Fall 2026 Courses | Jewish, Islamic, and Middle Eastern Studies

Fall 2026 Undergraduate Courses

ARAB 1000 - Beginning Arabic I

ARAB 2010 - Intermediate Arabic I

ARAB 3010 - Third-Level Arabic I

HBRW 1001 - First Year Modern Hebrew I

HBRW 2010 - Second Year Modern Hebrew I

HBRW 3040 - Third-Level Modern Hebrew I

HBRW 4010 - Fourth-Level Modern Hebrew I

HINDI 1030 - Beginning Hindi I

HINDI 2020 - Intermediate Hindi I

HINDI 1050 - Beginning Urdu

HINDI 2050 - Intermediate Urdu I

HINDI 3010 - Third-Level Urdu I

HINDI 3040 - Sacred Architecture of the Indian Subcontinent

JIMES 1022- First Year Seminar: Arab Cinema

JIMES 2081- Introduction to Jewish Civilization: History and Identity

JIMES 2100- Introduction to Islamic Civilization

JIMES 2243 - Ampersand: Mediterranean Migration: Dynamics and Consequences on the EU and MENA

JIMES 2243 - Ampersand: Mediterranean Migration: Dynamics and Consequences on the EU and MENA

First course in the Ampersand: Safe Asylum program. What are the causes, dynamics and consequences of international population movements? What are the key trends and patterns of migration in the major world region? How does migration trends form both destination and origin societies? What are the effects of migration and increasing ethnic diversity on national identity and politics? How has the Global North elected to manage the forced flow of people from the Global South? We will address these questions among others and survey the critical assessments of the policies whereby the host nations try to manage these flows and discourage mobility. The readings of the first weeks of the Spring semester - based on our main textbook the Age of Migration- will give us a profound understanding of the theories of migration, and empirical research from a variety of disciplines; namely Sociology, Political science, history, anthropology and geography. We will also have an opportunity to hear from some of the leading scholars and Journalists, lawyers specialized in international migration law...We will also watch short documentaries to get a closer sense of cases in the EU and MENA regions. Our End of the Semester project will be exploring success stories of migrants in St. Louis; this could be building on your project in the Fall semester; or we could agree on identifying success stories of refugees/ migrant communities in the state. E.g. the Iraqi, Senegalese, Bosnian communities. Besides the planned travel to Konstanz, Germany to get a closer look at the public-civic interaction in facilitating refugee incorporation, we will discuss our planned visits to Morocco as one of the main key crossing border states linking both sides of the Mediterranean.

JIMES 3770 - History of Slavery in the Middle East

JIMES 3770 - History of Slavery in the Middle East

This course examines slavery and its abolition in the Middle East and North Africa from 600 C.E. to the 20th Century. It addresses slavery as a discourse and a question of political economy. We begin with an overview of slavery in late antiquity to contextualize the evolution of this practice after the rise of Islam in the region. We then examine how it was practiced, imagined, and studied under major empires, such as the Umayyads, the Abbasids, the Fatimids, the Mamluks, the Ottomans, and the Safavids. In addition to examining the Qur'anic discourse and early Islamic practices of slavery, to monitor change over time we address various forms of household, field, and military slavery as well as the remarkable phenomenon of slave dynasties following a chronological order. We discuss, through primary sources, theoretical, religious, and moral debates and positions on slavery, including religious scriptures, prophetic traditions, religious law, and a plethora of narratives from a range of genres. We highlight a distinct theme each week to focus on until we conclude our discussion with the abolition of slavery in the 19th and 20th centuries. Topics of discussion include various forms of male and female slavery, Qur'anic and prophetic discourse on slavery, legal and moral views on slavery, slavery as represented in religious literature, political, military, and economic structures of slavery, issues of race and gender as well as slave writings to reflect on the experiences of slavery from within. The goal is to enable students to understand the histories of slavery in the Middle East and eventually compare it to that of other regions and cultures, such as European and Atlantic slavery. No second language required.

JIMES 3870 - Topics in Jewish Studies: Judaism and Race

JIMES 4020 - Jerusalem, the Holy City

JIMES 4043 - Race and Ethnicity in the Middle East and North Africa