For questions contact: Saiba Varma, Associate Director South Asian Studies minor program at, s2varma@ucsd.edu or Prashant Bharadwaj, Faculty Director at prbharadwaj@ucsd.edu
Statement from Akshata Silas, a 2020 UCSD Graduate of Cognitive Science w/ a specialization in Clinical Aspects, and South Asian Studies Minor.
As a junior in ERC who was jumping through hoops to balance GEs, pre-med requirements, and major classes, I would never have imagined myself doing a minor in the social sciences. But when a professor encouraged me to look into the newly inaugurated South Asia Studies minor, I realized that it could be a practical and transformative opportunity.
Logistically, most of the SAS courses I took overlapped neatly with foreign language, fine arts, and sociology GEs. The
wide range of classes offered for the minor allowed me to design a pathway specifically related to my interests
, major, and career goals. Additionally, the minor introduced me to a supportive network of faculty and students, many of whom I’ve formed enduring friendships with through research and activism.
The SAS minor gave me the chance to go out into the world and explore; my anthropology classes guided me through my first attempts at ethnographic research, and eventually helped me build my own independent research thesis. Other projects I worked on, such as drafting a policy proposal to the UN and documenting antifascist resistance efforts in South Asia, prepared me to become a catalyst for positive change. Perhaps most importantly, the courses I took for the SAS minor provided necessary historical and anthropological context for the real-world implications of what I learned in my STEM classes.
I would highly recommend this minor as a way to expand one’s understanding of new cultures, while simultaneously exploring their own current interests in a more global context
Students completing a minor in South Asian studies are required to complete twenty-eight units of study (at least twenty units must be upper-division), which should include three four-unit core courses with 75–100 percent South Asia content and four four-unit elective courses (with content of 25–50 percent).
- The minor consists of seven courses, of which at least five must be upper-division.
- Only two upper-division courses (eight units) may overlap with courses taken for a major.
- No more than two courses (eight units) may be taken with a pass/no pass grading option.
- At least three courses must be completed from the “core” list comprising 75-100% South Asian content
- Up to four courses may be chosen from the “electives” list with 25-50% South Asian content
SOUTH ASIA COURSES 2022-2023
SOUTH ASIA COURSES 2021-2022
SOUTH ASIA COURSES 2020-2021
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- Fall 2019 Courses
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- Winter 2020 Courses
Fall 2021
LTEN 189. Twentieth-Century Postcolonial Literatures (4) ” Literature of the South Asian Diaspora”
The impact of British colonialism, national independence movements, postcolonial cultural trends, and women’s movements on the global production of literary texts in English. Course is organized by topic or geographical/historical location. May be repeated for credit when topics vary.
Spring 2021
ANSC 190. Yoga Practices: From Banaras to Beverly Hills (4)
Yoga practices have recently gained dizzying popularity in the U.S. But how has yoga changed and transformed over time? How might we contextualize yoga practices in India and globally? This course is divided into two parts. First, we will do a close reading of philosophical texts about yoga, such as The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali. Second, we will examine yoga practices, including processes of commodification and popularization of yoga in the West. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.
LIHL 119W/ Hindi for Hindi speakers
For students who comprehend informal spoken Hindi but wish to improve their communicative and sociocultural competence and their analytic understanding. Language functions for oral communication, reading, writing, and entertainment/culture; dialect and language style differences; structure and history of Hindi. LIHL 119F, LIHL 119W, and LIHL 119P may be taken in any order. Prerequisites: upper-division standing or consent of instructor; appropriate proficiency for level.
ANSC 165. Contemporary South Asia (4)
This course explores contemporary cultural life in South Asia by examining selected works of literature, film, and ethnography. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.
MUS 95W Ensemble Performance: Indian Classical Music Ensemble
ANSC 147. Global Health and the Environment (4)
(Cross-listed with GLBH 147.) Examines interactions of culture, health, and environment. Rural and urban human ecologies, their energy foundations, sociocultural systems, and characteristic health and environmental problems are explored. The role of culture and human values in designing solutions will be investigated. Students may not receive credit for GLBH 147 and ANSC 147. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.
ANSC 148. Global Health and Cultural Diversity (4)
(Cross-listed with GLBH 148.) Introduction to global health from the perspective of medical anthropology on disease and illness, cultural conceptions of health, doctor-patient interaction, illness experience, medical science and technology, mental health, infectious disease, and health-care inequalities by ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. May be coscheduled with ANTH 248. Students may not receive credit for GLBH 148 and ANSC 148. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.
