Maritimity and Global Societies: Arabian Seafarers and the Making of the Modern World

Catalog description

What does it mean to be maritime? How have oceans and seafaring shaped the ways people, ideas, and cultures have connected across time and space? This course investigates ocean interconnectedness and early globalization within the framework of the Islamic maritime realm. We explore how maritime history from the Bronze Age to the present shaped the modern world and investigate how "maritimity" - the ways in which human societies engage with the sea - was the catalyst and facilitator for social change. We study how Arabian seafarers spread ideas, religions, technologies, goods, and ways of life, and discover global identities and cultures made possible by connectivity and fragmentation. Through fieldwork in Abu Dhabi, we will learn celestial navigation and analyze ancient star maps to reflect on how sailors conceptualized the seas and coasts around them. Finally, using traditional recording methods and photogrammetry, we will document ship structure to understand the technologies that made a globalized world possible, and appreciate how each vessel embodies the "maritimity" of five millennia. This course will be offered in January-Term 2026. This course includes at least four days of doing field work on an island in the Arabian Gulf. Students will not be staying on campus during this time.