Courses & learning paths

A plain-language introduction to artificial intelligence for everyone. This course explains what AI really is and is not, traces its journey from early rule-based systems to today's large language models, and unpacks the core ideas of data, training, models, and neural networks without any math. You will learn how…

A practical, vendor-agnostic guide to getting reliable, useful work out of large language models. You will build an intuition for how these systems generate text, learn to write prompts that clearly communicate task, context, constraints, and format, and pick up core techniques such as role framing, worked…

A beginner-friendly survey of Gurmat Sangeet, the classical tradition of Sikh sacred music. This course explores the practice of Kirtan and its central place in Sikh worship, the system of Raags that organizes Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, an overview of the thirty-one main Raags, the traditional instruments and the…

An introduction to the role of Raag, the classical melodic framework of South Asian music, within Gurbani and the worship tradition of the Sikhs. This course explains what a Raag is, how Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is organized by Raag, the emotional character associated with the principal Raags, and how melody is…

An exploration of Sikh sacred architecture, from the meaning and function of the Gurdwara to the celebrated Harmandir Sahib at Amritsar. This course examines the core spaces of a Gurdwara, the symbolism woven into its design, the rise of a recognizable Sikh architectural style, and how built form expresses the…

A respectful survey of the visual art traditions of the Sikh world, from illuminated manuscripts and decorated copies of scripture to the painting workshops that flourished under Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The course traces how Sikh painting drew on, and departed from, the Pahari and Mughal schools; examines the gilded…

This course offers a guided academic survey of the Sikh literary tradition from its origins to the present day. Students learn to read, situate, and analyze the major works as literature and as cultural record rather than reproducing the sacred and classical texts themselves. The sweep runs from the poetic…

An academic introduction to the classical poetic forms used in Sikh literature, studied through the great narrative works of Kavi (Bhai) Santokh Singh. The course examines metre, figures of speech, mood, and the heroic ballad, and asks how poetic form helps shape religious and historical meaning.

A 200-level journey through Gurmat Sangeet — the classical music tradition of Sikhi. From Guru Nanak and Bhai Mardana to the 31 raags of Gurbani, the sacred instruments, the great schools of kirtan, the colonial-era near-loss, and the modern revival.

An advanced study of Bhai Vir Singh's Rana Surat Singh, the first major Punjabi blank-verse epic, tracing its spiritual narrative of grief, nature imagery, and the soul's journey toward divine peace.

A literary and historical study of Bhai Vir Singh's Sundari (1898), widely held as the first Punjabi novel, and its companion works Bijay Singh and Satwant Kaur, set amid 18th-century Sikh persecution.

A rigorous yet accessible introduction to Gurmat, the theology of the Guru's teachings, covering the nature of the Divine, the Shabad Guru, the path of devotion, grace and effort, ethics and equality, and the meaning of liberation.

A college-level introduction to Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the eternal living Guru of the Sikhs. The course examines how the scripture was compiled by Guru Arjan Dev Ji and completed under Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the community of voices it gathers (Gurus, Bhagats, and Bhatts), its arrangement by Raag, its script and…

This course surveys the lives, teachings, and contributions of the ten human Gurus, from Guru Nanak Dev Ji to Guru Gobind Singh Ji, and the conferral of eternal Guruship upon ਸ੍ਰੀ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜੀ. It pays special attention to how the devotional chronicles of Kavi (Bhai) Santokh Singh, above all his Sri Gur…

An academic introduction to the Panj Kakaar (the Five Ks) and the formed Sikh identity of the Khalsa, taught in the voice of the Rehat tradition associated with Bhai Chaupa Singh Chhibber, author of one of the earliest Rehatnamas (codes of conduct). The course studies each of the five articles of faith…

An academic, term-by-term study of the Mool Mantar, the foundational statement that opens Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji at Ang 1. The course explains each phrase in plain English, situates it within classical and modern Sikh scholarship, and shows how these few words frame the whole of Gurbani and shape Sikh life.…

A phrase-by-phrase study of the Mool Mantar — the opening of Sri Guru Granth Sahib that names every attribute of Waheguru: one, true, creator, fearless, without enmity, timeless, unborn, self-existent, and known by grace.

A section-by-section study of Japji Sahib, Guru Nanak's foundational prayer that opens Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji: the Mool Mantar, all 38 pauris, and core concepts like Hukam, Nadar, Sach, and the Khands.

A study of Hukam (ਹੁਕਮੁ), the divine order at the heart of Japji Sahib — what it means, how it relates to free will, how it differs from Qadar and karma, and how it is lived through Bhaana, Ardas, and Sarbat da Bhala.