ECON 116. Economic Development (4)
Introduction to the economics of less developed countries, covering their international trade, human resources, urbanization, agriculture, income distribution, political economy, and environment. Prerequisites: ECON 2 or 100B.
ECON 237. Political Economy: Microeconomic Perspectives (4)
Governments serve functions key to economic development, including correcting market failures, raising taxes, delivering services, and protecting property rights. Correspondingly, research in development economics is increasingly focused on how institutions affect development. Generally, the aim of the course is to provide PhD students a complete introduction to the growing literature in this area. Students may not receive credit for ECON 237 and POLI 231E. Prerequisites: graduate standing.
ETHN 142. Medicine, Race, and the Global Politics of Inequality (4)
Globalization fosters both the transmission of AIDS, cholera, tuberculosis, and other infectious diseases and gross inequalities in the resources available to prevent and cure them. This course focuses on how race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, and nation both shape and are shaped by the social construction of health and disease worldwide.
GLBH 100 Special Topics/Global Health
INTL 190 Seminar in International Studies (4) South Asian Identity: Origins, Politics, and Diaspora
Required seminar for International Studies seniors. Readings and discussion of topics in international and comparative studies from an interdisciplinary perspective. Emphasis on independent work and completion of a research paper. Prerequisites: open to international studies majors only; successful completion with a C– or better of INTL 101 and 102.
TWS 20 Intro to Third World Studies Colonial Legacies/ Post col.
FALL 2019
ANSC 120 RELIGION AND CULTURE: Explores religious life in various cultures. Topics addressed include the problem of religious meaning, psychocultural aspects of religious experience, religious conversion and revitalization, contrasts between traditional and world religions, religion and social change. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.
| ANSC 120 | RELIGION AND CULTURE: Explores religious life in various cultures. Topics addressed include the problem of religious meaning, psychocultural aspects of religious experience, religious conversion and revitalization, contrasts between traditional and world religions, religion and social change. Prerequisites: upper-division standing.. | A. Jassal |
| LIHL 119F | LINGUISTICS/HINDI FOR HINDI SPEAKERS : For students who already comprehend informal spoken Hindi but wish to improve their communicative and sociocultural competence and their analytic understanding. Language functions for oral communication, reading, writing, and culture; dialect and language style differences; structure and history of Hindi. Some speaking ability in Hindi recommended. | E. Sadegholvad |
| MUS 95W | INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC : An Indian Classical Music Ensemble with a focus on the Sitar and Tabla. No previous background necessary. Additional Description: An Indian classical music ensemble with a focus on the Sitar and Tabla or an instrument of your choice. Voice students are encouraged to join. Students will be introduced to the concepts of Raga and Tala through fixed compositions and ear training. While no previous background is necessary, all students MUST attend the first meeting of class. Failure to do so will require students to drop the course. This first meeting is to assign students to proper groups and offer a broad survey of the history and theory of the tradition. | K. Seshadri |
| POLI 130G | POLITICS OF MODERN INDIA : The course gives an overview of Indian politics since 1947. It addresses: (1) To what extent is India a full-fledged democracy in which all citizens enjoy political equality? (2) Why has political violence occurred in some parts of India, and at certain times, but not others? (3) How well have the country’s institutions fared in alleviating poverty? | G. Nellis |
| TWS 20 | THIRD WORLD CINEMA : This course examines cinematic cultures in relation to literary texts of the Third World. The first part of the course focuses on histories and depictions of the Partition of India in 1947 which led to two independent nations: India and Pakistan. We will examine the history of Partition through Salman Rushdie’s Midnight’s Children (1981) as both a novel and film. The second half of the course focuses on Latin American Cinema, especially the films of Andrés Wood and Claudia Llosa. We will study films such as Machuca and The Milk of Sorrow. | B. Rahimi |
WINTER 2020
| ANTH 1 | INTRODUCTION TO CULTURE : Description coming | S. Varma |
| ANTH 188 | CULTURES OF HEALING: Description Coming | A. Jassal |
