This list contains courses explicitly on a South Asian topic and courses with an international or relevant thematic focus taught by South Asia Center affiliated faculty. Always double-check the UW Time Schedule for the most current course information.
AREA COURSES
JSIS 200 The Making of the Modern World
Instructor: Sunila S. Kale
TTh | 8:30 – 9:50
Th | 10:30 – 11:20
Th | 10:30 – 11:20
Th | 11:30 – 12:20
Th | 12:30 – 1:20
Th | 12:30 – 1:20
Th | 1:30 – 2:20
F | 9:30 – 10:20
F | 10:30 – 11:20
5 credits (SSc) | SLN: 16738, 16739, 16740, 16741, 16742, 16743, 16744, 16745, 16746
Course Description
Provides a global history of the present by investigating the relationships between political forces, economic processes, and socio-cultural dynamics of expansion, domination, and resistance. By looking into the past to understand the contemporary world, examines how the modern world came to be structured around nation-states, when most economies became capitalist, and why most societies are organized around structures of inequality.
JSIS 222 Understanding the Global Economy
Instructor: Debamanyu Das
MW | 10:30 – 12:20
5 credits (SSc) | SLN: 16747, 16748
Course Description
Focuses on making economics accessible by simplifying complex models, graphs, and jargon. Designed for students with little economics background, this course builds analytical and critical skills to interpret global economic news, analyze reports, and evaluate arguments in real-world international contexts.
JSIS A 202 / HSTAS 202 Introduction to South Asian History, 1500 – present
Instructor: Purnima Dhavan
MW | 10:30 – 12:20
5 credits (SSc) | SLN: 16769
Course Description
The Islamic impact, British conquest, and contemporary India. Emphasis on the rise of nationalism, social organization, and contemporary life and history.
JSIS A 206 Contemporary India and Pakistan
Instructor: Anand A Yang
MW | 1:30 – 3:20
5 credits (SSc, W) | SLN: 16773
Course Description
Interdisciplinary introduction to the field of South Asian Studies. Overview of the topographic, social, and linguistic geography and history of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. Examines politics, economy, social structure, religion, cultural production and the arts, popular culture, and transnationalism.
JSIS 546 Modernity after Empire: View from the Global South
Instructor: Sunila S. Kale
Th | 3:30 – 6:20
5 credits | SLN: 22823
Course Description
Interrogates the making of the modern world from the perspective of the global South. Thinking about global post-imperialism political and economic and economic projects in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and the Middle East, provides a critical introduction to debates over nation, development, and globalization.
JSIS A 508 Interdisciplinary Study of South Asia I
Instructor: Anand A Yang
Th | 1:30 – 4:20
5 credits | SLN: 16787
Course Description
Examines key themes and debates about the development of South Asian cultural and political formations. Examines how different scholarly disciplines, particularly those in the humanities, have approved and analyzed the past in South Asia.
JSIS B 455 International Environmental Policy
Instructor: Debamanyu Das
MW | 2:30 – 4:20
5 credits (DIV, SSc, W) | SLN: 16829
Course Description
Explores how global environmental policies are shaped by diverse perspectives across international, national, and local levels. Examines the gap between science and politics, focusing on its impact on climate solutions in the Global North and South. Topics include climate justice, energy transitions, and environmental negotiations, with case studies highlighting global diversity and power dynamics in the fight for sustainability.
S ASIA 498 / ENGL 339 / GLITS 314 Special Topics in Languages and Cultures of South Asia: Literatures of Resistance
Instructor: Sravanthi Kollu
MW | 2:30 – 4:20
5 credits (DIV, A&H) | SLN: 20684
Course Description
Read powerful feminist and anti-caste literatures this quarter. This course will explore South Asia and its diasporas via poetry and literary texts that foreground questions of gender, caste and social equality. We will read anti-caste and feminist texts to examine how writers from the margins have negotiated questions of literary writing, genre and tradition. How do these writers imagine new worlds and radical forms of equality? What ideas of the poetic do they produce? What can we extrapolate from these texts for larger conversations about poetry and politics? These will be our guiding questions.
We will place the poetry we read alongside texts in a variety of genres (novel, literary criticism and manifestos). The intersecting but varied foci in the course are designed to help you develop the skills to work with and write about the relationship between form and politics. Readings include South Asian feminist literature (Volga, Fahmida Riaz), Dalit feminist literature (Sukirtharani, Bama) and diasporic feminist and Coolitude poetry (Tarfia Faizullah, Khal Torabully).
S ASIA 498 / ENGL 316 Special Topics in Languages and Cultures of South Asia: Short Fiction and Film in Postcolonial South Asia
MWF | 1:30 – 2:20
Instructor: Jennifer Dubrow
TTh | 2:30 – 4:20
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 20686
Course Description
Short fiction and film from postcolonial India and Pakistan. Translations of important fiction and films rarely studied in the US. Learn about the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan and modernist movements.
S ASIA 203 Love and War in Classical Indian Literature
Heidi R Pauwels
TTh | 1:30 – 3:20
5 credits (A&H, SSc) | SLN: 20683
Course Description
Introduction to enduring themes of love and war in classical Indian literature in its cultural context with a specific focus on contemporary relevance, including popular culture. Texts in English translation.
ART H 209 Themes and Topics in Art History: Photography’s History in South Asia
Instructor: Akshaya Tankha
TTh | 12:30 – 1:50
W | 1:30 – 2:20
W | 2:30 – 3:20
F | 10:30 – 11:20
F | 11:30 – 12:20
F | 12:30 – 1:20
W | 3:30 – 4:20
5 credits (A&H, W) | SLN: 10516, 10517, 10518, 10519, 10520, 10521, 10522, 10528
Course Description
Introduces students to new ideas, developing themes, and current research in art history and visual culture.
