Arabic Studies Blog

Posted on March 20th, 2024 in Announcements, Blog, Courses by Lizeth Quinones

Fall 2024

  1. NELC- A131 — Beginning Arabic I (4 credits) WEB with Ayman Elbarbary
  2. NELC- A200 — Intermediate Arabic I (3 credits) WEB with Ayman Elbarbary
  3. NELC and ANTH 397 — Peoples & Cultures of the Middle East (3 credits) WEB with Edward Curtis: What do soccer, sex, and Sufism have to do with one another? Find out in this new second eight-week course on the anthropology of the Middle East. You will study everyday life in the region–cars in Qatar, LGBTQ sexuality, youth culture in Gaza, birth control, YouTube, organ donation, television preachers, comedy, girls’ K-12 education–to understand larger patterns in kinship, gender, culture, and society.
  4. HIST 325 — Modern Middle East (3 credits), via IU online, with Edward Curtis: History from 1800 until present.

Spring 2025

  1. NELC-A 132 — Beginning Arabic II (4 credits) with Ayman ElBarbary, online.
  2. AMST / NELC / REL 261 — Intro to Arab American Studies (3 credits) with Edward Curtis, T/H 10;30-11-45: Gain valuable, practical, and real-life experience working with Indianapolis’ Arab American community to reduce discrimination and violence against Arab Americans. You will first study the history and the contemporary lives of Arab Americans in Indiana and the United States–from immigrants in the late 1800s to the contributions of contemporary Arab Hoosiers to medicine,  politics, education, and literature. You will also learn about the racism that they have faced. Then, you will work with the Indiana chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, trying to address the problem of anti-Arab bias and apply what you have learned in the classroom to a real-world setting. Instead of only taking knowledge from Arab American communities, this class models what it means to give back as you prepare yourself for life and work after graduation.
  3. REL 257 — Intro to Islam (3 credits) with Edward Curtis, online asynchronous: history of the rise of Islam in the seventh century, the Prophet Muhammad, the Sharia, Sufism, and pillars of faith and practice, among other topics.