| ANSC 149 | HEALTH, CONFLICT & INEQUALITY: Whether it takes the form of natural disasters, wars, accidents, or interpersonal conflicts, violence seems ubiquitous in our contemporary world. Medical experts and social scientists agree that violence does not simply disappear after the fact, but that its impact stays for a long time. To develop a complex understanding of violence and war, in this course, we will explore the contours of militarism, war and empire, as well as look at what anthropologists call “structural violence.” We will think about the relationship between violence, health, and inequality from the perspective of both biomedical and public health experts, as well as from local communities.For our readings, we will primarily look at anthropological texts called ethnographies. Ethnographies combine first-hand participant observation and long-term fieldwork with theoretical insights from the social sciences. These texts offer a lens to expand our understanding of violence and suffering from what is presented in the media and public sphere. In addition to ethnographies, we will also analyze visual representations of violence, such as photographs and other images, and will draw on different disciplines and genres of writing, including journalism, social psychology, and philosophy. Our aim is to develop rich and vibrant scholarly conversations on war and violence in which we are all active participants, contributing to the overall knowledge of the class through readings, writings, and discussion. Although these goals might sound overwhelming to begin with, we will build up to the most complex tasks through the course of the semester. | S. Varma |
| ANSC 190 | YOGA PRACTICES: FROM BANARAS TO BEVERLY HILLS: Description to come. | A. Jassal |
| COMM 106i | INTERNET INDUSTRIES: Apple, Google, and Amazon are all businesses emblematic of the internet industries and the forms of social life, media circulation, and data work they make possible. This class examines the claims made about these industries, the realities of the industries’ workings, and what the differences between the claims and the reality mean for us. How do the internet industries rewire our everyday lives: the way we socialize, the way work, the ways we resist these circumstances? Students will learn how to analyze how industry structures shape social experiences by paying attention to economics, interface, and representations. | L. Irani |
| LIHL 119W | LINGUISTICS/HINDI FOR HINDI SPEAKERS : For students who already comprehend informal spoken Hindi but wish to improve their communicative and sociocultural competence and their analytic understanding. Language functions for oral communication, reading, writing, and culture; dialect and language style differences; structure and history of Hindi. Some speaking ability in Hindi recommended. | E. Sadegholvad |
| MUS 95W | INDIAN CLASSICAL MUSIC : An Indian Classical Music Ensemble with a focus on the Sitar and Tabla. No previous background necessary. Additional Description: An Indian classical music ensemble with a focus on the Sitar and Tabla or an instrument of your choice. Voice students are encouraged to join. Students will be introduced to the concepts of Raga and Tala through fixed compositions and ear training. While no previous background is necessary, all students MUST attend the first meeting of class. Failure to do so will require students to drop the course. This first meeting is to assign students to proper groups and offer a broad survey of the history and theory of the tradition. | K. Seshadri |
| POLI 127 | POLITICS OF DEVELOPMENT: What do we mean by “development”? Why have some countries and regions of the world been more successful in their efforts to promote development than others? Why should “we” (in the “developed” world) care about development challenges the “developing” world, or should we? This course provides an introduction to competing conceptions and theories of development in the post-WWII period. We begin by critically evaluating dominant concepts, measures, and theories of development in light of case studies drawn from three regions of the developing world: Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia. We then shift our attention to 21st century development challenges in developing regions of the world and investigate the possibilities and limitations of existing international and national level institutions and policies in addressing these challenges. | M. Feeley |
| SIO 116 | CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL HEALTH : Climate change is the biggest global health threat of the 21st Century. This course will decode the exchangeable links between our climate and population health in different contexts around the globe. There is no prerequisite for this course. The course will be organized into two 2 Components as follows: 1) Climate Change and Global Health: Understanding the mechanisms–Covered Topics: Climate change in our society; Understanding anthropogenic climate change; The direct and indirect links between climate change and health; The impact of climate change on global health: the infectious diseases; The impact of climate change on global health: the extreme weather events, and 2) Responding to Climate Change: Possible solutions—Covered Topics: The climate change impacts on society: a matter of injustice?; Mitigation policies ; Adaptation policies: dealing with incompressible climate change impacts ; A step-by-step guide to design, implement and evaluate an adaptation policy: the example of heat warning systems ; The notion of public health co-benefits of climate change policies: health in all policies | T. Benmarhnia |
SPRING 2020
| ANSC 165 | CONTEMPORARY SOUTH ASIA : This course will survey some of the culture and politics of South Asia from the post-colonial period, roughly since 1960AD (2017 Bikram Samvat/B.S.). We will explore some of the dominant themes taken up by cultural studies, such as caste classifications, Hindu traditions, marriage traditions, handloom and industrial textiles, cybercafes, tourism, and climate change. Many subjects are available for students to pursue in their term papers and you will have a chance to discuss the development of your term paper with classmates in the final weeks of class. We will not be able to go into depth on any one topic, since contemporary South Asia is a multicultural place, with over a billion people and more than 200 languages spoken in seven member countries of Pakistan, Nepal, India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Maldives. However, students will be able to discover new resources enabling them to pursue their future interests concerning this extraordinary world region. | J. Fortier |
