Table of Contents Undergraduate Program Description Major Requirements Minor Requirements Courses

Contacts

• Associate Director of the Islamic Civilization and Societies Program: Kathleen Bailey, Adjunct Associate Professor, Political Science, McGuinn 529, 617-552-4170, kathleen.bailey.1@bc.edu
• Coordinator of the Islamic Civilization and Societies Program: Susan Leonard, Gasson 104, 617-552-9139, susan.leonard.1@bc.edu
• www.bc.edu/ics

Undergraduate Program Description

The interdisciplinary major in Islamic Civilization and Societies encompasses faculty and courses from across the university. The program prepares students for careers in diplomacy, journalism, business, government, social service, as well as graduate academic or professional study. Students who complete the major will attain proficiency in Arabic or another language related to the region, along with valuable skills and broader horizons that only an interdisciplinary major can provide.

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Major Requirements

The major consists of ten required courses (30 credits) plus language proficiency (four semesters of a relevant language or native speaking ability).

Islamic Civilization and Societies Core: One Course

Integrative and multidisciplinary, this course is designed as an introduction to the field. It explores rich culture produced in the regions where Islam was the predominant religion during the past 1,400 years. The course is offered in the fall semester, is open to non-majors, and fulfills the Cultural Diversity Core requirement.

Disciplinary Base: Four Courses

Choose a Disciplinary Base in History, Political Science, Theology, Fine Arts, or Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures. Take all required departmental foundation courses and two additional courses in your primary department. Visit the department website at www.bc.edu/ics for the list of approved courses.

Departmental Foundation Courses: Two courses

• Political Science: PO 041/042 Fundamentals of Politics I and II
• Fine Arts: FA 101/102 Art from Prehistoric Times to High Middle Ages/Art: Renaissance to Modern Times
  
• History: Two courses from the HS 001-094 sequence: HS 059
  Islam and Global Modernities preferred
• Theology: Any of the two-semester University Core requirements: TH 161 Religious Quest preferred
• Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures: Any two of the following: SL 147 Language and Identity in the Middle East, SL 150 States and Minorities in the Middle East, SL 148 Modern Middle Eastern and Arabic Literature, SL 291 Near Eastern Civilization

Base Discipline Electives: Two Courses

Political Science:

PO 363 Muslims in U.S. Society and Politics

PO 403 Rise and Rule of Islamic States

PO 414 Politics and Society in Central Eurasia
PO 444 Intellectuals & Politics in the Middle East
PO 450 France and the Muslim World
PO/IN 475 Kuwait: Politics & Oil in the Fulf
PO 502 U.S.-Iran Relations since World War II
PO 527 Terrorism and Political Violence
PO 528 International Relations of The Middle East
PO 532 Politics of Middle East
PO 615 Islam and Liberal Democracy

PO 638 Islamic Political Philosophy
PO 700 Muslims & American Institutions

PO 806 Political Cultures of the Middle East

PO 812 State-Church Relations in Modern Europe
PO 813 Islam in Europe

History:

HS 207 Islamic Civilization in the Middle East

HS 208 Middle East in the Twentieth Century

HS 315 Islam in South Asia

HS 326 Modern Iran

HS 339 Byzantium and Islam

HS 343 Rise and Fall of the Ottoman Empire
HS 344 History & Historiography of Arab Israeli Conflict

HS 353 Africa, Islam, and Europe
HS 365 Odysseys in the Western and Islamic Traditions

HS 385 Modern South Asia
HS 575 Terror and the American Century

HS 667 Jews and Islamic Civilization

Theology:
TH 116 Medieval Religions & Thought
TH/IC 225 Exploring the Religious Worlds of Istanbul and Anatolia

TH 325 Lebanon: Focal Point of a Crisis

TH 351 Faith Elements in Conflict

TH 352 Israelis and Palestinians
TH 441 Ibn ’Arabi & The Islamic Humanities: Islamic Philosophy & Theology

TH 544 Prophetic Tradition and Inspiration: Exploring the Hadith

TH 554 Encountering the Qur'an: Contexts and Approaches

TH 557 Introduction to Islamic Philosophical Traditions
TH 566 Mystical Poetry in the Islamic Humanities
TH 576 Pathways to God: Islamic Theologies in Context

Fine Arts:

FA 176 Jerusalem

FA 203 Great Cities of the Islamic Lands

FA 213 Introduction to Islamic Architecture

FA 214 The Art of the Silk Road
FA 226 Islamic Spain/al-Andalus: Word, Monument, and Image