An intermediate theology course on the Sikh understanding of death as a peaceful transition: the soul (ਆਤਮਾ), Sachkhand, reincarnation reframed, grief, and Antam Sanskaar practices.

An introduction to khima (forgiveness and forbearance) in Sikh ethics: why Gurbani treats forgiving as strength, how it differs from condoning harm, and how it coexists with justice, self-forgiveness, and the Sikh historical example.

An honest, non-preachy study of the five vices Gurbani names as inner thieves — Kaam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh and Ahankaar — and the practical wisdom Gurbani offers for working with each.

This course examines the Punjab as the geographical, cultural, and spiritual cradle of the Sikh tradition, tracing how the land of the five rivers shaped the lives of the ten Gurus and the institutions they founded. Students explore the rupture of the 1947 Partition, the sacred geography of Harmandir Sahib and the Takhts, and the social challenges facing Punjab today. The course argues that land, memory, and faith are deeply intertwined in Sikh identity.

This course examines the southern frontier of Sikh history, centered on the town of Nanded on the banks of the Godavari River in present-day Maharashtra, where Guru Gobind Singh Ji spent his final months in 1708 and conferred eternal Guruship upon Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. It traces the rise of Takht Sachkhand Sri Hazur Sahib as one of the five seats of Sikh temporal authority and explores how geography, distance from Punjab, and local Maharashtrian culture produced a distinctive regional expression of Sikhi. Students will learn how the Nanded sangat preserved and adapted Khalsa traditions over three centuries.

This course examines the formation, flourishing, and forced transformation of the Sikh community in East Africa, from the laborers and artisans who built the Uganda Railway in the 1890s to the prosperous gurdwara-centered communities of colonial Kenya and Uganda. It traces how East African Sikhs preserved Panthic identity far from Punjab, navigated the 1972 Uganda expulsion under Idi Amin, and became a distinctive "twice-migrant" diaspora whose Swahili-Punjabi culture reshaped Sikh communities in Britain and Canada.

This course traces the British Sikh story from the regiments of the British Indian Army through the mass labour migrations that followed the Partition of 1947 to the formation of one of Europe's most visible diaspora communities. It examines the landmark legal struggles, the building of monumental gurdwaras, the layered question of British Sikh identity, and the unresolved politics of the diaspora.

This course traces the Sikh presence in Canada from the first arrivals in 1897 through the trauma of the Komagata Maru and the long struggle for inclusion, to the contemporary reality of one of the most influential Sikh communities in the world. Students examine settlement patterns in British Columbia and Ontario, the politics of Canadian multiculturalism, and the remarkable civic and political prominence Sikhs have achieved. The course balances celebration of integration with honest analysis of racism, the Air India tragedy, and diaspora nationalism.

This course traces the history of Sikhs in the United States from the pioneering Punjabi agriculturalists who arrived in California in the early twentieth century through the convert communities, post-1984 refugees, and civil-rights advocates of the present day. Students examine how American law, racism, and migration shaped a distinctive and internally diverse Sikh American identity. The arc runs from Bhai Jawala Singh's Stockton Gurdwara of 1912 to the legal advocacy of the Sikh Coalition after 9/11.

This course traces the migration, settlement, and transformation of Sikh communities across the Malay Peninsula and Singapore from the late nineteenth century to the present. It examines how Sikh police, soldiers, and watchmen of British Malaya built enduring gurdwara networks, and how Sikhs negotiated a distinctive "Punjabi-Malaysian" identity within Malay-cultural and Chinese-majority societies. Students will analyze the sociology of a small but resilient diaspora shaped by tropical climate, colonial labor regimes, and post-colonial nation-building.

This course traces the Sikh presence in Australia from the camel-driving pioneers of the nineteenth-century outback through the exclusionary decades of the White Australia Policy to the post-1970s migrations that have made Sikhs one of the continent's fastest-growing faith communities. Students examine how a distinctly Australian Sikh identity has taken shape at the meeting point of laid-back Antipodean culture and Punjabi heritage, and how Sikhs have entered rural agriculture, parliamentary politics, interfaith dialogue, and civic festival life. The course combines sociological analysis with historical narrative to map a diaspora that is at once deeply rooted and rapidly expanding.

This course examines the formation and consolidation of Sikh communities in Germany and across continental Europe, tracing the arc from a tiny post-war presence to substantial congregations built largely by asylum seekers fleeing the violence of 1984 and its aftermath. It analyzes how European models of secularism, citizenship, and integration interact with the Sikh commitment to a visible religious identity, especially the dastaar. Students will engage with legal disputes over turbans in schools and identity documents, transnational Sikh networks, and the comparative politics of religious visibility in France, Belgium, Italy, and beyond.

