This course focuses on the everyday lived experience of Muslims in different parts of the world. We will read ethnographic studies and analyze films, which highlight important issues in everyday Muslim life: gender, modernity and piety, the role of ritual in everyday practice. This course has an ethnographic field project.

How do academics research Islam? Students in this course learn about and gain hands-on experience with essential scholarly tools for discovering and disseminating new knowledge in this field. Both individually and collaboratively, students will work on original projects concerning academic literature, scholarly communication, or primary sources.

A critical exploration of selected topics in the history of South Asian religions.

South Asian religious traditions are suffused with aesthetic elements and processes -- Hindu temple worship, for example, abounds in music, song, dance, and iconography. In this course we examine the close relationship between religion and aesthetics in South Asia through study of poetics, courtly poetry, visual culture, music, and performance traditions.

This course examines ideas, roles, and regulation of sexuality and gender in South Asian religious traditions, paying attention to sexual abstinence and promiscuity as forms of piety, and we will examine performances of the gendered body that transcend and/or problematize the binary construction of masculine and feminine.

This course looks at debates surrounding central concepts in the study of South Asian religions. We will look at theories of asceticism, devotion, renunciation, caste, kingship, ritual, and state that animate the discussion of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. Students will learn to place their ideas in conversation with larger intellectual genealogies.

This course focuses on the relationship between religious ideologies, saints, and state power in ancient, medieval, and precolonial Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, and Muslim states in South Asia. We will read primary sources in translation and examine art, architecture, and material culture to examine how kings and saints/ascetics negotiated politics and power.

This course examines the paradoxical relationship of the erotic in Sanskrit poetry with its opposite—renunciation and the technologies of asceticism involving a rejection of sexuality. While the treatment of these themes reflects a deeper civilizational history emblematized by the figure of Śiva, the erotic ascetic, Sanskrit courtly poetry allows us to examine problems peculiar to courtly life and kingship. Did the aestheticization of power in Sanskrit poetry conflict with transcendental ideals? How was the legitimacy of pleasure seen as both autonomous from and concurrent with other legitimate human ends? We will read all works in translation, and no familiarity with Sanskrit is presumed.

This course studies the religious life of the Sasanian empire that ruled over Iran between 224 and 651 CE. It analyzes how different religions coexisted and interacted in the territory of the empire, including Zoroastrianism (the official religion of the empire), Manichaeism, Christianity, Judaism, and Mazdakism.

A critical exploration of selected topics in the history of Buddhism.

Student-initiated project of reading and research, supervised by a member of the Department. Primarily intended for students in Specialist or Major programs. After obtaining a supervisor, a student must apply to the Department of Historical Studies. A maximum of 1.0 credit in a reading course is permitted.

Student-initiated project of reading and research, supervised by a member of the Department. Primarily intended for students in Religion Specialist or Major programs. After obtaining a supervisor, a student must apply to the Department of Historical Studies. A maximum of 2 reading courses, amounting to 1.0 credit, is permitted.

For senior undergraduate students who have developed some knowledge of a discipline and its research methods, this course offers an opportunity to work on the research project of a professor. Students enrolled have an opportunity to become involved in original research, develop their research skills and share in the excitement and discovery of acquiring new knowledge. Project descriptions for the following fall-winter session are posted on the ROP website in mid-February and students are invited to apply at that time. See Experiential and International Opportunities for more details.

What does it mean to be human? We will explore South Asian food, music, poetry, and objects to understand human experience through the lived practice of South Asian communities in historical and contemporary contexts. This course uses South Asian texts and practices as theory--as usable tools that help us become better readers of the cultures we study and of ourselves.

This course introduces students to the basic grammar of the classical Sanskrit language. Students will engage with its phonology (including pronunciation, sandhi, and metrics) and morphology (including word formation, nominal declension, and verbal conjugation). Students will apply their grammatical knowledge and analytic skills to the reading of basic Sanskrit texts. By the end of the course, students will be able to read simple, narrative Sanskrit.

This course is a continuation of Introductory Sanskrit. It deepens students' knowledge of the phonology, morphology, and syntax of classical Sanskrit using both western and Indian linguistic terminology as descriptive devices. Students will apply their deeper grammatical knowledge and sharpened analytic skills to the reading of a variety of Sanskrit genres. This course counts towards LIN Major and Minor programs.

Introduction to the Spanish language for beginning students; overview of basic grammatical structures, development of vocabulary and oral and written expression.