| ECON 164(T) | THE INDIAN ECONOMY: This course surveys the Indian economy. Historical overview and perspective; political economy; democracy and development; economic growth; land, labor, and credit markets; poverty and inequality; health, education, and human development; technology and development; institutions and state capacity; contemporary policy issues and debates. Prerequisites: ECON 1 and 3.Econ 164T will cover topics in more depth than in Econ 164 with more extensive readings and discussion. The class will meet in a seminar format where students will be expected to actively participate in discussions based on the readings and write a short paper at the end of the quarter. | K. Muralidharan |
| ANSC | Global Health and Environment | A. Stewart |
| ANSC 148 | Global Health and Cultural Diversity | S. Hannah |
| LIHL 119P | LINGUISTICS/HINDI FOR HINDI SPEAKERS : For students who already comprehend informal spoken Hindi but wish to improve their communicative and sociocultural competence and their analytic understanding. Language functions for oral communication, reading, writing, and culture; dialect and language style differences; structure and history of Hindi. Some speaking ability in Hindi recommended. | E. Sadegholvad |
| MUS 95W | Indian Classical Music Ensemble | K. Seshadri |
| ANSC 155 | Humanitarian Aid | A. Arani |
| POLI 117 | Bending the Curve: Climate Change | V. Ramanathan F. Forman |
| POLI 122 | Politics of Human Rights | M. Feeley |
| POLI 126 | Political Economy of Development | S. Nichter |
SUMMER SESSIONS 2019
| ANSC 166 | FILM & CULTURE IN SOUTH ASIA: Explores films from China, India, Japan and other Asian countries. Popular, documentary, and ethnographic films are examined for what they reveal about family life, gender, politics, religion, social change and everyday experience in South Asia. Prerequisites: upper-division standing. | S. Parish |
COURSES WITH SOUTH ASIA CONTENT (not currently offered)
| ANAR 124 | ARCHAEOLOGY OF ASIA: This course explores the archaeology of Asia from the first humans through the rise of state societies. Topics include the environmental setting, pioneer migrations, hunting and gathering societies, plant and animal domestication, and the development of metallurgy, agriculture, technology, trade and warfare in early civilizations. We consider how ancient political, intellectual and artistic achievements shape the archaeological heritage in present-day Asia. | J. Fortier |
| ANSC 114 | FOOD & CULTURE IN SOUTH ASIA (India and Nepal): Through experiential learning, students in this course will explore the diverse food cultures of India and Nepal. Food and drink have played an important role in shaping the cultural heritage of the region, from its celebration of festive occasions with mitai sweets to its honoring of deities with prasad religious offerings. Using heritage foods such as millets, rice, lentils, and masala/spices, students will study issues of purity, pollution, and morality; social class, caste, and hierarchy; food security, nutrition, and sustainability; and favorite family foods. The course will conclude with student presentations concerning the cultural and historical significance of a particular food dish or culinary tradition. | J. Fortier |
| ANSC 130 | HINDUISM: An anthropological introduction to Hinduism, focusing on basic religious concepts and practices. Topics include myth, ritual, and symbolism; forms of worship; gods and goddesses; the roles of priest and renouncer; pilgrimages and festivals; the life cycle; popular Hinduism, Tantrism. Prerequisites: upper-division standing. Next Offered: Unknown. | S. Parish |
| ANSC 147 | GLOBAL HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT: Examines interactions of culture, health, and environment. Rural and urban human ecologies, their energy foundations, sociocultural systems, and characteristic health and environmental problems are explored. The role of culture and human values in designing solutions will be investigated. Prerequisites: upper-division standing. | S. Parish |
| ANSC/ GLBH 148 | GLOBAL HEALTH AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY: Introduction to global health from the perspective of medical anthropology on disease and illness, cultural conceptions of health, doctor-patient interaction, illness experience, medical science and technology, mental health, infectious disease, and health-care inequalities by ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status. Prerequisites: upper-division standing. | S. Varma |
| ANSC 155 | HUMANITARIAN AID: WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?: This course examines the intended and unintended consequences of humanitarian aid. How do organizations negotiate principles of equality with the reality of limited resources? What role does medicine play in aid efforts? In spaces where multiple vulnerabilities coexist, how do we decide whom we should help first? While the need for aid, charity, and giving in the face of suffering is often taken as a commonsensical good, this course reveals the complexities underpinning humanitarian aid. Prerequisites: ANTH 101, ANSC 123, ANSC 148, and upper-division standing. | S. Varma |
