Is there a culture out there that has the “sacred knowledge” necessary to save our planet? What can mosquitos teach us about what it means to be human? Does the desert explain why the Middle East is so full of conflict? If the Ganga river is so sacred, why is it so polluted?  Can we “manage” and “invent” our way out of global environmental catastrophe? How much of the Syrian civil war can be explained by drought? Is the world going to end because of a war over water in Kashmir?

These questions highlight the underlying project of the class, and will drive the readings and activities that we will engage in over the semester. From arid cities to irrigated fields, hot deserts to high mountains, the Middle East and South Asia encompasses a range of environments for thinking through the relationships between nature and society, people and animals, human and nonhuman worlds. In this course, we will read academic and literary texts, watch films and video clips, look at images and pictorial commentary, and listen to music and media to help us answer these questions.  The final project of the course will be a poster on an individually-selected research project. The poster will be presented at a workshop for visiting scholars and you will have the opportunity to receive feedback from these experts in the field, as well as help shape the trajectory of this emerging scholarly conversation. There will be several projects along the way that will build toward that goal.

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