Courses

Islamic Center of Pittsburgh

  • Arabic Language Instruction

    Spring - 2015

    The Islamic Center of Pittsburgh is proud to continue its successful Arabic Language Instruction Program with instructor Ibrahim Khalifa. Each course will meet 3 hours every week for 10 weeks, for a total of 30 hours of class time. The tuition is $200 for adults and $175 for youth aged 14 and under.

    Orientation will be held on Sunday, January 4th, 2015 at 5:00pm at the ICP. This initial meeting will allow the instructor to evaluate the proficiency levels of all attendees. Please note: The class timings will thereafter be determined based on the varying aptitudes and needs of the students. If you are unable to attend the orientation, please contact the instructor to ensure you are placed in the appropriate proficiency level.

    Registration is required. All proficiency levels including beginners and native Arabic speakers are invited to register.

    About the instructor: Ibrahim Khalifa has a Master’s Degree in English language and literature and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Arab-English contrastive linguistics and translation studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He has taught Arabic at the LCTL, University of Pittsburgh, and Arabic as a second language for over six years for non-native speakers in Egypt.

    Contact: office@icp-pgh.org and linguist80@gmail.com

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Region(s): 

Carnegie Mellon University, University of Pittsburgh

  • Muslims in a Global Context: Central Asia

    Spring - 2014

    Department: 
    Global Studies, Political Science
    Credits: 
    1

    5pm Friday March 21 - 1:00 pm Sunday, March 23, 2014

    Room 100, Porter Hall, Carnegie Mellon University

    This one credit mini-course is part of a series organized by regions around the world based on their role on the world stage, their importance within the Muslim world, and the critical influence they play in the global community. The series and course seeks to illuminate the various perspectives of the Muslim community around the world. Drawing upon the expertise and research of participating faculty from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh and our partners at institutions around the world, the mini course series seeks to have students gain understanding of the religious, culture, economics and political influences of Muslims in a global context. In addition to attendance at all lectures, students enrolled for credit are required to develop and write a research paper on one of the themes of the mini-course and answer reflection prompts during the course. One- credit/ 3 units for CMU students is provided for the completion of each mini-course.

    For more info: http://www.ucis.pitt.edu/global/mini-course/685

    Register by March 1, 2014

    PITT: http://goo.gl/vhPC7Y
    CMU: contact Catherine Ribarchak at cr2@andrew.cmu.edu

    Contact Veronica Dristas at dristas@pitt.edu for any inquiries.

    Sponsored by: University of Pittsburgh's Global Studies Center, Political Science Department and the Center for Russian and East European Studies, and Carnegie Mellon University's Office of the Provost and Division of Student Affairs

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes
  • PS1903 (28672)

    Muslims in a Global Context: Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar

    Fall - 2013

    Department: 
    Political Science, Global Studies Center
    Credits: 
    1

    Muslims in a Global Context is a semi-annual mini-course series for students, educators, and the broader community to learn from faculty experts and practitioners about issues of critical importance to the understanding of countries with significant Muslim populations. Each term the cluster of countries changes. Speakers for this session include: Dr. Juan Cole, University of Michigan (Monday, November 11), Dr. James Hoesterey, Emory University, Dr. Sidharth Chandra, Michigan State, Dr. Azlan Tajuddin, LaRoche College.

    Graduate and undergraduate students from CMU and Pitt and other PCHE schools can earn 1 credit for the course.They must attend the complete course and submit term paper. CERIS member institutions can either participate via Internet or their students can attend with their instructor.
    Carnegie Mellon University students should contact Catherine Ribarchak at cr2@andrew.cmu.edu.
    Registration is REQUIRED for University of Pittsburgh students. Students can register for this course up till March 1, 2013

    CERIS institutions can either have their students attend the course at Pitt at no cost or your institution can offer it on your campus or to your local community via the Internet. For any inquiries please contact Veronica Dristas at dristas@pitt.edu

    The course is open to the public. Members of the community are asked to contact global@pitt.edu to reserve a seat.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes

University of Pittsburgh

  • Arabic, Turkish, Farsi Intensive Language Courses

    Summer - 2014

    Department: 
    Summer Language Institute
    Prerequisites: 
    http://www.slavic.pitt.edu/sli/
    Credits: 
    8

    SPEAK IT. READ IT. WRITE IT.
    Arabic, Farsi or Turkish in just 8 weeks for 8 credits at Pitt’s Summer Language Institute.

    WHAT TO EXPECT:
    • Native speakers with extensive collegiate-level teaching experience
    • Emphasis on practical pro ciency
    • Interactive instruction using state-of-the-art recording studio
    • Dorm and o -campus housing options

    SCHOLARSHIPS:
    Open to all students from throughout the country. Deadline for scholarships is March 7, 2014. Last year 90 percent of Summer Language
    Institute students received full or partial scholarships. FLAS fellowships available for
    graduate students.

