The Middle East in Contemporary History

2024-2025

Algemene informatie

Vakcode L_GWBAGES216
Studiepunten 6 EC
Periode P4
Vakniveau 200
Onderwijstaal Engels
Faculteit Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen
Vakcoördinator dr. Y. Saramifar
Examinator dr. Y. Saramifar
Docenten dr. Y. Saramifar
Onderdeel van opleiding(en)

Praktische informatie

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Doelgroepen

Dit vak is ook toegankelijk als:

Dit vak wordt in het Engels aangeboden. Omschrijvingen kunnen daardoor mogelijk alleen in het Engels worden weergegeven.

Doel vak

Students can:

  1. demonstrate historical-political trajectories that constitute contemporary Middle East,
  2. analytically debate Orientalism and engage with misrepresentations of the Middle East through works of revolutionary/social justice-oriented thinkers from Nazik Al-Abid, Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi to Edward Said and from the Middle East.
  3. define the notion of Empire as a mode of persistent domination that remains in effect in the Middle East.

Inhoud vak

In the midst of what ICJ called a plausible genocide in Gaza, some in the Global North said, 'the situation in the Middle East should not divide us'; however, the question remains: what and where is this Middle East? This course addresses these questions by diving into the Middle East's historiographies, histories and memories to open up its political-historical construction. The course discusses how past and present influence the armed conflicts in the Middle East and how historiographies have shaped the dominant imagination of the Global North about the peoples of the Middle East.

This course unpacks the notion of Empire and Dispossession through revolutionary thinkers whose criticism of colonialism shaped colonial struggles against French and British mandates in the Middle East and their legacy have enabled resistance against Middle Eastern authoritarian regimes and also Israel as the ongoing colonial settler project. Furthermore, it shows Empire is mode of persistent domination that impacts of decolonized nations through cultural framing, Racialisations and border regimes.

This course engages with Middle Eastern thinkers such as Nazik Al-Abid, Abdul Rahman Al-Kawakibi to Edward Said to introduce Orientalism and Islamophobic framing of Muslims and peoples of the contemporary Middle East. The course also discusses Racism and Aryanism within the Middle East (the case of Iran), and it ends by engaging the cultural politics of images, visuals, aesthetics and objects in and from the Middle East.

This course operates through academic dialogues that begin from the point of view of dispossessed and colonised peoples such as Palestinians and engages with literature that radically criticised and dismantled perspectives of the Dominant.

Aanvullende informatie onderwijsvormen

This course partially uses the flipping classroom method, which means students receive content in advance and discuss it in class during group discussions or in conversations with the teacher. Attendance is mandatory, and students missing two lectures will be given extra assignments and tasks to compensate for their absence. Students missing three lectures will not be allowed to finish the course.

Toetsvorm

Students will deliver three assignments: 10% (a freestyle essay on historical visual representations of the Middle East), 45% (an essay introducing one of the key revolutionary critical and social justice-oriented thinkers of the Middle East), and 45% (a final paper/essay or an open book exam). The overall word count of assessments (min 4000 words and max 5000 words)

Literatuur

Please refer to the course manual

Aanbevolen voorkennis

Students are recommended to familiarise themselves with news outlets such as Aljazeera International, the map of the Middle East and sectarian differences in Islam.