ART H 314 Modern and Contemporary Art in India
Instructor: Akshaya Tankha
TTh | 10:00 – 11:50
5 credits (A&H) |
Course Description
Surveys the visual arts of India from the late colonial through the postcolonial period. Topics include impact of colonialism, anti-colonial nationalist claims for art, shifting status of oil paintings, emergence of a national style, new art movements in urban centers, and art in the service of forge postcolonial identities and alliances.
COM 302/CHID 370 The Cultural Impact of Information Technology
Instructor: Anis Rahman
MW | 10:30 – 12:20
F | 9:30 – 10:20
F | 10:30 – 11:20
F | 11:30 – 12:20
5 credits (A&H, SSc) | SLN: 12753, 12754, 12755, 12756, 22555, 22568, 22569, 22570
Course Description
Utilizing approaches from the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary theory, seeks to analyze the cultural and social impact of information technology. Considers how information technologies impact our relationships with others, our concept(s) of self, and the structure of the communities to which we belong.
COM 422 Money and Power in International Communications
Instructor: Anis Rahman
MW | 1:30 – 3:20
5 credits (SSc) | SLN: 12768
Course Description
Explores emerging issues in international communications through a critical political economy lens, with a focus on the geopolitical and infrastructural aspects of media, communication, and digital platforms.
GWSS 464/564 Queer Desires
Instructor: Chandan C. Reddy
MW | 1:30 – 3:20
5 credits (DIV, SSc) | SLN: 15929, 15941
Course Description
Explores desire and the politics of sexuality as gendered, raced, classed, and transnational processes. Intimacies and globalization, normality and abnormality, and power and relationships are sites of inquiry into the constitution of “queerness.” Students interrogate queer and sexuality studies, using varied media – films, activist writings, and scholarly articles.
RELIG 501 Religion Theorized: Approaches to the Study of Religion
Instructor: Christian L Novetzke
T | 2:30 – 5:20
5 credits | SLN: 20633
Course Description
Covers the major approaches to modern scholarship in the study of religion, which includes multiple approaches from history, phenomenology, anthropology, sociology, psychology, gender and sexuality studies, Marxism, and political theory. Class discusses which theories are most helpful in describing, understanding and explaining religion, enabling students to prepare their own research.
Language Courses
HINDI 101 Elementary Hindi
Instructor: Amruta M Chandekar
MTWThF | 9:30 – 10:20
5 credits | SLN: 16051
Course Description
Modern literary Hindi. Reading, writing, and conversation. Introduction to Devanagai script. First in a sequence of three.
HINDI 201 Intermediate Hindi
Instructor: Amruta M Chandekar
MTWThF | 10:30 – 11:20
5 credits (A&H)
Course Description
Systematic expansion of vocabulary and grammar. Intermediate-level prose and poetry readings. Oral drills. First in a sequence of three.
HINDI 321 Advanced Hindi Third Year: The Short Story
Instructor: Jameel Ahmad
TTh | 10:30 – 12:20
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 16053
Course Description
Surveys the development of the short story in Hindi, with readings of representative texts and discussion of their historical and cultural contexts.
HINDI 421 Survey of Modern Hindi Literature: Short Story
Instructor: Jameel Ahmad
TTh | 10:30 – 12:20
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 16054
Course Description
Survey of Hindi literature from the late nineteenth century to the present. Readings from representative short stories situated in their socio-historical context and related to popular perception, a. o. Bollywood films.
SNKRT 101/511 Elementary Sanskrit
Instructor:
MTWThF | 9:30 – 10:20
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 20761, 20765
Course Description
Basic grammar and vocabulary of the classical language. Reading of elementary texts from the epic or Puranic literature. First in a sequence of three.
SNKRT 201/521 Intermediate Sanskrit
Instructor:
MWF | 11:30 – 12:50
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 20762, 20766
Course Description
Further study of classical grammar; introduction to classical literature and Vedic language and texts. First in a sequence of three.
SNKRT 311/531 Advanced Sanskrit
Instructor: Joseph Marino
MW | 1:30 – 3:20
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 20763, 20767
Course Description
Reading and analysis of classical texts, chosen according to students’ interests. First in a sequence of three.
URDU 101 Elementary Urdu
Instructor: Jameel Ahmad
MTWThF | 9:30 – 10:20
5 credits | SLN: 22418
Course Description:
Modern literary Urdu. Reading, writing, conversation, and listening comprehension. Introduction to Perso-Arabic script. First in a sequence of three.
URDU 201 Intermediate Urdu
Instructor: Jameel Ahmad
MWF | 11:30 – 12:50
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 22419
Course Description
Systematic expansion of vocabulary and grammar. Intermediate-level prose and poetry readings. Expansion of skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening comprehension. First in a sequence of three.
URDU 321 Advanced Urdu Third Year: The Short Story
Instructor: Jameel Ahmad
TTh | 10:30 – 12:20
5 credits (A&H) | SLN: 22420
Course Description
Surveys the development of the short story in Urdu, with readings of representative texts and discussion of their historical and cultural contexts.
URDU 421 Advanced Urdu Fourth Year: The Short Story
Instructor: Jameel Ahmad
TTh | 10:30 – 12:20
5 credits (A&H) | SNL: 22421
Course Description
Surveys the development of the short story in Urdu, with readings of representative texts and discussion of their historical and cultural contexts.