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Independent Study and by Tutorials.

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Writing II: Exploring Global Multi-Culturalism Through People and Places  

Mondays-10.00 am-1.00pm and 2.00-5.oo pm. Location:AM: Bedford Square, Room 12. PM: Birkbeck College, G02

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Fall 2008 at NYU–London

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Global Cultures (South Asian Studies):

Wednesdays–10.00 am to 1.00 pm.

Location: Bedford Square, Room 11

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Topics in Modern Society–Sophomore Seminar:

Children of Colonialism: Anglo-Indians as an Ethnic Global Minority.

Thursdays–10.00 am to 1.00 pm.

Location: Bedford Square, Room 11

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Writing 1: London Through American Eyes

Thursdays–2.00-5.oo pm.

Location: Birkbeck College, Room 204

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Spring 2008: NYU on Washington Square 

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South Asian Civilization

Tuesdays and Thursdays  –9.30-10.45 pm

Tuesdays and Thursdays–11.00-12.15 pm   

Location:  Tisch LC 4    

The goal of this course is to achieve a broad understanding of the contemporary politics, history, and culture of the Indian sub-continent (India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka).  Using a variety of literary texts, the dynamic relationship between tradition and modernity in the countries of South Asia will be examined.

This course will take the pattern of lectures at each class that will introduce the historical and sociological contexts for the prescribed texts. This will be followed by a detailed discussion of the texts under consideration.  Where possible and relevant, we will intersperse this pattern of classes with the viewing of films, video cassettes, news-clips, etc. Students are strongly urged to watch at least some of the films from the list below, in their own time, to enhance their understanding of the contemporary state of the Indian sub-continent.

The Politics of Mourning: Grief Management in Contemporary World Literature

Tuesdays and Thursdays–2.00-3.15 am.

Location: Tisch LC 4

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      This seminar is envisioned as an interdisciplinary course combining the study of Multicultural Literature with Psychology, Psychotherapy and Pedagogy. It has, as its objective, an examination and analysis of the manner in which people from varying cultural backgrounds approach, deal with and finally resolve grief. In an age in which mass grief—both the personal experience of it and the indirect contact with it through the viewing of it in the media, have become common—thanks to natural disasters (hurricanes, earthquakes, tidal waves), terrorist activity, air and space disasters, etc. it becomes relevant for us to study the variations in bereavement management that make the process of grieving different from one culture to the next. Through the work of 20th century psychotherapists from Sigmund Freud to Nicolas Abraham and Maria Torok, we will study the manner in which multi-culturalism affected bereavement theories and practices in the past one hundred years. By reading and analysing the short fiction of multi-ethnic writers such as Gloria Naylor, Amy Tan, Chitra Banerjee-Divakaruni and others as well as mainstream writers like William Faulkner, Lydia Davis and Raymond Carver, we shall examine whether bibliotherapy might evolve into an effective means of healing. Understanding that socio-religious factors and cultural conditioning affect the manner in which people react to loss and resolve their grief will help us empathize and assist in their successful recuperation.