The Islamic Studies Program maintains a master list of courses which feature Islam-related material that are typically offered on the IU Bloomington campus, and we also provide information about language instruction courses for languages of the Muslim world.
Current course offerings featuring content related to Islam, Islamic Studies, and the Muslim world are below.
Courses listed may be put toward the Islamic Studies Certificate and fulfill FLAS area studies course requirements for Islamic Studies FLAS Fellows. Other courses not listed here can also fulfill certificate and FLAS requirements and are evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Please contact the Associate Director with questions.
Spring 2025
TuTh 9:35AM-10:50AM
3 credits
Course description:This course will provide a comprehensive overview of modern and contemporary Arab art. We will start with art production from the early 20th century, which will involve the artistic responses to experiences of colonization and independence, and we will continue with the study of contemporary art practices from the late 20th century and the 21st century, which involve a context of postcolonialism and globalization. Thus, the aim of the course is to connect modern and contemporary Arab art to major political, social and economic events in the Middle East and North Africa, including the Nakba (Palestinian exodus), the formation of an Arab aesthetic identity, the artistic reactions to 9/11, the War on Terror, the Arab Spring, the civil war in Syria or the cultural impact of oil wealth in the Gulf region.
MeetsCOLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit.
MW 12:45 PM–2:00 PM
3 credits
Course description: This course will examine the cities of Western Europe and the Islamic and Byzantine worlds from the perspective of the institutions of the city, and the art and architecture they generated, including house, fortifications, churches, town halls, guild halls, and markets. Medieval representations of the city will also be explored.
Meets COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit.
MW 9:10 AM–10:00 AM
3 credits
Coursedescription: Eurasia, from China and Russia to Iran and Turkey, is a field of contest over oil, resources, trade, and the role of Islam. Authoritarian oil-producing states (such as Iran, Russia, and Kazakhstan) compete geopolitically for influence over neighboring countries, while China uses economic might through its Belt and Road program. In this class we examine global currents such as Islamism and post-Cold War rivalries and their connections to energy, international trade, and security, as they impact countries of Central Eurasia, such as Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. Lecture with discussion sections.
Meets IUB GenEd S&H and COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credits.
TuTH 12:45PM-2:00PM
3 credits
Course description: Inner Asia is the large area in between the great empires of antiquity; Rome, Greece, Arabia, Persia, India, and China. Precisely because of its "in between" location Inner Asia has been the place where all of those cultures and peoples met, usually due either to wars or business opportunities. The major east-west trade routes (the so-called Silk Roads) also ran right through Inner Asia, and that route was the reason that important trade cities flourished across the region. And wherever merchants went their religions followed, and so Inner Asia became over time the home to different religions, from Zoroastrianism to Manichaeism, Judaism, Islam, Christianity, and Buddhism. This class explores the histories of those religions in their Inner Asian settings across time. Through the readings we will discover that the unique environment of Inner Asia played an important role in how and why those religions flourished in Inner Asia, and how that long history has shaped the values of people who live there today.
Meets COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry and COLL (CASE) Culture Studies: Global Civ & Culture credits.
MW 2:20 PM–3:35 PM
3 credits
Course description: Introduction to the Turkic and Iranian peoples of Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, and Central Asia. Introduces languages, literatures, and cultures; covers histories, religions, societies, trade, from past to present. No prior knowledge required.
Meets IUB GenEd S&H, IUB GenEd World Culture, COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry, and COLL (CASE) Culture Studies: Global Civ & Culture credits.
TuTh 12:45PM-2:00PM
3 credits
Course description:Was the Soviet Union the inventor of nations? The prison of nations? How did Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan take shape as states? Addressing topics from Communist economic planning to nuclear testing, and from socialist language and nationalities policies to repression and revival of Islam, we examine the Soviet experiment and the Central Asian states that emerged from the USSR¿s collapse. Lecture and discussion.
This course is designed at the 300/500 level, and requires substantial reading and writing. There are no specific prereqs, but some prior coursework in History, International Studies, or Central Eurasian Studies will be helpful.
Course description: JEWS OF THE MUSLIM EAST surveys the fascinating history and culture of Jews in the Muslim world east of the boundaries of the Ottoman Empire. The course covers the regions of Central Asia, Iran, and Afghanistan under pre-Muslim, Muslim, Russian, and Soviet rule. We explore culture and religion; Jewish practice, thought, and interaction with their Muslim neighbors; legal standing; and language, including the Jewish tendency for multilingualism and the formation of the Jews' own unique language.
The themes that will accompany our discussions and assignments throughout the course include exile and displacement, but also preservation; religious survival or collapse; the status of minority communities; tensions over presentation and commemoration, and life in the diaspora.
No textbooks are needed. All readings and other materials will be available on Canvas.
Meets COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit.
MW 2:20 PM–3:20 PM
3 credits
Course description: This undergraduate/graduate course explores Palestine and Palestinian life through the lens of of popular culture and mass media. This course proceeds from the idea that popular culture and media are foundational platforms for understanding Palestinian history, culture, and politics. Through our course readings, lectures, discussions, and various written assignments students will confront the many ways in which popular culture has had a formative and foundational impact upon conceptions of identity in Palestine, and on the ways in which Palestine and Palestinians are interpreted from a global perspective. Our readings will build upon fundamental anthropological understandings of social groups, the linkages of culture and agency, and the various forms of power and resistance articulated through expressive, performative, and media culture.
Meets COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry and COLL (CASE) Culture Studies: Global Civ & Culture credits.
MW 9:35AM-10:50AM
3 credits
Course description:This course offers a critical introduction to the effects of religious belief, behavior, and institutions on political processes and public policy. We will focus on competing conceptions of what it means in practice that modern, liberal societies are secular, meaning that the state is understood to maintain a position of neutrality regarding the religious beliefs and practices of citizens. We aim to understand how controversies arise in this light if and when religion serves as an alternative source of public legitimacy in contemporary societies, liberal democracies in particular. We will proceed in three units, which taken together will offer a comparative lens on the ways such controversies present themselves in (i) the United States; (ii) the United Kingdom and Commonwealth nations and (iii) the MENA region, including Egypt, Israel, and Turkey. In this way, we hope to apprehend to what extent the differences we will find are based on the ways the political systems of these societies practice secularism, and to what extent they are the effect of the religious institutions and practices of different faith communities in these societies--in particular the interreligious relations among the three Abrahamic faiths: Christianity; Islam; and Judaism.
Meets IUB GenEd S&H credit and COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit.
TuTh 4:20 PM–5:10 PM 3 credits
Class description: This introductory class explores Islam, Christianity, and Judaism through three major themes: scripture, religion and the state, and gender. It will consider traditional and contemporary issues, such as: What texts do these traditions share, which ones are distinctive to each tradition, and how do religious people read those texts? What do people mean when they talk about Islamic "sharia law," whether or not America is a "Christian nation," or the modern state of Israel as a "Jewish state"? Why can some Christian ministers marry while others are celibate? Why do some Muslim women cover their heads or faces? Why do men and women sit apart in some synagogues?
Meets IUB GenEd A&H, IUB GenEd World Culture, COLL (CASE) A&H Breadth of Inquiry, and COLL (CASE) Culture Studies: Global Civ & Culture credits.