This course examines the emergence of Sikh communities in Latin America, focusing on Chile and Argentina, where the Healthy, Happy, Holy Organization (3HO) and Sikh Dharma International established convert-led congregations through the network of Harbhajan Singh Khalsa Yogiji (Yogi Bhajan). Students will analyze how a Kundalini-yoga-inflected, Spanish-speaking form of Sikh practice took root amid Catholic cultural heritage, and how this distinctive expression relates to, and sometimes diverges from, mainstream Punjabi Sikh tradition. The course foregrounds the diversity of the global Sikh panth and the sociological questions raised by religious conversion across linguistic and cultural frontiers.

This course examines how the Sikh ideal of the ਸੰਤ-ਸਿਪਾਹੀ — the saint-soldier who unites contemplative devotion with moral courage — translates into the institutions and practices of modern social justice advocacy. Drawing on Gurbani, Sikh history, and contemporary sociology, students trace the journey from the battlefield ethic of the Khalsa to the courtroom, the picket line, the refugee shelter, and the interfaith coalition. The course surveys Sikh civil rights movements across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada; anti-discrimination law; the labor ethic rooted in ਕਿਰਤ ਕਰਨੀ; the work of organizations such as the Sikh Coalition and United Sikhs; the long campaign for recognition of the 1984 violence; and the theology of solidarity that underwrites Sikh alliances with Muslim, Black, and Indigenous communities. Throughout, students learn to distinguish principled coalition-building from the dissolution of identity, and to read advocacy as an expression of ਸਰਬੱਤ ਦਾ ਭਲਾ — the well-being of all. The arc closes with the Guru's vision of ਹਲੇਮੀ ਰਾਜ, a polity of humility and justice, as the horizon toward which Sikh advocacy aims…

This course argues that ਸਰਬੱਤ ਦਾ ਭਲਾ — the welfare of all — is unconditional. Through the martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji for the Kashmiri Pandits, the liberation of 52 non-Sikh kings by Guru Hargobind Ji, and the ਸੰਤ-ਸਿਪਾਹੀ ideal, students learn that the duty to defend the helpless carries no creed test and no agreement test. Sikhi defends without endorsing, refuses to abandon those it disagrees with, and treats capable silence before ਜ਼ੁਲਮ as complicity. The course distinguishes tolerance, endorsement, and active defense, and translates the classical duty into modern practice…

This graduate seminar undertakes an advanced analysis of Gurmukhi as both a script and a literary language, examining the grammatical structures, prosodic systems, and poetic conventions of Gurbani with scholarly rigor. Drawing on Prof. Sahib Singh's <em>Gurbani Vyakaran</em> and the prosodic diversity of the SGGS, students engage the full range of classical Indian metrical forms deployed by the Gurus alongside the unique linguistic features of the Gurbani idiom. The course is essential for scholars seeking to read and interpret Gurbani in the original.

This graduate seminar conducts sustained, rigorous dialogue between Sikh and Christian theological traditions at the level of their foundational commitments: doctrines of God, revelation, soteriology, Christology, and eschatology. Students engage primary sources from both traditions alongside leading comparative theologians, developing the skills to conduct genuine interreligious dialogue that maintains Sikh distinctives without caricature of Christian thought. The course draws on Giani Ditt Singh's colonial-era Christian engagement as a historical baseline and advances beyond it.

This graduate seminar provides rigorous training in the historical-critical methods applied to Sikh textual and historical scholarship, equipping students to read primary sources with methodological sophistication. The course examines source criticism, form criticism, redaction criticism, and social-historical analysis as they apply to the Guru Granth Sahib, the janam-sakhis, the Sikh Rahit Maryada, and major Sikh historical texts. Students develop the capacity to engage critically with both traditional and revisionist scholarship while maintaining rigorous scholarly standards.

This graduate seminar surveys the methodological foundations of Sikh apologetics from the nineteenth-century Singh Sabha reform movement to contemporary interfaith discourse. Students engage primary sources — including Giani Ditt Singh's polemical writings and the Sikh Rahit Maryada — alongside secondary scholarship on religious identity and contested truth claims. The course trains scholars to deploy rigorous historical, philosophical, and textual methods when defending and clarifying Sikh theological distinctives.