| ANSC 166 | FILM & CULTURE IN ASIA: Explores films from China, India, Japan and other Asian countries. Popular, documentary, and ethnographic films are examined for what they reveal about family life, gender, politics, religion, social change and everyday experience in South Asia. Prerequisites: upper-division standing. | S. Parish |
| ANSC 190GS | MEDICINE AND HEALING IN SOUTH ASIA: This course introduces students to the field of medical anthropology as it pertains to South Asia. This course will be divided into two parts. First, we will analyze how religious, cultural, political and economic structures impact health and wellbeing. Second, we will look at ethnomedicine, that is, how local systems of healing provide alternative ideas of illness and health, such as medical pluralism and Ayurveda. Since this is a global seminar, we are in the unique position to combine our in-class learning with field experiences and visits with experts in the field; this will include people who are working in the fields of global health, public health, and/or with alternative medical systems, such as Ayurveda. | S. Varma |
| ANSC 191GS | EVERYDAY LIFE IN SOUTH ASIA: In this course, we will explore how people in South Asia live on a day-to-day basis, while also attending to how major historical events, such as colonialism and the Partition of India and Pakistan, continue to shape contemporary life and politics. We will draw, primarily, on the work of anthropologists. One of the strengths of anthropology’s methodology—ethnography—is that it captures the complexities of everyday life. Although most of our course readings will be about India, we will also draw on scholarly work from Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, and Bangladesh, to develop a transnational perspective on the region.While this course offers an in-depth engagement with a specific region of the world, South Asia has also been a key site from which scholars have thought through major themes, including social organization, everyday life, religion, nationalism, violence/conflict, and globalization. As such, this course also offers an engagement with anthropological theory, which will allow you to question and deconstruct clichés about South Asia. | S. Varma |
| ANSC 192GS | RETHINKING DEVELOPMENT: In the contemporary world, we often hear that the inequality and poverty can be resolved through “development”. We are assured that buying the right kind of coffee or shoes, donating to the right organization, or volunteering time on an international project will lead to a better world. Development is described as a means to improve the environment, create social justice, and to lift the poor out of poverty. Yet at the same time that efforts to help the “global poor” abound, extreme inequality, increasing environmental degradation, and stark, new vulnerabilities seem to have grown exponentially as well. How do we make sense of these two seemingly contradictory phenomena? What are the roots of contemporary inequality and poverty? What are the goals and discourses that structure contemporary schemes of development? Does development work? Does it fix poverty or improve our environment? What are the politics of development? Who benefits? This course considers these questions by examining the colonial roots of poverty and inequality and the production of development as a social, political, and economic field. Focusing on India, we will look at current and past development strategies like rural development, women’s empowerment, and microfinance, to consider the possibilities and limitations of development as a means of eradicating poverty and creating social change. Finally, we ask how Western liberal notions of growth and industrialization might be complemented by Buddhist notions of compassion, community, and interdependence. | N. Postero |
| ANSC 193GS | HUMAN RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: In a moment when our planet faces destruction due to climate change, this class offers a space to rethink human being’s relation to the environment. Can we say that there is a human right to enjoy life on this planet? How do social hierarchies, like race, class, and gender, structure such rights? What is environmental justice? What are the spiritual, moral, and legal foundations for environmental justice? How are struggles for land, environmental safety, and climate change made more visible or legitimate by framing them as human rights? We will think about these questions by focusing in part on case studies from India. | N. Postero |
| ECON 116 | ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: This course is intended to provide an introduction to the problems of economic development in less developed countries and how market based policies might alleviate some of these problems. There is no text for this course.. | P. Bharadwaj |
| ECON 237 | POLITICAL ECONOMY AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT: This course is intended as an introduction to political economy as it relates to economic development. Governments serve several key development functions, including correcting market failures, raising taxes, delivering services, and protecting property rights. Yet, particularly in poor countries, they often fail to do so effectively. The course is organized around an analytical framework emphasizing the agency problems between citizens, politicians and bureaucrats. Correspondingly, the course is divided into four sections. We will first focus on how democratic institutions select and constrain politicians. Second, we will explore issues of bureaucratic selection and incentives affecting bureaucrats. Third, we will review evaluations of specific reforms aimed at strengthening institutions, promoting accountability, and improving service delivery. In a final section, we will review the literature on culture, political identity, gender and politics, and political conflict. | M. Callen |
