion, literary studies, landscape studies, and subaltern and postcolonial studies. Our goal is to evaluate the distinctive contribution of each work by examining its theoretical premises and choices, its methods and evidence, the structure of its arguments, as well as its limitations and blind spots. Students are expected to lead at least one discussion and submit a final research paper.

Other Related Courses

AFAM 476 / AMST 476 / HUMS 448 / WGSS 480
Race & Caste
Hazel Carby, Inderpal Grewal
T 1.30-3.20
The seminar, as an interdisciplinary course in cultural studies, puts into conversation the fields of African American studies; South Asian Studies; Ethnicity, Race & Migration Studies; and Women’s Gender and Sexuality Studies. It draws from the social sciences, sciences, and humanities. Ideas of race and caste and the social practices that have evolved from these forms of differentiation are seen as disconnected, belonging to divergent spaces and times. This course examines how race and caste are intimately related and, indeed, co-constitutive within British colonial and imperial regimes of power. Drawing on examples from the Caribbean, India, North America, South Africa, and the UK, we examine the production of knowledge and systems of classification through political theory, political economy, representational practices, and the history of science. The course focuses on the consequences of economic, political, and social differentiation not only in terms of oppression and exploitation, but also through understanding how race and caste have been foundations for mobilizing and organizing for rights, resistance, and liberation.

AFAM 752 / HSHM 761 / HIST 937
Medicine and Empire
Carolyn Roberts
M 1.30-3.20
A reading course that explores medicine in the context of early modern empires with a focus on Africa, India, and the Americas. Topics include race, gender, and the body; medicine and the environment; itineraries of scientific knowledge; enslaved, indigenous, and creole medical and botanical knowledge and practice; colonial contests over medical authority and power; indigenous and enslaved epistemologies of the natural world; medicine and religion.

GLBL 930
GSE India: Global Social Entrepreneurship
Tony Sheldon
W 2.40-5.40
Launched in 2008 at the Yale School of Management, the Global Social Entrepreneurship (GSE) course links teams of Yale students with social enterprises based in India. GSE is committed to channeling the skills of Yale students to help Indian organizations expand their reach and impact on “bottom of the pyramid” communities. Yale students’ partner with mission-driven social entrepreneurs (SEs) to focus on a specific management challenge that the student/SE teams work together to address during the term. GSE has worked with thirty leading and emerging Indian social enterprises engaged in economic development, sustainable energy, women’s empowerment, education, environmental conservation, and affordable housing. The course covers both theoretical and practical issues, including case studies and discussions on social enterprise, developing a theory of change and related social metrics, financing social businesses, the role of civil society in India, framing a consulting engagement, managing team dynamics, etc. Enrollment is by application only. Also, MGT 529.

HUMS 291
Tibet: An Enduring Civilization
Charles Hill
W 9.25-11.15
To describe, gather, and interpret the unique ethnic, religious, and cultural attributes of Tibet, its distinctive place in world imagination, and international power politics. Tibet is assessed as an enduring civilization as well as an example of methodologies for the study of other non-state entities. Now part of the People’s Republic of China, as a formally autonomous region (Xizang Zizhou), and undergoing extensive change from a large influx of Han peoples and the political doctrines of the PRC’s central regime, Tibetans are once again feel their culture and religion are objects of outside interests and rivalries that date back to China’s T’ang dynasty, the Qing (Manchu) move westward, and in the nineteenth century the “Great Game” between Tsarist Russian and the British Raj. Tibet’s international status has swung back and forth between Chinese suzerainty, the 1914 recognition of Tibetan independence, the 1951 Tibetan capitulation to China, and today’s Tibet “government-in-exile” at Dharamsala, India. Particular focus on the Tibetan Book of the Dead and the canon of “great books” of Asia.

RLST 375
Hindu Nationalism
Supriya Gandhi
MW 11.35-12.50
This course analyzes the development of Hindu nationalism from the nineteenth to the twenty-first centuries. Students interrogate the emergence of Hinduism as a religion, before exploring the reform and revivalist movements in the nineteenth century that paved the way for the articulation of Hindu nationalism. Students also read from key writings of several Hindu nationalist thinkers of the twentieth century and investigate the historical and social contexts leading to the emergence of Hindu nationalism as a major political force. Topics include: colonialism, modernity, the idea of Hinduism, nationalist ideologies, gender, and religious violence.