This course is designed to increase students' theoretical knowledge, conceptual understanding and competencies on past, present, and emerging topics in music and health with a focus on the clinical and research implications in a variety of settings, and with a range of populations. Attention will also be given to understanding and synthesizing the ethical implications of who is providing such initiatives while also examining controversial practices. Through collaborative learning experiences, and critical examination of the research literature, this seminar will provide students with an opportunity to explore, create, apply, and discuss their specific areas of interest and future research in music and health; while enhancing their knowledge, analytic and evaluative skills with respect to this broad and expanding field.

The course will teach advanced theoretical concepts, scientific foundations, and clinical applications of music in rehabilitation medicine. Research findings in the basic neuroscience of music perception and cognition will be examined as they provide foundational knowledge for clinical translations of music, including concepts and techniques in Neurologic Music Therapy. Special emphasis will be given to biomedical applications of music technology in rehabilitation and therapy.

The student will identify an area of investigation within the field of music and health, and will undertake independent research in that area under the supervision of the candidate's advisor. Completion of this course includes a seminar presentation to the candidate's committee and public to demonstrate the candidate’s knowledge and ability to communicate.

An independent reading and research course under the supervision of a faculty advisor on an advanced topic in music and health.

This elementary Akkadian course is devoted to the study of the classical Old Babylonian dialect. The grammar is studied in depth throughout the year, using as textbook J. Huehnergard's A Grammar of Akkadian. Students must also learn the basic cuneiform signs in their standard Neo-Assyrian shape. At the end of the year students will have read most of the Code of Hammurabi and selections from omen literature.

This intermediate Akkadian course is devoted to the study of the literary Akkadian dialect of the late second and first millennia, usually known as Standard Babylonian. Students will read excerpts of literary texts and royal inscriptions in R. Borger's Babylonisch Assyrische Lesestücke and eventually proceed to more ambitious compositions such as The Annals of Sennacherib and Enuma Elish. Students are also expected to deepen their knowledge of the Neo-Assyrian cuneiform script.

In this course we read and analyze texts that are commonly called "historical," such as royal inscriptions and historical-literary compositions. We focus on texts written in Assyrian script.

The course includes readings on specific problems of Sumerian grammar and study of literary and lexical texts, chiefly from the Old Babylonian period (ca. 2000-1600 BC). Students are expected to deepen their knowledge of the cuneiform script and to be able to undertake individual research on Sumerian language and texts by the end of the year. To that effect much emphasis will be put on methodology: how to use dictionaries, electronic databases, sign lists, editions of ancient lexical and grammatical texts.

The course begins with a survey of Assyrian grammar, emphasizing the differences between the Assyrian and Babylonian dialects of Akkadian and setting Assyrian within the historical development of Akkadian and more generally of Semitic languages. The main part consists of readings in the original cuneiform of texts from the Old Assyrian period (2000–1700 BC), the Middle Assyrian period (1400–1100 BC), and the Neo-Assyrian period (900–600 BC).

In this course we read and analyze Babylonian letters and documents of the second millennium BC (Old Babylonian and Kassite eras).

The course will include basic and intermediate study of grammar Sumerian and its complex writing system. The course will involve reading and discussion of the main grammatical works as well as progressive exercises from actual texts. By the end of the year students should have acquired a fairly good understanding of the grammar and script and be able to read royal inscriptions and basic economic and administrative texts.

This course presents a thematic overview of Mesopotamian society and economy from the third millennium to the first millennium BC. The emphasis is on critical evaluation of the primary sources (in translation), such as everyday legal contracts and the so-called "Laws." It also explores different approaches to the study of ancient social structures and economies. Topics include: freedom, slavery, and social class; ethnicity; women, children, and the elderly; marriage, family, and household; crime and punishment, and the judicial system; the priesthood; palace and temple, private and state; merchants and trade; money, markets, and prices, and the question of whether there was a market economy; labour and wages; land ownership and tenure, and wealth and social inequality.

In this course we read and analyze texts that are commonly called "historical," such as royal inscriptions, chronicles, historical-literary compositions, and kudurrus. We focus on texts written in Babylonian dialect and script.

In this course we read and analyze Babylonian letters and documents of the first millennium BC (Neo-Babylonian, Achaemenid, and Hellenistic eras).

From ca. 3000 to 1600 BCE the Ancient Near East was the stage upon which parts were played by a variety of peoples and because of their great achievements, this area has often been called the "Cradle of Civilization." This course provides a broad perspective of the major events and developments, as well as a more intensive examination of specific topics: political ideology, religion, literature, and law. Such matters as the city-states of the early Sumerians, the rise of Semitic nation-states, and the famous law collection of Hammurabi of Babylon will be examined making use of both textual and archaeological evidence. The reading of original sources in translation is stressed.