This seminar engages the classical and contemporary problems of philosophy of religion — the existence of God, the problem of evil, religious language, religious experience, and the rationality of faith — through the lens of Sikh thought. Students situate Gurmat within global debates in analytic and continental philosophy of religion, evaluating both the resources Gurmat brings to these debates and the ways engagement with philosophical analysis illuminates dimensions of Sikh theology. Mandair's postcolonial analysis of the category 'religion' provides a critical frame throughout.

This graduate seminar examines the encounter between Sikh theology and postmodern philosophical critique, engaging thinkers from Derrida and Foucault to contemporary postcolonial and deconstructive theologians. Students develop resources for a dialectical response to postmodern challenges — neither capitulating to relativism nor retreating to pre-critical fundamentalism — grounded in the epistemological and theological resources of Gurmat. The work of W.H. McLeod provides a case study in the challenges and opportunities of critical historical scholarship applied to Sikh tradition.

This graduate seminar provides advanced critical analysis of the Sikh fresco tradition, focusing on the extensive mural programmes of gurdwaras, havelis, and palaces from the eighteenth through early twentieth centuries. Students develop skills in iconographic analysis, workshop attribution, the study of Punjabi fresco technique, and the theological interpretation of narrative and devotional image programmes. The seminar situates the Sikh fresco tradition within the broader context of South Asian wall painting and engages current debates in conservation and cultural heritage.

This graduate seminar provides advanced training in the paleographic analysis and art-historical interpretation of Sikh illuminated manuscripts, with particular attention to the decorated Guru Granth Sahib manuscripts of the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries. Students develop skills in Gurmukhi paleography, the identification of decorative programmes and their iconographic sources, and the art-historical contextualization of Sikh manuscript production within the broader traditions of South Asian illuminated manuscript culture. The seminar draws extensively on Kamalroop Singh's archival scholarship.

This graduate seminar examines the development of modern and contemporary Sikh art, focusing on the intersection of artistic practice with questions of identity, diaspora, and postcolonial self-representation. Students analyze how Sikh artists in India and the global diaspora engage Sikh visual traditions, adapt them to new media and contexts, and negotiate between the demands of the contemporary art world and the theological and communal dimensions of Sikh visual culture. The seminar situates Sikh modern art within broader debates in postcolonial art history and diaspora aesthetics.

This graduate seminar analyzes the sacred architecture of the Sikh tradition — gurdwaras, takhts, and related sacred spaces — through integrated art-historical, architectural, and theological analysis. Students examine how Sikh sacred space embodies theological commitments, traces historical development from the Darbar Sahib to the global diaspora gurdwara, and engages current debates in sacred architecture theory. The seminar situates Sikh sacred architecture within comparative South Asian sacred architecture scholarship and analyzes the relationship between spatial design and the theology of the divine presence.

This graduate seminar conducts a rigorous comparative analysis of ethical frameworks in Sikh (Gurmat) theology and Buddhist thought, examining foundational questions of moral psychology, virtue, suffering, social ethics, and liberation. Drawing on primary texts from the Guru Granth Sahib and the Pali Canon alongside scholarship by Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh and comparative ethics theorists, students develop the analytical capacity to identify genuine structural parallels and irreducible differences between these two South Asian traditions. The course challenges students to think beyond surface-level convergences toward a nuanced understanding of each tradition's moral logic.

This graduate seminar examines Sikh contributions to interfaith theology, situating the Guru Granth Sahib's pluralistic vision within the broader field of theology of religions. Moving beyond descriptive comparison, students engage normative questions: What theological claims about other traditions does Gurmat make? How does the Sikh tradition's historical encounter with Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity shape its interfaith theology? And how should Sikh scholars engage contemporary frameworks such as inclusivism, exclusivism, and pluralism? The course draws on the Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies and primary Sikh textual sources throughout.

This graduate seminar conducts a rigorous comparative analysis of Sikh and Sufi mystical traditions, examining shared idioms of divine love, annihilation of ego, and the path of the devotee. Students engage primary texts from the Guru Granth Sahib and classical Sufi poetry alongside contemporary scholarship to trace historical encounters, theological convergences, and irreducible distinctions. The course cultivates critical fluency in both traditions at an advanced academic level.

This graduate seminar engages in rigorous comparative metaphysics between Sikh (Gurmat) theology and the major schools of Vedanta — Advaita, Vishishtadvaita, and Dvaita — with sustained attention to questions of ontology, cosmology, and the nature of liberation. Drawing on Mandair's post-colonial methodology and primary textual sources from the Guru Granth Sahib and the Vedantic canon, students develop the analytical tools to articulate both the deep engagement and the irreducible theological distinctiveness of Gurmat metaphysics. The course challenges reductive syncretic readings while illuminating the genuine philosophical complexity of both traditions.

