Testimonial by Jodie Miller

I chose to take the course on Omar Khayyam to start reading poetry. I had taken the intensive beginners course earlier in the summer and found that the Khayyam course was a great way to start getting used to reading primary sources. I found it exceptionally helpful content-wise and rigor-wise to gain the necessary skills I need for my research project. Ruben was a very helpful instructor — sensitive to the different levels in the class but always ready to challenge us with new selections each class. We went through many different themes within Khayyam's poetry, and the course served as an introduction to both Khayyam's and classical Persian poetry. We had optional articles to read besides the homework, and the student could choose to read these in Persian or English. Class time was broken into reading, background context, and speaking. Ruben made sure they we all felt comfortable with the pace of the speaking and with the difficulty of the topics. I would recommend it to anyone hoping to get more knowledge about the context of classical Persian literature or simply who is interested to learn something new!