Making the Modern Middle East: Culture, Politics, History (200-0-1)
Instructors
Jessica R Winegar
847/491-4831
1819 Hinman Ave, #204, EV Campus
Meeting Info
555 Clark B01: Tues, Thurs 2:00PM - 3:20PM
Overview of class
This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to major issues in the history of the Middle East and North Africa since the nineteenth century, and also an introduction to Middle East studies as a field of study. That is, we will seek to understand how the modern Middle East was "made," as well as how something called "the Middle East" emerged as a geopolitical entity and a conceptual category. Among the topics explored are the history of the idea of the "Middle East" and the multiple meanings of "modernity" in that context; the complex relations between the Middle East and the West; the historical formation of Middle East nation-states, polities, ideologies, identities, and economies; and the dynamic struggles unfolding in the region since the 2011 uprisings. The course will consider the making of these structures, events, and relationships from a range of perspectives, including imaginative ones. Course material will encompass literary, cinematic, historical, and social science materials, as well as both primary documents and secondary scholarly sources.
Class Materials (Required)
James Gelvin, The Modern Middle East: A History 4th Edition (Oxford University Press, 2015).
Tayeb Salih, Season of Migration to the North (NYRB Classics, 2009).
Class Attributes
Historical Studies Distro Area
Global Perspectives on Power, Justice, and Equity