South Asia in the Indian Ocean

3 Credits · Level: Undergraduate

With half the world’s population living within fifty miles of its shores, the Indian Ocean has borne witness to remarkable circulations of people, goods, and ideas for millennia. As part of a new series of interdisciplinary courses on the Indian Ocean, we will cover literary, historical, and anthropological approaches to studying the Indian Ocean, introducing students to a wide range of texts and approaches, and focusing on South Asia. The class will be taught in the Global Classroom (with students based in DC and Doha), and will be co-taught by Profs. Ananya Chakravarti, Rogaia Abusharaf, and Cóilín Parsons. This course will be the first of a two-course sequence focused specifically on the South Asian hub of the Indian Ocean world, and will include a trip to Kerala and Goa for enrolled students in the Spring 2025 course. Students who enroll in the fall are not required to take the Spring course but may wish to consider committing to the full two-semester sequence, including the study trip. Enrollment in Spring 2025 is subject to available space and resources.