This graduate seminar conducts systematic comparative analysis of mystical thought and practice across the Sikh, Sufi, and Vedantic traditions, examining shared structures, significant divergences, and the historical relationships between these traditions in the early modern South Asian context. Students develop rigorous comparative methods and apply them to primary texts from all three traditions.

This graduate seminar examines the concept of distributive justice — the fair distribution of resources, opportunities, and welfare across society — from the perspective of Gurmat theology and in dialogue with major Western theories of justice, particularly John Rawls's theory of justice as fairness. Drawing on primary texts from the Guru Granth Sahib and contemporary political philosophy, students develop a rigorous account of the Gurmat vision of just distribution and its implications for contemporary economic policy. The seminar explores both the convergences and the significant differences between Rawlsian and Gurmat approaches to economic justice.

This graduate seminar develops a systematic account of Gurmat economic philosophy, drawing on primary texts from the Guru Granth Sahib and the broader Sikh theological tradition alongside contemporary economic theory. The seminar examines the foundational Gurmat principles governing economic life — honest labor, sharing, the critique of exploitation, and the vision of an economy oriented toward universal welfare — and develops their implications for contemporary economic ethics. Students engage both classical Sikh textual sources and contemporary scholarly work in Sikh economics and religious ethics.

This graduate seminar investigates the concept of Halemi Raj — the 'reign of the humble,' the Sikh vision of a just society governed by divine ethics — as a comprehensive political-economic framework. Drawing on Kapur Singh's foundational Parasaraprasna, the Guru Granth Sahib, and contemporary political philosophy, students examine how Gurmat political theology generates a distinctive vision of just governance, equitable economic relations, and collective welfare. The seminar traces the concept from its scriptural roots through historical expressions and develops its implications for contemporary political economy.

This graduate seminar conducts a rigorous analysis of the Sikh ਲੰਗਰ institution as an economic system, examining its theoretical foundations in Gurmat ethics, its historical development, its contemporary global expressions, and its implications for food systems research, institutional economics, and political economy. Students engage primary Sikh textual sources alongside contemporary economic analysis to develop both a deep understanding of the ਲੰਗਰ's theological grounding and a rigorous account of its economic logic and global relevance.

This graduate seminar develops the concept of ਸਰਬੱਤ ਦਾ ਭਲਾ (the welfare of all) as a Sikh contribution to global development economics, examining its theological foundations, institutional expressions, and implications for contemporary development theory and practice. Students engage primary Sikh textual sources alongside major frameworks in global development economics — including Sen's capability approach, the Human Development Index, and post-development critiques — to develop a rigorous account of how the Sikh universal welfare vision contributes to and challenges contemporary development discourse.

This graduate seminar applies Sikh theological and ethical principles to the major questions of contemporary bioethics, including beginning-of-life issues, end-of-life care, organ donation, genetic technology, and healthcare justice. Students engage primary Sikh sources alongside leading bioethics scholarship to construct rigorously argued positions on contested medical-ethical questions. The course insists on fidelity to Gurmat principles while engaging the full complexity of contemporary biomedical contexts.

This graduate seminar investigates the ecological dimensions of Sikh theology and ethics, situating Gurmat within the global conversation on environmental philosophy and religion and ecology. Drawing on primary texts from the SGGS, the seminar constructs a Sikh environmental ethics capable of engaging contemporary ecological crises including climate change, biodiversity loss, and resource depletion. The course examines both the theoretical foundations and practical expressions of Sikh ecological commitment.

This graduate seminar examines the Sikh tradition's sophisticated doctrine of righteous warfare (Dharam Yudh) and situates it within the global conversation on just war theory. Drawing on the SGGS, Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Zafarnama, and the Dasam Granth, alongside Walzer, Grotius, and contemporary military ethics, the seminar constructs a rigorous account of when and how violence may be morally justified in Sikh thought. The course engages historical cases from Sikh military history and contemporary applications to terrorism, humanitarian intervention, and civil disobedience.

This graduate seminar investigates the convergences and divergences between classical virtue ethics (Aristotelian and Stoic) and the Sikh moral framework rooted in Gurbani. Students engage primary sources from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib alongside Aristotle, MacIntyre, and contemporary Sikh philosophers to construct a rigorous comparative account of virtuous personhood. The course culminates in an original analysis of how Gurmat reconfigures the virtuous life through the concept of the Gurmukh.

