HDS 3760/RELG 1060: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary
Instructor: Francis Clooney, Spring 2025 – Time: M,W – 10:30-11:45am
This course explores the female divine – and supreme female beings – along with issues of gender and divinity. We read hymns praising Hindu goddesses Sri Laksmi, the great Goddess (Maha Devi), the Tamil goddess Apirami, and Bengal’s Kali, while noting too how feminine divinity is constructed in environments where gods and goddesses both flourish. The course is also comparative, exploring the piety and cult of the Virgin Mary, also through famous hymns such as the Greek Akathistos, the Latin Stabat Mater, and a Tamil hymn praising Mary as mother of Tamil Catholics. This approach is sharpened by some attention to performative, social, visual dimensions, and by attention to contemporary feminist and theological insights, and thinking a bit about the fluidity of gender identities today. Not a survey, but an in-depth introduction. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1060.
HDS 3750 / RELG 1615: The Bhagavad Gita and Its Greatest Commentary
Instructor: Francis Clooney, Spring 2025 – Time: Tuesday .- 3:00pm-5:59pm
The Bhagavad Gita is a very Hindu classic of devotion and theology. Deep and complex, it has received extensive classical and contemporary interpretation, as to what it means, and how it affects life in any time and place. The seminar reads the Gita itself, and then interprets it according to the classic commentary of Madhusudana Sarasvati (16th century), who sought to synthesize liberative knowledge, detached action, yoga, with love of Krishna – in essence melding together Nondualist and Devotional readings of the Gita. Other approaches too will be noticed. This course is meant for students interested in closely reading a great Hindu text, honoring both its past and its present. Sanskrit useful but not required; some background knowledge of Hinduism helpful. Jointly offered in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as Religion 1615.
RELIGION 1821: Indian Ocean Islam
Instructor: Teren Sevea, Spring 2025 – Time: Monday- 3:00pm – 5:30pm
Does thinking oceanically influence the study of Islam? Can we remember a people’s history of the Indian Ocean world? This course considers these questions and others as it focuses on religious worlds within port cities and the networks of Indian Ocean Islam. The course examines how religion in port cities and islands was centered upon a plethora of saints, missionaries, divinities and other agents of Islam, who have been marginalized in academic literature on the Indian Ocean. It simultaneously examines how oceanic religion was intimately connected to economic, political and technological developments. Students will be introduced to scholarship on oceanic Islam and monsoon Islam, before they are introduced to a variety of sources on transregional Islamic networks and agents of Islam, including biographies, hagiographies, travelogues, novels, poems and ethnographic accounts. Students will, moreover, be encouraged to consider ways in which approaches to studying Islam could be enhanced by a focus on religious economies and networks, as well as the lives of ‘subalterns’ who crossed the porous borders of the Indian Ocean world and shaped its religious worlds.
LING 107: Introduction to Indo-European
Instructor: Jay Jasanoff, Spring 2025– Time – M,W – 10:30-11:45am
An introduction to the historical study of the Indo-European languages, using the comparative method to arrive at a picture of the parent language of the family, Proto-Indo-European.
MUSIC 157RW: South Indian Classical Music
Instructor: Richard Wolf, Fall 2025– Time – T, Th – 1:30-2:45pm
Analysis of south Indian classical composition and improvisational forms as performed today, as well as in the context of historical forms. Students will learn how to listen to and analyze the music through singing, reciting rhythm mnemonics, and learning to play the vina (a kind of lute). Students who so wish will also have the opportunity to play this music on instruments with which they are already familiar.
MUSIC 207R: Ethnomusicology: Seminar
Instructor: Richard Wolf, Fall 2025– Time – Thursday – 3:00-5:00pm
Music and Language. This course focuses on the practical interfaces between “music” (forms, genres, and practices) and “language” (structures, patterns, and habits of use). Over the semester students will read a diverse selection of writings from ethnomusicology, historical musicology, music theory and philosophy, linguistics, and linguistic anthropology. Readings and assignments will balance attention to theoretical treatment of music-language relations with practical exercises in listening to diverse musical and linguistic materials. Examples are drawn from different parts of the world, with an emphasis on Africa, South Asia, the Middle East, the Americas and the English-speaking world.
ANTHRO 1691: Mobility in Asia
Instructor: Ping-hsiu Alice Lin, Fall 2025– Time – Monday- 3:00-5:45pm
How does movement reshape our understanding of contemporary Asia? What happens when we shift our gaze from fixed places to flows of people, ideas, and things? In this introductory-level class in sociocultural anthropology, we explore how mobility creates new social landscapes across the region. Through anthropological methods—especially immersive fieldwork and ethnographic writing—we will examine how historical patterns of migration and present-day movements are shaped by structural dynamics of colonialism, late capitalism, labor markets, trade networks, and supply chains. Through ethnographic encounters that reveal the complexity of mobility: from maritime trade in the Indian Ocean to domestic workers in Singapore, from transnational mothers in Filipino families to Islamic networks in Southeast China, from Persian rug merchants to Japanese-Philippine solidarity trade. Through these examples, we explore how restrictive policies create new regimes of (im)mobility and forms of nationalism, while also examining the lived experiences of individuals and families involved in transnational lives. The seminar guides students through key themes including physical geography, commodity chains, religious networks, and logistics systems. At the end of the class, students will develop conceptual tools to examine the mechanics of mobility, equipping them to address the pivotal questions emerging from our increasingly interconnected world.
HIST 1966: Asia and Asians at Harvard
Instructor: Sugata Bose, Fall 2025– Time – Tuesdays- 9:45-11:45am
An exploration of relations between Asia and Euro-America during the long twentieth century through the prism of Asians and the study of Asia at Harvard. Topics and themes to include Asian visitors, faculty and students at Harvard; the University’s engagement in the shaping of policy towards Asia; and the institutionalization of Asian studies at Harvard. Students will have the opportunity to craft their own research projects.