This course is designed for heritage and native speakers with little to no knowledge of written Spanish who have basic to fluent speaking and comprehension abilities. The course provides foundations in understanding the Spanish grammatical system, opportunities to increase vocabulary and to develop writing skills and the ability to use the language across different contexts including in more formal situations. Students MUST complete the Spanish Language Assessment Questionnaire before enrolling in this course. Please visit https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/language-studies/language-course-assessment-questionnaires

Intermediate Spanish for non-natives. Intensive grammar review of the structures of Spanish integrated with an introduction to reading authentic Spanish material, with practice designed to build vocabulary and to improve oral and written expression. As part of this course, students may have the option of participating in an international learning experience that will have an additional cost and application process.

This course will explore the heritage and the modern manifestations of some Latin American, Caribbean, and Spanish musical styles and their accompanied dance forms. This course highlights the historical evolution of several prominent genres of music and dance, the place of music and dance in modern culture and their contribution in national identity and shows how European colonization and the slave trade impact on indigenous sounds and rhythms. The course is organized thematically and geographically and will be taught in English. Students who take this course for Spanish Language Citation must complete written course work in Spanish. As part of this course, students may have the option of participating in an international learning experience that will have an additional cost and application process.

Forms of cultural expression in Spain, Latin America and Spanish-speaking North America, with study of representative media, including literature, journalism, film, visual art, and the urban environment. Introduction to methods of cultural analysis.

A survey of Latin American cinema, analyzed within historical, social, political, and cultural contexts. Aesthetic and social forms and questions of identity will also be studied. Throughout the course, the cinema of various Spanish speaking nations, regions, and historical periods will be highlighted. The course is taught in English. Students who take this course for Spanish Language Citation must complete written course work in Spanish.

An intermediate level Spanish course focusing on topics and language related to professional and media spheres. Students will work with language appropriate for the workplace, newsprint, and online media, as well as financial and diplomatic institutions. Topics studied will include foreign affairs, business, advertisement, and the geopolitics of Spain, Latin and North America. Students will gain literacy and intercultural skills, as well as critical thinking skills through the study of workplace culture, newsprint and social media, current and historical political events. Writing practice may include letters, CVs, opinion pieces, as well as social media posts.

This course is designed for heritage and native speakers with solid reading and writing abilities in Spanish as well as fluent speaking and listening skills. The course provides opportunities to develop a complex Spanish grammatical system as well as opportunities to increase vocabulary, and develop writing skills and the ability to use the language across different contexts including in more formal situations.

Advanced Spanish for non-natives. Selective review of grammar with emphasis on the complex sentence; intensive practice in written and oral expression to improve proficiency. As part of this course, students may have the option of participating in an international learning experience that will have an additional cost and application process.

Practical uses of spoken and written Spanish for business contexts. This course builds on grammar and vocabulary knowledge already acquired at the intermediate level.

The course introduces students to the different ways in which speakers communicate across the diverse Spanish-speaking world. Students will analyze how culturally defined politeness, social norms, and speaker identities impact how language is used in diverse Spanish-speaking countries. Students will also explore, identify, and solve problems resulting from cultural differences between Spanish and other languages. Furthermore, students will develop pragmatic competence in Spanish and will compare variation in pragmatic norms among different Spanish-speaking communities.

Study of traditional topics of Spanish grammar from a linguistic perspective with the goal of improving students’ knowledge and usage of Spanish grammar and language understanding in general. Topics include (but are not limited to): word order variation patterns, subject types, the verbal system, and the Spanish copulas. This course employs a cross-linguistic approach, as some of these topics are discussed from a comparative perspective. This course is taught in Spanish.

This course introduces students to the discipline of linguistics through a focus on Spanish- speaking communities and the linguistic diversity amongst them. This advanced task-based course focuses on developing students’ pragmatic competence in Spanish, or the ability to use the language appropriately in different social contexts. To do so, students will analyze how culturally confined politeness norms, contextual elements, and speakers’ identities impact how language is used to carry out different speech acts such as requests, invitations, and apologies, among others, and will compare variation in pragmatic norms among different Spanish-speaking communities.

This course is for students who have no background knowledge in Urdu. The course provides students with basic information about the Urdu language paying particular attention to literacy skills, i.e. reading and writing in Urdu. Students start by learning how to write and pronounce the alphabet and how to connect letters to form new words. Then, they learn basic vocabulary in Urdu in order to express basic ideas orally and in writing. By the end of the course, students should be able to write simple sentences to express basic information, and they should be able to conduct basic conversations in Urdu. All students MUST complete the Urdu Language Assessment Questionnaire (https://www.utm.utoronto.ca/language-studies/language-course-assessment…) before enrolling in URD course for the FIRST time.