| ETHN 106 | LIFE, DEATH, AND THE HUMAN: This course provides a comparative and relational survey of some of the global and historical contexts in which life and death become sites of political significance, ranging from ways they may reveal dehumanizing circumstances to the expression of revolutionary social politics. We examine these contexts, including life under colonization, the commodification of the human body, and the legal and cultural invisibility of some lives, with an interdisciplinary approach which pairs readings in western philosophy, medical anthropology, history, postcolonial theory, and anthropology with film and fiction. The goal of this course is to trouble the idea of a universally understood category of ‘humanity,’ specifically the idea that humanity and its protections are evenly accessible across differing historical and material contexts. Instead, we can approach the conditions of life and death as revealing important aspects of the politics and economics involved in who gets to live a fully ‘human’ life. Students are encouraged to approach the films and novels on the syllabus with the same rigor as scholarly texts, and to identify conversations between the topics assigned each week, as well as within one given week’s readings. | K. Vora |
| ETHN 141 | GANDHI IN THE MODERN WORLD: Martin Luther King was inspired by Gandhi, but in his own time, Gandhi was as controversial as he was revered. Non-violence was not widely accepted as a form of political protest. This course explores Gandhi’s complex legacy of non-violence for peoples and places embroiled in conflict. | K. Visweswaran |
| ETHN 142 | RACE, MEDICINE, AND GLOBAL INEQUALITY: This course examines how race has functioned as an organizing principle in the social life of health and disease in the 19th and 20th centuries in the US and transnationally. Beginning with a critical look at scientific and medical “objectivity,” we will trace the ways in which the intersections of race, disease and health have shaped and been shaped by larger social and historical processes, including colonization, settlement, immigration, labor exploitation, imperialism and globalization. In doing so, we will explore how race has served as an organizing principle in the formation of medical knowledge, and how race informs the practice of medicine and medical technologies. As we explore how race in its intersection with categories of gender, sexuality, class, nation, and ability, affects both the unequal distribution of disease and unequal access to medical treatment, we will also consider the human rights and social justice consequences of these phenomena. | K. Vora |
| GLBH 100 | SPECIAL TOPICS IN GLOBAL HEALTH: DEMOGRAPHY AND SOCIAL NETWORKS IN GLOBAL HEALTH : This course will provide an overview of demographic principles, and their associations with maternal and child health outcomes. We will focus on demographic trends in developing countries, using research from the DHS to discuss inequalities in fertility, mortality, and morbidity. The remainder of the class will question why we see such spatial variation in many maternal and child health outcomes, with a focus on theories of social norms, and social network methods for uncovering those trends. | H. Shakya |
| GLBH 113 | WOMEN’S HEALTH IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE:The course examines women’s and girl’s health throughout the world, focusing on the main health problems experienced primarily in low resource settings. This course presents issues in the context of a woman’s life, from childhood, through adolescence, reproductive years, and aging. The course will have a strong emphasis on social, economic, environmental, behavioral, and political factors that affect health behaviors, reproductive health, maternal morbidity/mortality, and STIs/HIV. | J. Wagman |
| HDP 133 | SOCIO-CULTURAL FOUNDATIONS OF DEVELOPMENT: This course provides an expansive overview of the social and cultural foundations of human development.It is a complement to HDP courses that focus on development of the brain and cognition. It explores the ways human development is a bio-social-cultural process—a process that always occurs in a cultural context, shaped by the social life and cultural history of the social group into which the child is born.The course will focus on sociocultural aspects of the life course and developmental change from conception through adulthood and late life. | S. Parish |
| INTL 190 | PARTITION OF BRITISH INDIA: This course will attempt to provide an understanding of the partition of British India in August 1947 from the perspective of economics, demography, history, literature and film. Through these different perspectives, the course will provide a broad understanding of some of the facts about this momentous event in world and South Asian history and also address how these facts are remembered and interpreted in popular culture through literature and film. | P. Bharadwaj |
| INTL 190 | SEMINAR – TOPICS IN ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT : SOUTH ASIA. | P. Bharadwaj |