    HOW TO APPLY:
    Go to www.slavic.pitt.edu/sli. Rolling applications accepted beginning in January 2014.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Region(s): 
  • HAA 1030 (28980)

    HAA 1030: Special Topics – Museum Studies Roads of Arabia: Studying, Collecting and Displaying the Art of Arabia, Ancient to Modern

    Fall - 2013

    Department: 
    History of Art and Architexture
    Credits: 
    3

    Frankincense and myrrh, the Queen of Sheba, Lawrence of Arabia: these elements figure prominently in Western perceptions of Arabia.  Recent discoveries in the region, however, have exposed a richer history of Arabian art and culture.  In conjunction with the exhibition Roads of Arabia at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History (CMNH), this course surveys the visual traditions of the Arabian Peninsula from its most ancient settlements to its modern Islamic cultures and critically examines their collection and display in museums in the Middle East and abroad. The objects in the CMNH exhibition demonstrate the cross-cultural interactions between Arabia and its Near Eastern, African, Mediterranean, and Central Asian neighbors, and between indigenous beliefs, Greco-Roman religion, and Islam, that characterize the history of art in Arabia.  We will analyze the exhibition’s aims, methods, and composition, as well as the relationship between scholarship, display, and national identity in modern countries such as Saudi Arabia, an organizer of the exhibition, and the United Arab Emirates, the future home of outposts of the Louvre and the Guggenheim.  Frequent visits to the exhibition provide intimate, once-in-a-lifetime experiences. This class could count toward the completion of the requirements for the new Museum Studies minor.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
    Region(s): 
  • 1903

    MUSLIMS IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT: GULF STATES AND IRAN

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Political Science
    Credits: 
    1

    Muslims in a Global Context is a semi-annual workshop/mini-course series that brings together faculty experts and practitioners with members of the business and cultural community, teachers, and university students for one weekend each fall and spring term. The workshops consist of presentations on topics of critical importance to the understanding of countries with significant Muslim populations. Each workshop focuses on a single cluster of countries. To register as a student or to attend as a community member for free contact Veronica Dristas, Assistant Director Outreach, Global Studies Center, University of Pittsburgh. dristas@pitt.edu

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Graduate
    Undergraduate
    Continuing Education
  • 1753 (27743)

    The Ottoman Empire (1300-1923)

    Fall - 2013

    Department: 
    History
    Credits: 
    3

    This course traces the history of the ottoman empire from its origins as an obscure band of frontier warriors, to the highpoint of its geopolitical power in the sixteenth century, and on to its further evolution as an increasingly complex and peaceful society, down to the opening of the period of European imperialism and nation building. It will address not only the ottomans' political power, but also those economic, social, and cultural factors that helped explain that power and gave the empire such a distinctive place in the history of Western Europe, Balkans and the Middle East.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
  • 1001 (22122)

    Renaissance East and West

    Fall - 2013

    Department: 
    History
    Credits: 
    3

    The Renaissance was a decisive movement in world history. It developed as a cultural and intellectual movement in the global context. Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europe and Muslim world engaged in intense exchange of ideas, objects, and skills shaped the Renaissance in Europe and in the Muslim World. This course will begin with a critical history of the evolution of the term. It will then trace the history of the Renaissance from its origins in the fourteenth century, when the political and commercial worlds of both Europe and Asia were undergoing profound changes, to the highpoint of intellectual, economic and political exchanges between East and West in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It will address the intellectual, religious and political developments that defined the Renaissance, such as humanism, revival of the ancient texts in the Muslim world, Mongols, the Crusades, papal schism in Italy in the late fourteenth century, the northern European Reformation of the sixteenth century, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. Finally, the course will consider the so-called Age of Discovery, the great overseas voyages of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan that took place between 1480 and 1540. It will explore these voyages in the light of the desire to reach the markets of the east, and follow their development and consequences through the rise of maps and charts.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
  • RELGST 0710 (27872)

    Sociology Of Religion

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Religious Studies and Sociology
    Credits: 
    3

    Religion has always been one of the most important elements of human society. Why? Sociologists have long turned their attention to religion—from classic sociologists like Durkheim and Weber struggling to understand the importance of religion, to the predictions of the coming death of religion in the 1960s. Along with these analyses we consider how political and economic structures both shape and are shaped by religion, examine the impact of secularization and fundamentalism on the world, the impact of mass media, fringe movements, and consumer culture. Students read a number of classic and contemporary works on religion.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
  • RELGST 0105 (21660)

    Religions Of The West

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Religious Studies
    Credits: 
    3

    This course is a historical introduction to the religious traditions that developed in ancient Near East and the Mediterranean. Our major emphasis is on the history of the religious traditions that emerged in late antiquity in this area and which continue to be major world religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Zoroastrianism. We focus on key concepts, historical developments, and contemporary issues. Throughout the course, we also examine interactions among these religious traditions. In the last part of the course we examine the issue of globalization and the spread of these religions around the world as well as the presence of "non-Western" religion in the "West." The course also serves as an introduction to the academic study of religion and provides a foundation for further coursework in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. No prior knowledge of any of the religions studied is expected or assumed.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
    Subject(s): 

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