This course surveys the civilizations of South Asia, a region that includes India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Students who register for 4 s.h. attend a second weekly lab section that probes more deeply into texts, films, and other instructional media, and introduces outside speakers and field trips into the curriculum. These students also complete a journal requirement. Course requirements include three assigned short essays, three midterms, a final exam, and occasional quizzes. The instructor is Greenough.
Discussion is emphasized, and substantial student writing is required.
The aim is to introduce students to the study of the past through an in-depth examination of a limited number of topics, ranging in time and place and varying in the questions posed. Students are urged to check the course descriptions for individual sections of Issues courses as their content varies from one instructor to another. European expansion overseas from 1492 onward brought very different yet lasting results in the Americas, Africa, and Asia, in part a function of the diversity of indigenous societies. Focal points of the course are how Europeans engineered overseas expansion and the consequences of that expansion for Europe and for the societies Europeans encountered overseas. What is common to the various sections is the analysis of the factors in the societies and institutions examined which either sustain tradition or open up opportunities for change and the examination of how women both experienced traditional roles and worked to reshape their positions.