| LIHL 139 | LINGUISTICS: ADVANCED HINDI FOR HINDI SPEAKERS: Instruction stresses language functions required for advanced oral communication, reading, writing, and cultural understanding in professional contexts. High-level vocabulary and texts; dialect differences and formal language styles (registers). Advanced structural analysis and history of Hindi. Prerequisite: upper-division standing or consent of instructor. | E. Sadegholvad |
| LTWL 136 | SOCIALLY ENGAGED BUDDHISM: ECOLOGIES : Few words in the English language have as strong an emotional resonance or as lasting a pull on the imagination as the word “home.” To have a home is to have sustaining roots; it is to be sheltered, safe, at least for a moment, from the stormy world. To be home is to belong, loved as you are for whom you are. To be homeless, by contrast, is to be adrift, uncertain, unsafe. And to destroy one’s own home would seem the height of madness.I start with these familiar cliches because “ecology,” in its etymological meaning, is literally the study of home. The word ecology was first coined in 1873 to describe a science of the relationship among organisms, as well as between organisms and their physical environments. Given this origin, it makes sense that we often associate the subject of ecology with that of environmental studies or sciences. And indeed, this course, Socially Engaged Buddhism: Ecologies, will have a lot to say about contemporary Buddhist engagement with the nature and the natural environment. But we will do so in the context of a consideration of “home,” focusing especially on the planet Earth as our human home. What images, symbols, stories, doctrines, ethics, and practices does Buddhism use to imagine a socially and spiritually healthy way of living on this planet? How are Buddhists ambivalent about the life of the home? And how are they reverent? . | R. Cohen |
| LTWL 145 | SOUTH ASIAN RELIGIOUS LIT: SELECT TOPICS LIVED RELIGIONS OF SOUTH ASIA : Description to come. | A. Jassal & R. Cohen |
| LTWL 168 | DEATH AND DESIRE IN INDIA : This class investigates the link between desire and death in classical and modern Hindu thought. It considers the stories of Hindu deities, as well as the lives of contemporary South Asian men and women, in literature and film. | R. Cohen |
| POLI 117 | BENDING THE CURVE: CLIMATE CHANGE SOLUTIONS : This course will focus on scalable solutions for carbon neutrality and climate stability across different disciplines—Science, Technology, Governance, Social Sciences, Economics, and Ecosystem. It leverages expertise across the UC system to showcase how mitigating climate change is relatable in every discipline and challeneges students to lead this change. Students will learn examples of projects actively “bending the curve” of climate change on a local and international scale, and will have the opportunity to plan and execute a project of their own. Students will be grouped into interdisciplinary teams with 4-5 members maximum in each team. | F. Forman & V. Ramanathan |
| POLI 122 | POLITICS OF HUMAN RIGHTS: What do we mean by “human rights”? Are these rights universal? How are they legitimated by victims and their advocates? Under what conditions have human rights been most systematically violated since the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) in 1948? Who were the primary violators, and who were the victims? What types of international, state, and/or local institutions have been most effective in addressing these violations, and why? What have been, or should have been, the respective roles of international institutions, states, citizens, and non-governmental organizations and actors in promoting human rights? Why should “we” (in the United States) care about promoting human rights abroad, or should we? What are the trade-offs between national sovereignty and international action in compelling respect for human rights? These are some of the central questions that we’ll explore over the course of the quarter through select case studies of human rights abuse and redress since the drafting of the UDHR. For each case study, we will consider the following questions: How, and why, did demands for human rights protection first emerge? Who were its primary advocates? What types of resources did these advocates mobilize in their defense, or in the defense of others? Were their claims valid? Why, or why not? What was the response of state actors? What was the response of international actors? What types of institutions were activated or introduced at local, state, and/or international levels to address international human rights violations? Were these institutions effective? Why, or why not? Should different actions have been taken to address abuses? Why, or why not? | M. Feeley |
| POLI 126 | POLITICAL ECONOMY OF DEVELOPMENT : What do we mean by “development?” How does chronic poverty affect people in the developing world? What are the prospects for economic growth? Why does extreme inequality, both across and within countries, continue to exist? What political institutions and structures support development and reduce inequality? Which exacerbate these problems? This course provides an overview of current responses to these questions, and provides students with the tools to evaluate developmental success or failure. The first half of the course provides an overview of the history of development policy since WWII, with a specific emphasis on comparative industrial policy and financial crisis management. The second half presents a survey of contemporary development topics, with a focus on the interaction between the sequencing and structure of national economic policies and political institutions/governance. including agricultural policy and land reform, national dependence on primary commodities and extractive resources, budgetary dependence on foreign aid and debt issues, and problems of corruption and rent-seeking. | S. Morgan |
