This course examines the humanities from the standpoint of global interconnections. Using historical, literary, linguistic, and philosophical approaches to cultural criticism, reception and production, we study the major traditions of critical theory, including semiology, deconstruction, feminism, psychoanalysis, phenomenology, the Annals School and the Frankfurt School. Concerned with how the world gives itself to appearances, these epistemological methods allow us to tease out the critical charge embedded in the notion of culture itself.

This course focuses on the student's research proposal and an initial exploration of the literature review. Under the supervision of their supervisor, Students are expected to finalize the writing of an extended thesis proposal of 8000 words (excluding the references) that will include the following sections: The background of the research, the rationale and motivation for their proposed research, the proposed theoretical framework and an initial literature review section.

This course examines the ways in which interdisciplinarity is practiced in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Students will be exposed to research projects undertaken across contemporary fields of knowledge – including but not limited to the digital humanities, intercultural communication, translation and interpreting, cultural heritage, women and gender studies, sciences and technology studies – and yet inheriting from traditional “disciplines” that have founded the Humanities and Social Sciences (philosophy, literature, linguistics, law, sociology, political science, etc.). Class discussion will be tailored towards mapping the different types of knowledge integration and their tension with knowledge specialization (mono-, anti-, multi-, inter-, trans-disciplinarity). Exposure and discussion, the two pillars of this course, will equip students to critically reflect on the potentials and limitations of interdisciplinarity in the endeavor to bridge the gap between Society and the Humanities and Social Sciences.

This course will introduce students to the hackneyed and complex notion of interdisciplinarity and to the ways in which it has been theorized in Interdisciplinarity Studies and practiced in Women, Digital and Translation Studies. It will invite students to develop their interdisciplinary skills in critical and reflexive ways.

This course prepares students embarking on social science research with the necessary research methods and techniques to conduct, evaluate and communicate research. The course examines the epistemological foundations of qualitative and quantitative research, in addition to ethical and political factors in research. It familiarizes students with research design, research methods and data collection. It also introduces linkages between broader theoretical and conceptual issues and alternative hypothesis through which to organize knowledge, construct ideas and present various arguments.

This course analyses the contemporary Gulf States from the perspectives of politics, political sociology, economics and international relations. It seeks to locate the states in an international context in order to identify and evaluate the manner in which their policies have evolved. This course will seek to achieve this through an interdisciplinary analysis of the subject manner. It gives focus to the challenges faced and policy responses. The course will conclude with an examination of the challenges of economic, political and security reform in the Gulf States.