This graduate seminar examines the historical development and contemporary operation of Sikh community financial systems, from the Masand collection network of the Guru period through the SGPC's institutional finance to diaspora Gurdwara economics and digital community finance. Students engage economic history, institutional economics, and the sociology of religion to construct a comprehensive account of how Sikh communities have mobilized and deployed financial resources across five centuries.

This graduate seminar investigates the Sikh practice of Dasvandh — the commitment of one-tenth of one's income to the community — as a theological, ethical, and economic institution. The course situates Dasvandh within the broader history of religious tithing, the economics of voluntary giving, and contemporary philanthropy theory, while examining its distinctive Gurmat grounding. Students engage primary Sikh sources, the Sikh Rahit Maryada, and leading scholarship in religious economics and philanthropy.

This graduate seminar constructs a rigorous Sikh ethical analysis of contemporary market economies, examining the moral assumptions of market theory, the Gurmat critique of market ideology, and the application of Sikh principles to specific market practices including financial services, labor ethics, corporate governance, and consumer culture. Drawing on the SGGS, Gurmat virtue ethics, and leading market ethics scholarship, students develop an original Sikh economic ethics for the contemporary world.

This graduate seminar examines Sikh philanthropic finance as a multi-layered phenomenon: theologically grounded in Gurmat values, historically institutionalized through the Gurdwara system and the SGPC, and practically expressed through the activities of diaspora communities and humanitarian organizations. Students analyze primary Sikh sources, historical institutional data, and contemporary philanthropy scholarship to construct a rigorous account of Sikh institutional giving.

This graduate seminar examines the Sikh theological and ethical framework for wealth stewardship, integrating Gurmat principles with contemporary economic theory, behavioral economics, and applied finance ethics. Drawing on the SGGS and the three-pillar framework of Sikh ethical life, students construct a rigorous account of how wealth should be earned, managed, deployed, and shared according to Gurmat values. The course addresses wealth inequality, investment ethics, and estate planning as contemporary applications.

This graduate seminar examines the Sikh institution of ਲੰਗਰ — the free community kitchen — as a model for reimagining food systems from the ground up. Drawing on Sikh theology, food systems theory, agroecology, and food justice scholarship, students analyze ਲੰਗਰ as a living counter-system that embodies the values of dignity, equality, and ecological responsibility that contemporary food justice movements are struggling to articulate. The course develops practical frameworks for applying ਲੰਗਰ principles to food system transformation at scales from the household to the global.

This graduate seminar examines the medicinal plant knowledge embedded in the Sikh and Punjabi traditions, drawing on the Health Pothi of Bhagat Jaswant Singh Daudar, Ayurvedic botanical texts, and contemporary ethnobotanical research. Students critically analyze the pharmacological basis of traditional plant remedies, their cultural contexts, and their relationship to Sikh principles of bodily health as the foundation for spiritual practice. The course integrates ethnobotany, pharmacy, and Sikh health ethics.

This graduate seminar examines the convergences and productive tensions between permaculture design science and the ecological theology of the Guru Granth Sahib. Students engage both permaculture's twelve design principles and the Sikh concepts of ਕੁਦਰਤ, ਹੁਕਮ, and ਸੇਵਾ to develop an integrated theoretical framework for ecologically regenerative agriculture grounded in Gurmat. The course combines theoretical analysis with practical design application in the context of Punjabi and diaspora Sikh communities.

This graduate seminar examines the deep history of Punjab's agricultural traditions from antiquity through the present, tracing the interplay between indigenous ecological knowledge, Sikh religious values, colonial land policy, and the Green Revolution. Students engage primary texts, oral traditions, and scholarly literature to develop a nuanced understanding of agricultural systems as living cultures shaped by cosmology, community, and political economy.

This graduate seminar integrates the science of sustainable agriculture — soil health, integrated pest management, precision water use, and agroecological design — with the ethical framework of Sikh values including ਕੁਦਰਤ, ਹੁਕਮ, ਸੇਵਾ, and ਵੰਡ ਛਕੋ. Students develop the analytical capacity to evaluate farming systems against both scientific and ethical criteria, and to articulate a coherent Sikh sustainable agriculture philosophy. The course concludes by examining pathways to sustainable transition in Punjab and diaspora contexts.

