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2006– 2007 Freshman Seminars taught by faculty in the
Department of Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations

*Freshman Seminar 32j. Who Is a Jew? Jewish Identity and Identifiability in the Modern World
Catalog Number: 6991 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Shaye J.D. Cohen
Half course (fall term). Th., 1–3.
Studies diverse modes of Jewishness, their historical origins and their contemporary manifestations, in an attempt to answer above question. Focus on Jews and Jewishness in United States; considers relevant issues in Israel. Investigates ethnic Jews, cultural Jews, offspring of intermarriage, apostates, converts, Black Jews of Ethiopia, and other categories that challenge standard definitions of Jewishness. Notes problem of Jewish identity in the American context closely parallels the identity problems of other hyphenated American groups.
Note: Open to Freshmen only.

*Freshman Seminar 36w. Tribal Memories: Myth, Epic, and History
Catalog Number: 7842 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
P. Oktor Skjaervo
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Investigates the oral traditions of the ancient Iranians in perspective of those of the Indians, Greeks, and Norsemen. Studies each culture's beliefs concerning the history of the world from its creation. Relationship among history, myth, and epic in ancient oral traditions. How can myths and traditions provide historical information? Compares and contrasts the historical figure of Zarathustra in the "historical" traditions of the Middle East with Zarathustra as a Western scholarly myth.
Note: Open to Freshmen only.

*Freshman Seminar 37y. Muslim Voices in Contemporary World Literatures
Catalog Number: 8901 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Ali S. Asani
Half course (spring term). W., 4–6:30.
Investigates contemporary experiences of being Muslim in different societies as reflected in literature. Explores range of issues facing Muslim communities in various parts of the world through short stories, novels, and poems. Examines impact of colonialism, nationalism, and globalization; politicization of Islam; status of women and gender relations; attitudes towards the West and Western culture; interaction between religion, race, and ethnicity; search for an "authentic" modern Islamic identity. Readings of Muslim authors from five continents.
Note: Open to Freshmen only.

*Freshman Seminar 38g. Lost Languages and Decipherment
Catalog Number: 2671 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
John Huehnergard
Half course (fall term). Th., 3–5.
Hieroglyphs. Cuneiform. The Phoenician alphabet. Examines several decipherments: how scripts have been deciphered, languages decoded, ancient texts and literatures read once again, and cultures brought back to life. Why must so many scripts be deciphered-why have so many scripts and languages died out so completely that they have been forgotten? Why have some scripts such as Etruscan, the Indus Valley script, and the Rongorongo script of Easter Island not yet been deciphered?
Note: Open to Freshmen only.

*Freshman Seminar 38p. The Idea of a University
Catalog Number: 1291 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Jay M. Harris
Half course (fall term). M., 2–4.
Examines emergence of variegated ideas of the university and the implementation of these ideas in specific social contexts. Studies first European universities in the 12th century, their structure, and what and whom they included and they excluded. Examines rise of modern research university. Explores debates surrounding universities including the relationship between knowledge and moral improvement. Focuses on relationship of ideas of the university and the social and political structures that both support and oppose them.
Note: Open to Freshmen only.

*Freshman Seminar 39k. Literature Humanities: The Foundation Texts of the West
Catalog Number: 0796 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
James R. Russell
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
Considers the epics, plays, dialogues, and treatises of Homer, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Virgil, and Apuleius, as well as the Bhagavad Gita, the Gathas of Zarathustra, and the Bible. An intensive encounter with the mainstay of our civilization and the primary great reflections on all aspects of the human condition.
Note: Open to Freshmen only.

*Freshman Seminar 39n. Literature Humanities: Medieval and Modern Classics
Catalog Number: 1329 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
James R. Russell
Half course (spring term). Hours to be arranged.
Explores autobiographies, novels, essays, and plays by St. Augustine, Al Ghazali, Dante, Montaigne, Shakespeare, Goethe, Jane Austen, Herman Melville, Dostoyevsky, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and Mikhail Bulgakov-essential meditations on the human condition in the developed literature of the West. The reading list is demanding.
Note: Open to Freshmen only.

*Freshman Seminar 45v. Cemetery as History: Jewish Burial Places and Their Christian Context in Europe and North America - (New Course)
Catalog Number: 4290 Enrollment: Limited to 12.
Rachel L. Greenblatt
Half course (fall term). Hours to be arranged.
In cemeteries, living visitors remember and relate to dead family and friends, martyrs and heroes. These relationships and modes of memory vary from place to place and have changed over time. Examines medieval and modern Jewish cemeteries like the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague and at Ouderkerk, just outside Amsterdam, first modern Christian cemeteries in France and Germany, and cemeteries in US. Visits to cemeteries and memorials on campus, in Cambridge, and in surrounding areas.
Note: Open to Freshmen only. Additional field trips may be scheduled.