| POLI 138D | SOUTH ASIA POLITICS & CONFLICT: This class introduces core topics in the study of South Asian politics. Further, it aims to use evidence from South Asia—focusing on the cases of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka—to shed light on some of the central questions in the study of comparative and international politics. The course is structured in three parts. We start with introductions to the recent histories of the region’s major states, and attempt to derive some general explanations for salient political trends. A focus will be on trying to understand why the regime trajectories followed by these nations since independence have diverged so dramatically. Next, we consider violent conflict in South Asia. We will examine the role played by ethnicity and religion in fomenting disorder, as well as nuclear weapons’ contribution to regional stability. The third section covers key topics in human and economic development, notably the political economy of corruption, caste, gender, poverty alleviation, liberalization, and growth. Students will engage with a wide range of theoretical debates in the social sciences. Along the way, they will also gain a rich and textured knowledge of the modern political evolution of the subcontinent, which is home to one quarter of the world’s population. | G. Nellis |
| RELI 2 | COMPARATIVE WORLD RELIGIONS : Religion begins with the acceptance that there is more to the world, and more to life, than meets the eye. For religion, a more-than-human world — the abode of gods and goddesses, spirit guides, ancestors, demons, and so on — exists right alongside our own human world. This course will use readings from Judaism, Taoism, Christianity, Hinduism, and African Shamanism to consider how these traditions conceive that more-than-human world, focussing especially on two questions: (1) How do these traditions look to the natural world as a place in which to encounter that which is more-than nature? (2) How is death seen as part of the natural order and yet, simultaneously, as a breach of the natural order? | R. Cohen |
| RELI 149 | ISLAM IN AMERICA: IDENTITY, RACE, AND FAITH: This course introduces the students to historical and social developments of Islam in the United States. Tracing Islam back to the African slaves, the course examines various Muslim communities in the U.S., with a focus on African-American Muslims, especially Malcolm X. Prerequisites: upper-division standing or consent of instructor.RELI 149 is approved for the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion requirement (pdf) and requires significant writing. Refer to the course syllabus for details. | B. Rahimi |
| SIO 116GS | CLIMATE CHANGE AND GLOBAL HEALTH IN INDIA: Professor Tarik Benmarhnia will teach two courses connected to themes that are relevant to the Dalai Lama’s teachings and his own research in climate change and public health. The program will be divided into three parts, an orientation in New Delhi, a service learning project coordinated by Amrita University in Kerala Province in southern India, and a final week of lectures and excursions to understand Tibetan culture in Dharamsala. This program is appropriate for all students interested in environmental studies, as well as public health majors and minors who would like to learn about the connections between health policy and climate change. Climate change in our society; Understanding anthropogenic climate change; The direct and indirect links between climate change and health; The impact of climate change on global health: the infectious diseases; The impact of climate change on global health: the extreme weather events. | T. Benmarhnia |
| SIO 118GS | RESPONDING TO CLIMATE CHANGE: POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS: Professor Tarik Benmarhnia will teach two courses connected to themes that are relevant to the Dalai Lama’s teachings and his own research in climate change and public health. The program will be divided into three parts, an orientation in New Delhi, a service learning project coordinated by Amrita University in Kerala Province in southern India, and a final week of lectures and excursions to understand Tibetan culture in Dharamsala. This program is appropriate for all students interested in environmental studies, as well as public health majors and minors who would like to learn about the connections between health policy and climate change. The climate change impacts on society: a matter of injustice?; Mitigation policies: fighting against the climate change phenomena ; Adaptation policies: dealing with incompressible climate change impacts ; A step-by-step guide to design, implement and evaluate an adaptation policy: the example of heat warning systems ; The notion of public health co-benefits of climate change policies: health in all policies. | T. Benmarhnia |
| TDMV 140 | DANCES OF THE WORLD – BEGINNING INDIAN DANCE: Courses designed for the in-depth study of the dances and historical context of a particular culture or ethnic form. | D. Devaguptapu |
| TWS 26 | LITERATURE OF THE INDIAN SUBCONTINENT: As a lower-division Third World Studies course, this class will examine cultures and literature of modern (20th and 21st century) India in order to examine how social 2 inequality, injustice, economic disparity, and questions of cultural, national and postcolonial identity can be understood through cultural and literary texts. | B. Rahimi |