This graduate seminar examines the epistemological foundations of Gurmat — the teaching of the Gurus — exploring how knowledge, truth, and mind are theorized within the Sikh scriptural tradition. Drawing on the Guru Granth Sahib, Bhai Gurdas, and contemporary Sikh philosophy, students interrogate how <span class='gur'>ਨਾਮ</span>, <span class='gur'>ਸ਼ਬਦ</span>, and <span class='gur'>ਸੱਚ</span> function as epistemic categories. The course is comparative, situating Gurmat epistemology alongside Western and South Asian philosophical traditions.

This graduate seminar examines chronic disease — particularly diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory disease, and cancer — through the dual lenses of contemporary medical science and the Gurmat theological framework of health, suffering, and healing. Students critically engage the Health Pothi of Bhagat Jaswant Singh Daudar alongside current medical literature, developing integrated frameworks for understanding and addressing the chronic disease epidemic in Punjabi communities. The course emphasizes both prevention and the ethics of living with chronic illness.

This advanced seminar examines the epistemological foundations and methodological principles of evidence-based medicine (EBM) in dialogue with the Sikh tradition's approach to knowledge, health, and healing. Students critically evaluate the hierarchy of evidence, randomized controlled trial methodology, and systematic review frameworks while engaging the Health Pothi of Bhagat Jaswant Singh Daudar as a case study in traditional health knowledge evaluation. The course develops rigorous capacity for integrating traditional health knowledge with contemporary evidence standards.

This graduate seminar examines integrative health — the whole-person approach that combines the best of conventional medicine with evidence-based traditional and complementary approaches — through the lens of the Sikh mind-body framework. Drawing on the Health Pothi of Bhagat Jaswant Singh Daudar and the Guru Granth Sahib's understanding of the relationship between mind, body, and spirit, students develop a sophisticated framework for integrative wellness that is both scientifically rigorous and theologically grounded. The course addresses stress, sleep, nutrition, movement, contemplative practice, and social connection as the pillars of integrative Sikh wellness.

This graduate seminar conducts a systematic, in-depth scholarly study of Bhagat Jaswant Singh Daudar's Health Pothi, examining its textual structure, therapeutic content, historical context, and relationship to the Sikh tradition's understanding of bodily health as the foundation for spiritual practice. Students engage the text critically, applying pharmacological, ethnobotanical, and theological analytical frameworks to its content. The course develops students' capacity for rigorous engagement with traditional Sikh health literature.

This graduate seminar examines the Sikh tradition's ethical resources for addressing contemporary medical ethics debates, engaging the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikh Rahit Maryada, and classical Sikh theological literature in dialogue with Western bioethics frameworks. Students analyze Sikh positions on bodily integrity, end-of-life care, reproductive ethics, organ donation, and healthcare justice, developing the capacity to articulate coherent Sikh ethical positions on contested medical questions.

This graduate seminar develops rigorous methodological skills for critically analyzing the diverse primary sources used in Sikh historical research, from <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ</span> and early hagiographic literature through colonial administrative records and oral traditions. Students learn to assess the provenance, authorial perspective, genre conventions, and evidential value of each source type, situating them within the broader historiography of Sikh studies. The course equips scholars with the critical toolkit needed for original archival research.

This graduate seminar examines Sikh resistance from the eighteenth-century <span class='gur'>ਮਿਸਲ</span> period through the twentieth-century independence movements, analyzing the ideological, organizational, and tactical dimensions of <span class='gur'>ਖ਼ਾਲਸਾ</span> resistance to external domination. Students engage critically with primary Punjabi sources alongside colonial and postcolonial scholarship to reconstruct the full arc of Sikh political resistance. The course culminates in analysis of the demand for <span class='gur'>ਆਜ਼ਾਦੀ</span> in the independence and partition era.

This graduate seminar examines the Sikh Empire (1799–1849) through advanced political, military, and administrative lenses, drawing on primary Punjabi sources alongside modern historiography. Students engage critically with court records, Anglo-Sikh diplomatic correspondence, and contemporary scholarship to reassess the nature and legacy of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's state. The course ends with the annexation, its causes, and its long interpretive shadow.

This graduate seminar provides a comprehensive and rigorous study of <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ</span> grammar and syntax, using Prof. Sahib Singh's <em>Gurbani Vyakaran</em> as the foundational text while extending the analysis through advanced morphological and syntactic study. Students develop the grammatical competence required for independent advanced analysis of <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ</span> passages, mastering the archaic features, multi-language constructions, and poetic syntactic inversions that characterize the language of the <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ</span>.

This graduate seminar traces the historical development of the Punjabi language and the <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ</span> script from their Indo-Aryan origins through the medieval period and the Gurbani corpus. Students apply the methods of historical linguistics — phonological reconstruction, morphological change, lexical borrowing — to Punjabi and to the linguistic register of <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ</span>. The course situates Punjabi within the broader context of Indo-Aryan language history and examines the <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ</span> script's origins, development, and standardization.

