For my current courses at the Hebrew University, see here:

https://openscholar.huji.ac.il/simonwolfgang_fuchs/classes

At the Universities of Freiburg and Frankfurt, I taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses covering modern and premodern Islam as well as the history of the Middle East, South Asia, the Indian Ocean and Central Asia. I’m particularly interested in introducing students to new and exciting approaches in the field.

Summer Term 2023

  • Undergraduate Seminar: “Beyond the Dry Sharia: Magic, the Occult, and Secret Knowledge in Islam” (Jenseits der trockenen Scharia: Magie, das Okkulte und geheimes Wissen im Islam)
  • Graduate Seminar: “The First Islamic Republic: The Peculiar Idea of Pakistan and Its Afterlives” (Die erste islamische Republik: Die verrückte Idee von Pakistan und was daraus heute geworden ist”

Summer Term 2022

  • Undergraduate Seminar “Fiber Optics in the House of Islam: The Digital Transformation of Religion” (Glasfasern im Haus des Islams: Die digitale Transformation der Religion)
  • Undergraduate Seminar “Community and Conflict: Sunnis and Shi’is in the Modern Period” (Gemeinschaft und Konflikt: Sunniten und Schiiten in der Moderne)
  • Lecture Course “History of Islam: The Modern Period” (Geschichte des Islams in der Moderne), co-taught with Prof. Bekim Agai
  • Graduate Seminar “What is Global Islam? Concepts, Ideas, and the Search for the Worldwide Muslim Community Since the Late 19th Century” (Was ist globaler Islam? Konzepte, Ideen und die Suche nach der weltweiten muslimischen Gemeinschaft seit dem spätern 19. Jahrhundert)

Winter Term 2021/2022

  • Undergraduate Seminar “Muslims and Others: Lived Realities, Everyday Encounters, and the Loss of Normative Certainty” (Muslim*innen und Andere: Gelebte Realitäten, konkrete Begegnungen und das Verschwinden der normativen Eindeutigkeit)
  • Undergraduate Seminar “Theory and Methods in the History of Islam” (Theorie und Methoden zur Geschichte des Islams)
  • Lecture Course “History of Islam: From the Beginnings to Premodern Times” (Geschichte des Islams in der Vormoderne), co-taught with Prof. Bekim Agai
  • Graduate Seminar “In the Land of the Stone Age Islamists? Afghanistan, History, and Islam in the 20th and 21st Century” (Im Land der Steinzeitislamisten? Afghanistan, Geschichte und Islam im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert)

Summer Term 2021

  • Undergratuate Seminar “The Caliph Does not Matter: Islamic Law and Religious Authority in Islamic History” (Der Kalif hat nichts zu melden: Islamisches Recht und religiöse Autorität in der islamischen Geschichte)
  • Graduate Seminar: “Consoling the Umma: Pan-Islam, Transnational Initiatives and the “Muslim World” in the Modern Period” (Wider den Ummakummer: Panislam, transnationale Initiativen und die “muslimische Welt” in der Moderne)

Winter Term 2020/2021

  • Undergraduate Seminar “Missed Connection? The Middle East, Europe, and the Riddle of Lost Momentum” (Anschluss verpasst? Der Nahe Osten, Europa und das Rätsel der verlorenen Dynamik)
  • Graduate Seminar: “Little Ice Ages and Mighty Microbes: Environmental History and the Middle East” (Kleine Eiszeiten und mächtige Mikroben: Was uns Umweltgeschichte über den Nahen Osten verraten kann)

Summer Term 2019

  • Undergraduate Seminar “The Muslim Sea: Ideas, Networks, and Trade in the Indian Ocean” (Das Muslimische Meer: Ideen, Netzwerke und Handel im Indischen Ozean)
  • Undergraduate Seminar “Religion and the State in the Middle East,” taught for the University College Freiburg (UCF)
  • Graduate Seminar: “Advanced Persian Reading”

Winter Term 2018/2019

  • Undergraduate Seminar “At the End of the World, Where Empires Come to Die: Afghanistan in the 20th and 21st Century (Am Ende der Welt, wo Imperien scheitern: Afghanistan im 20. und 21. Jahrhundert)
  • Graduate Seminar: “Introduction to Iran for Students of the MA Modern Islamic World” (together with Prof. Tim Epkenhans)

Summer Term 2018

  • Undergraduate Seminar: “From the Balkans to Bengal: The Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals in Comparative Perspective” (Vom Balkan bis nach Bengalen: Osmanen, Safaviden und das Mogulreich im Vergleich)
  • Graduate Seminar: “The Beats of Beirut Meet the Races of Riyad: Popular Culture in the Middle East since the Premodern Period” (Beirut bebt und Riad rast: Der Nahe Osten und seine Alltagskultur seit der Vormoderne)
  • Advising of a BA Thesis on “The Islamic State and its Strategies of Legitimization”

Winter Term 2017/2018:

  • Undergraduate Seminar: “Religion and State in the Middle East” (Religion und Staat im Nahen Osten)
  • Graduate Seminar: “Salafism: Debating the Genesis of a Phenomenon” (Salafismus: Entwicklung, Themen und aktuelle Forschung)