Courses 2022

Zahra Institute 2022 Courses

Each of the following minicourses runs for four weeks. The classes will meet online once a week for three hours. The courses are designed for a broad spectrum of learners including upper level undergraduate and graduate level students, as well as independent scholars.

Introduction to Kurdish Linguistics

Instructor: Mustafa Durmaz

While Kurdish language courses in the United States are rare, courses devoted to Kurdish linguistics are even more so. This course examines the Kurdish language, its dialects according to their geographical distribution, and its genetic affiliation with other languages and presents core structural properties of Kurdish. In this class, students will gain familiarity with the typology and general linguistic properties of Kurdish (Kurmanji) along with Kurdish alphabet, writing system and sound system.
Course Code: ZMI 001

Monday, 1-4 PM Central Daylight Time (GMT -5)
July 18, July 25, Aug 1, Aug 8
Registration Deadline: July 16, 2022

Postcolonial Theory and Kurdish Studies

Instructor: TBD

In recent decades postcolonial theory has launched a powerful critique of the humanities and social sciences. Postcolonial approaches, based on alternative epistemologies, question the modes of knowledge production and lingering effects of colonialism in the modern social sciences. This course applies to Kurdish studies the critique and objections raised by postcolonial theories. The course will examine the representation of Kurds in late Ottoman and Republican Turkish administrative documents, embassy reports, missionary accounts, travelogues, literary works, and scientific works to reveal their implicit biases.
Course Code: ZMI 002

Tuesday, 1-4 PM Central Daylight Time (GMT -5)
July 19, July 26, Aug 2, Aug 9
Registration Deadline: July 16, 2022

Kurds, Islam, and Nationalism

Instructor: Kamal Soleimani

Kurds today find themselves at the contested nexus of religion and various nationalisms, with Islam, a potential common ground, employed both for and against their interests. This minicourse aims to make sense of the experience of ‘Kurdish Islam’ and its entanglement with the modern Kurdish struggle. The course attempts to understand how Islam has been reinterpreted to accommodate Kurdish claims to national rights, chief among them the right to statehood. Together we will explore such concepts as sovereignty, secularism, nation, and nationalism in the context of contemporary Kurdish experience.
Course Code: ZMI 003

Wednesday and Friday, 1-4 PM Central Daylight Time (GMT -5)
July 20, July 22, July 27, July 29
Registration Deadline: July 16, 2022

Kurdish Soundscapes: Radio, Music, Tradition

Instructor: Jon Bullock

This course provides an introduction to the role of sound in Kurdish society since the early twentieth-century proliferation of sonic technologies such as recording and broadcasting. Through an emphasis on primary and secondary sources drawn from the fields of ethnomusicology, media studies, and postcolonial studies (among others), students will examine the role of colonial and state power in shaping sonic practices in Kurdish society and culture, as well as the importance of music and media in providing Kurds new ways of responding to and critiquing that same power.
Course Code: ZMI 004

Monday, 1-4 PM Central Daylight Time, (GMT -5)
Aug 15, Aug 22, Aug 29, Sept 5
Registration Deadline: Aug 15, 2022

Said Nursi and the Kurdish Identity

Instructor: Mucahit Bilici

One of the most important religious and intellectual figures in modern Turkey is Said Nursi. His parochial appropriation by his followers in the contemporary Nurcu Movement has, however, obscured many aspects of this highly consequential Muslim scholar from the larger public. His Kurdish identity and the intellectual and political dimensions of his early life, in particular, have been overlooked and at times intentionally distorted. This course will explore the relevance of Said Nursi's Kurdish identity to his biography and intellectual output and examine the reception of his work and the various forms of violence to which his legacy has been subjected since his death.
Course Code: ZMI 005

Tuesday, 1-4 PM Central Daylight Time (GMT -5)
Aug 16, Aug 23, Aug 30, Sept 6
Registration Deadline: Aug 15, 2022

Readings in Classical Kurdish Literature: Melayê Cizîrî

Instructor: Ibrahim Bor

Written mostly in verse, Kurdish literature deserves greater scholarly attention, for it is through Kurdish literature that one can most clearly trace the intellectual and aesthetic development of Kurdish culture. This course will introduce Classical Kurdish literature and highlight some of its main themes. After a general survey of the period, we will engage in an interpretation of selections from Melayê Cizîrî’s Dîwan, one of the most important Kurdish literary works. Through a hermeneutical approach to Cizîrî’s poetry, we will understand his approach to such concepts as being, God, religion, gender and what it means to be human.
Course Code: ZMI 006

Wednesday, 1-4 PM Central Daylight Time (GMT -5)
Aug 17, Aug 24, Aug 31, Sept 7
Registration Deadline: Aug 15, 2022