This graduate seminar develops the skills required to read, date, and critically analyze historical Gurmukhi manuscripts from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries. Students learn the methods of Gurmukhi paleography, codicology, and manuscript studies, applying these to Sikh primary sources including early Guru Granth Sahib manuscripts, Rehatnamas, and court documents. The course bridges linguistic competence and archival research, equipping scholars for original manuscript-based research.

This graduate seminar provides an advanced study of <span class='gur'>ਸੰਤ ਭਾਸ਼ਾ</span> — the pan-regional devotional register of North Indian bhakti literature — as it appears in the <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ</span>. Students analyze the linguistic features of this register across the Gurbani corpus, examining its relationship to Sanskrit, Persian, and regional vernacular traditions. The course develops both linguistic and hermeneutic competencies essential for advanced Gurbani scholarship.

This graduate seminar provides an advanced study of Bhai Vir Singh (1872–1957) — poet, novelist, editor, and scholar — as the central figure in modern Sikh literary and intellectual history. Students engage critically with his major works across genres (poetry, fiction, commentary, journalism), analyzing their literary strategies, theological concerns, and historical significance. The course situates Bhai Vir Singh at the intersection of the Singh Sabha reformist movement, colonial modernity, and the Punjabi literary renaissance he embodied and shaped.

This graduate seminar undertakes a systematic study of the poetics of the Guru Granth Sahib, examining the literary dimensions of Gurbani through the frameworks of classical Indian aesthetics (rasa theory, dhvani), Sanskrit prosody, and the specific formal conventions of the SGGS's raag-organized composition. Students develop analytical capacities for close reading of Gurbani as literary-theological text.

This graduate seminar applies narrative theory to the study of Sikh hagiographic literature, with particular focus on the <span class='gur'>ਜਨਮਸਾਖੀ</span> tradition and the <span class='gur'>ਗੁਰਬਿਲਾਸ</span> genre. Students engage with contemporary narratological frameworks alongside traditional Sikh literary critical approaches, analyzing how narrative structures, character, point of view, and genre conventions shape the theological meanings of Sikh hagiographic texts. The course develops advanced competence in the literary analysis of Sikh devotional narrative.

This graduate seminar provides a rigorous scholarly examination of mindfulness research and practice in dialogue with Gurmat contemplative science. Students critically evaluate the mindfulness-based intervention literature, examine the cultural and religious roots of mindfulness, and develop a sophisticated understanding of how Sikh ਸਿਮਰਨ and mindfulness practices converge, diverge, and mutually illuminate each other.

This graduate seminar examines the emerging field of contemplative neuroscience and its relevance to the Gurmat understanding of mind, practice, and transformation. Drawing on first-person phenomenological accounts of Sikh contemplative states, and on the neuroscience of attention, emotion regulation, and consciousness, students develop an integrative, critically sophisticated framework for understanding what happens in the mind and brain during the practices of ਸਿਮਰਨ and ਕੀਰਤਨ.

This graduate seminar examines mental illness stigma from sociological, anthropological, and Sikh theological perspectives. It investigates how stigma operates at multiple levels — individual, community, structural — and how Gurmat anthropology and ethics challenge stigmatizing frameworks. Students develop capacities for scholarly analysis, community advocacy, and the design of culturally grounded destigmatization programs for Sikh communities.

This graduate seminar develops a comprehensive Sikh psychology grounded in the SGGS's account of mind, self, and transformation, in sustained dialogue with contemporary psychological science. Students analyze the Gurmat model of the human mind, the psychology of ਹਉਮੈ and the five vikars, the contemplative science of ਸਿਮਰਨ, and the ultimate states of ਸਹਜ and liberation.

This graduate seminar examines trauma, its somatic and psychological dimensions, and the resources of Sikh thought and practice for healing and recovery. Drawing on the SGGS, contemporary trauma theory including Herman and van der Kolk, and Sikh pastoral care traditions, students develop an integrative framework for understanding how spiritual practice intersects with the healing of deep psychological wounds.

This graduate seminar applies Sikh ethical principles to the most pressing moral challenges posed by artificial intelligence. Drawing on the SGGS, Gurmat ethics, and leading scholarship in AI ethics, students develop rigorous frameworks for evaluating algorithmic bias, surveillance, autonomous weapons, AI consciousness, and the governance of transformative technology from a perspective grounded in Sikh values.