ASCM V2001

I think Professor Busch did not say a single positive thing about Hindus the whole semester, and kept criticizing implicitly their practices, beliefs, and even origins. I don't understand why she would be teaching a course on India when she can't seem to present a single good quality about Hinduism. Although tries to come off as impartial, is a very biased Professor.

Professor Bakhle is the most engaging speaker I have ever encountered, and that includes years of experience in competitive oratorical and debate competitions. She is naturally an amazing speaker. Her lectures are fierce and brilliant. You simply do not take your eyes off of her when she is speaking. Granted, she is a bit theatrical--she struts across the stage before making an important statement--but that only makes things more interesting. Every single lecture in the Topics course was packed with information. You were inundated with insanely interesting facts, theories, themes, etc etc. I absolutely loved it. I couldn't get enough of watching Bakhle. I learned so much about Indian history in half a semester that I probably know more than all of my Indian friends. I don't think this course will be offered again, but you would be foolish not to at least sit in on a lecture by Prof Bakhle.

A decent amount of reading, one medium paper that you can expect a B or B+ on, assuming you've done at least half of the reading and have come to a couple of the lectures. Easy final.

My friends and I are flabbergasted over the reviews for this professor. After walking away from this class, I knew NOTHING about the Middle East, and I frankly don't think that she did either. The only good thing about Kassab is that you don't have to do the reading because if you do, you will fall asleep in class since the only thing she's going to do is regurgitate what the authors say. And even if you do decide to do the reading, it's very, very little. It's a great way to get four points. I was very upset about this class because I feel like she wasted the opportunity to teach over a hundred students about the Middle East- an area of the world which is of interest to students across the country. And this class would have been the perfect venue to open students up to new ideas with primary sources.

midterm was ridiculous. it was okay for me because i am from the region originally.

Grading is done by TAs in section (which meets once a week for an hour). The course is divided into two halves (one though by prof Bakhle and one taught by prof Massad). The work in both halves is identical. 1 5-6 page paper, 1 test (call it a midterm or final or whatever you want), 1 map quiz. The test and the paper are worth 20% each, participation 5%. Second half has the same grading scheme.

Frankly, I don't understand the hype. Issues of political bias aside, Massad simply wasn't a very good professor. His lecturing was scattershot and rambling, especially compared to Janaki Bakhle, who taught the first half of the class. For example, our lecture about (ostentiably) Saudi Arabia was around 20 minutes of discussion as to whether or not the author of our assigned reading was an Orientalist (a term you'll grow thoroughly sick of during the course) and a good 45 minutes of ranting about Israel. He was perfectly courteous to me when I approached him after class with some questions that could be interpreted as an attack, which I appreciate greatly. However, that can't make up for the unfocused, rambling lectures and the bizarre nature of the readings. Can you imagine a class on abortion where the only assigned reading was Planned Parenthood pamphlets? Well, Professor Massad's only assigned reading on Zionism/Israel was the classic anti-Zionist work "Israel: A Colonial Settler State?" by Maxime Rodinson. The class started with the birth of Islam as if all of the important events that took place in the MIddle East--the rise and fall of the Persian Empire, the birth of Judaism, the birth of Christianity--hell, the birth of civilisation! paled in significance before Islam. All in all, Professor Massad seems to be the darling of the Middle Eastern professors around the coun…

just a biased professor who portrays a nation, culture, religion, and region as backward, decrepit, downtrodden, and a shame for the world. a major cultures class? i would say not. the reason: hinduism is portrayed from the observer's eyes, while the christianity/judaism/islam are taught from the believer's eyes. simply ridiculous. i could not bear sitting through that class at some points. the class was supposed to be about civilizations, but we spent approximately 5 minutes on the indus valley civ and 20 minutes on the moghul empire. Rest of the class was spent on how women are abused, sati (an ancient practice that she herself said was no longer an issue...then why did we waste time on it?), and the sexual texts of india. horrendous portrayal of this land. Aside from all this was the fact that she referred to an ancient text as "full of crazy S--T". While the text may be controversial, it was pretty ridiculous of her to say that in the classroom. In my opinion, she should not even be teaching at Columbia, and should not teach anywhere...until she understands that at this point in time, we have to learn BOTH positives and negatives of a culture, not just one. She has discouraged me from taking any more MEALAC classes about South Asia.

Prof. Bakhle is amazing. She is an incredibly enthusiastic and engaging lecturer, genuine person, and critical in her approach to the course and its material. This course is not a history course, per se; rather, the course focuses on several themes (nationalism, modernization, religion, revolution, gender issues, etc) and then puts each theme into critical discourse. You really cannot ask for more from a List A major cultures. Bakhle only teaches half of the course and then Prof. Massad takes over. Bakhle's lectures were always packed, while Massad's were half empty. You've probably heard that Bakhle is a hardass. This is true; however, all she asks is that you show up on time to lecture and not fall asleep or have Jay Z's "Big Pimpin'" ringtone blast throughout the lecture hall. But if her lectures themselves aren't enough to keep you up, you shouldn't be there in the first place. This course is a must-take.

For the India half of the class: loads of reading (most of which you don't have to do), one paper, one midterm (which was pretty unreasonable but curved).