FA 234 Mosques, Minarets, and Madrasas

FA 235 The Arts of Persia

FA 276 Islamic Art

FA 280 Masterpieces of Islamic Art

FA 350 The Art of the Object/Islamic Art

FA 409 The Art of the Islamic Book

FA 410 Orientalism
FA 412 Cairo: City of 1001 Nights

FM 314 Cinema of the Greater Middle East

Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures:

SL 037/038 Modern Hebrew I and II

SL 091/TH 582 Biblical Hebrew
SL 183/4 Turkish for Scholars I and II

SL 232 Literature of the Other Europe in Translation
SL 249 Gender and War in Eastern Europe

SL 250 Conversion, Islam, and Politics in the Balkans

SL 251/252 Advanced Arabic I an II

SL 272 War and Peace in Yugoslavia

SL/SC 280 Society/National Identity in the Balkans

SL 286/EN 252 Exile and Literature

SL 291 Near Eastern Civilizations
SL 294 Advanved Readings in Persian Texts

SL 359 The Structure of Biblical Hebrew
SL 382 Buisness Arabic
SL 398 Advanced Tutorial Arabic

Electives: Three Courses

Majors choose three elective courses from an approved list found on our website at www.bc.edu/ics. Electives must be distributed among at least two other departments in addition to the disciplinary base.

Senior Seminar and Research Project/Honors Thesis: Two Courses

All majors will be required to enroll in a thesis seminar in the fall of their senior year. In the spring term of their senior year, students will complete a senior thesis under the supervision of a faculty member affiliated with the Program.

The Senior Seminar will allow ICS majors to integrate the knowledge, skills, and concepts of their diverse disciplinary bases and to share them in a genuinely cross-disciplinary manner. The course encourages students to make intellectual connections across disciplines and to engage in critical reflection. After exploring common themes, majors will develop a research design, select a methodology, engage in research, and begin writing the thesis.

Language Requirement: Four Courses

Students will be expected to attain proficiency (completion of intermediate level) in a relevant language such as Arabic, Hebrew, Turkish, Persian, or Urdu. In some cases, French, Russian, Chinese or other languages relevant to specific research concerns may be accepted for students specializing in the study of Muslims in Africa, Central Asia, China, Europe, or the Americas, subject to approval by the program's director.

Boston College currently offers four years of Arabic language instruction, from Elementary Intensive through Advanced Arabic. Students studying abroad can enroll in even more intensive language programs offered in Morocco, Kuwait, Egypt, Jordan, and at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London (SOAS) during the regular academic year and in the summer. Our students have also studied during the summer months at Middlebury, Harvard and Columbia to accelerate their language skills, and several have won U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholarships and Flagship Fellowships to study Arabic in the summer.

Arabic and other relevant languages can be taken through the Boston Area Consortium. Our Consortium partners, B.U., Brandies, and Tufts in particular, offer additional languages such as Persian, Turkish and advanced levels of Hebrew if majors wish to study a language other than, or in addition to, Arabic.

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Minor Requirements

Students seeking to earn an Islamic Civilization and Societies minor must submit a proposed plan of study to the Associate Director, listing the courses that will be taken to fulfill the requirements. In general, proposed plans of study for the minor should be submitted no later than the second semester of the sophomore year. The Associate Director will review the proposed plan of study, in consultation with the student and Program Director, and if accepted, the Committee will grant approval for the student.

Fill out and email the proposed plan of study form before scheduling an appointment with the Associate Director. Whenever possible, the Associate Director will arrange for each student to receive continuing academic advisement from a faculty member in the student's academic major who is affiliated with the Islamic Civilization and Societies Program. Students will be expected to consult with the Associate Director at each semester registration period to update their plan of study.

Requirements for the Islamic Civilization and Societies Minor

• Six courses from the approved course list
• Selected courses must be from three different academic departments
• Required multidisciplinary foundation course IC 199 (fall semester)
  
• Two courses in Arabic or an equivalent language, at the intermediate level or above

Requirements for the Arabic Studies Minor

The Department of Slavic & Eastern Languages and Literature offers a minor in Arabic Studies, which covers areas of Modern Standard Arabic and Modern Hebrew, Modern Middle Eastern Literature and Cultural History, and Near Eastern Civilizations.

• Six approved one-semester courses
• Two in Modern Standard Arabic, above the intermediate level
• Four in Middle Eastern languages, cultures, literatures and civilizations. May include a language course in Modern (Israeli) Hebrew, courses taught in translation, and Near Eastern Civilizations

For additional information see Slavic & Eastern Languages and Literatures.

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