Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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- African American & Black Diaspora Studies
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CAS XL 327: Immigrant Women in Literature: Found in Translation'
This course explores literature about migration created by women primarily from Eastern Europe. We read autobiographical narratives that focus on the shaping of transcultural identity with an eye to the problem of translation as a linguistic, cultural, and personal phenomenon. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness, Critical Thinking. -
CAS XL 332: Introduction History, Humanities, and Social Sciences Research in the Digital Age: Tools and Methods
Course 1 in two-semester-sequence (Fall: HI 332/XL 332; Spring: HI 333). Introduces principles and tools of digital research in history, the humanities, and social sciences. Through project-based learning, students combine skills in digital literacy, media creation, humanistic and social sciences inquiry. Effective Fall 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Research and Information Literacy, Social Inquiry I. -
CAS XL 335: Around the World in 40 Fairy Tales
Undergraduate prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or 120), or equivalent. - Traces how fairy tales influence each other within and across cultures and time periods and are adapted to changing socio-historical contexts. Students consider and write about a range of interpretational approaches and renderings in literature, the arts, and media. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Social Inquiry I, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 341: Medieval Travel Writing and the Muslim World
Undergraduate prerequisites: CASWR 120 or 150. - How did medieval and early modern Muslim travelers describe the places they visited and people they encountered, and how did Western travelers describe their travels in the Middle East and Asia? Readings include Ibn Battuta, Marco Polo, Evliya Celebi, and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Creativity/Innovation, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Historical Consciousness. -
CAS XL 342: Modern Travel Writing and the Muslim World
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - How have modern Muslim travelers written about places and people they saw abroad, and how have Western travelers in the Muslim lands described their travels in "the East"? Readings include Zeyneb Hanoum, Tahtawi, Mark Twain, Malcolm X, Nawal Saadawi. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CAS XL 343: Alexander the Great in the East
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing (WR 120 or equivalent) - Study of the various narratives about Alexander the Great, also known as Sikandar or Iskandar, as conqueror, philosopher-king, and hero, in medieval Middle Eastern and Asian literatures. Modern filmic representations of the historical figure are also compared. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. Effective Fall 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing- Intensive Course, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy. -
CAS XL 344: Global Shakespeare
Why do contemporary writers parrot and parody "Shakespeare," and how much of this activity is about Shakespeare at all? This seminar provides an introduction to reading and writing about Shakespeare's plays. But it also takes a step back to consider Shakespeare as a phenomenon, inspiring adapters around the world. Beyond learning about particular offshoots and adaptations, the deeper point is to explore how playwrights think about their sources, their audiences, and their art. Effective Summer 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. -
CAS XL 368: Religion and Film
Religions and films are world-building engines. They create -- and re-create -- a visioning of society as a world of justice, of lived myth, of fantasy, of ideology: a world we may long to live in or a world we wish to avoid at all costs. This course explores such worlds by examining the ways in which religious beliefs, practices and people are portrayed in popular film from the 1960s to the present. Effective Spring 2025, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Social Inquiry I, Teamwork/Collaboration. -
CAS XL 377: Global Asian Literature
Undergraduate Prerequisites: CAS WR 120, First-Year Writing Seminar. - This course explores 20th-and 21st-century ethnic Asian writers whose literary works help us question the paradigm of national literature and appreciate the power of border-crossing literature. Main topics include colonialism, racism, post-colonial politics, migration, World War II, and wars in post-1945 Asia. Effective Fall 2024, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU HUB areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 380: Gender and Identity in Contemporary Middle Eastern Film
An exploration of representations of gender and identity in contemporary Middle Eastern films by male and female directors reflecting on the impact of modernization, globalization, war and trauma through different visual genres. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Digital/Multimedia Expression. -
CAS XL 381: Topics in Gender and Literature (in English translation)
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First-Year Writing Seminar (CASWR 120 or equivalent) - Topics vary. May be repeated for credit if topic is different. Previous Topics: Gender and Genre in the Works of Natsume Soseki, Courtesans in World Literature. Effective Spring 2022, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Aesthetic Exploration, Creativity/Innovation. -
CAS XL 387: The Holocaust Through Film
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., WR 100 or WR 120). - An examination of film using the Holocaust as its central topic. What are the political and cultural effects when genocide is represented through film? Can feature films portray history, and if so, what are the consequences for an informed society? Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing- Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 397: World Cities: Istanbul
An examination of Istanbul in the global imaginary as it transformed from the Capital of the Ottoman Empire to the cultural capital of the Republic of Turkey through critical analysis of visual and literary texts. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS XL 398: World Cities: Tokyo
Explores the past and present of the vibrant city of Tokyo through literature and visual culture. Includes hand-on experiences mapping literary spaces. Reading and discussion in English. Effective Fall 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Digital/Multimedia Expression, Historical Consciousness, Research and Information Literacy. -
CAS XL 401: Senior Independent Work
Senior independent work. -
CAS XL 402: Senior Independent Work
Senior independent work. -
CAS XL 420: Queer Theory
Surveys major texts and arguments in queer theory from Butler's Gender Trouble to contemporary discussions of cisnormativity, homonationalism, affect, pinkwashing, crip theory, and queer-of-color critique. Explores different uses of queer theory in legal debates, literary analysis, and cultural criticism. Effective Spring 2021, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: The Individual in Community, Philosophical Inquiry and Life's Meanings, Critical Thinking. -
CAS XL 441: 1001 Nights in the World Literary Imagination
Undergraduate Prerequisites: two literature courses or consent of instructor and First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120). - What is The Thousand and One Nights? How has this ever-expanding collection appealed to its diverse audiences? Focus on the Nights' structure and themes, notable translations and offshoots in western literature and art, and later appropriations by Arab and Muslim writers. Effective Fall 2018, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Aesthetic Exploration, Global Citizenship and Intercultural Literacy, Writing-Intensive Course. -
CAS XL 459: Primo Levi Within Holocaust Literature
A study of Primo Levi's writings and scientific, literary, theological, and philosophical approaches to the Holocaust. Other theorists (Arendt, Wiesel, and Muller-Hill) and other survivors' testimonies (Delbo, Borowski, Fink) are read in conjunction with Levi's works. Also offered as CAS LI 459 and RN 459. Effective Spring 2020, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Historical Consciousness, Ethical Reasoning. -
CAS XL 479: WLL Senior Seminar
Undergraduate Prerequisites: First Year Writing Seminar (e.g., CASWR 100 or WR 120) and senior standing majors in WLL, or consent of instructor. - Through discussions of intercultural reading and translation, bibliographic assignments, student presentations, workshops, and work with a faculty language mentor, seniors majoring in WLL use this course to develop their final project: a substantial scholarly paper, translation, or creative work in a foreign language. Effective Fall 2019, this course fulfills a single unit in each of the following BU Hub areas: Writing-Intensive Course, Oral and/or Signed Communication, Research and Information Literacy.
