SPRING 2020 CLASS SCHEDULE: Middle East and North African Studies Program

SPRING 2020 CLASS SCHEDULE

Spring 2020 Course Guide

Course	Title	Instructor	Lecture
MENA 301-3-20	Islamic Law	Brannon Ingram	Wednesday 3:00 - 5:50 PM
MENA 301-3-20 Islamic Law Islamic law — the sacred law of Islam grounded in the Qur\'an, the practice of the Prophet Muhammad, and the writings of Muslim scholars and jurists - stretches back nearly 1400 years. This course offers, first, an overview of the origins and evolution of Islamic law from the life of Muhammad to end of the classical era. We then seek, secondly, to understand how colonialism and the modern nation-state affected the conceptualization and implementation of Islamic law in the modern period. To these ends, we look in-depth at two specific areas of law - marriage and divorce, and criminal law — in two specific regions: the Ottoman empire and contemporary Iran. Counts towards Religion, Law and Politics (RLP) religious studies major concentration. Students must have taken RELIGION 250 or obtain instructor consent in order to register for this course.
Bio coming soon
MENA 390-3-20	Porous Borders? Geography, Power and Techniques of Movement	Emrah Yıldız	Monday/Wednesday 10:30 - 11:50 AM
MENA 390-3-20 Porous Borders? Geography, Power and Techniques of Movement At the advent of increased globalization, some scholars have argued that the movements of capital, commodities and people across nation-states have rendered their borders increasingly more porous. The death of the nation-state and the birth of the multinational corporation heralded this new epoch. Yet, in the epoch of off-shored refugee processing centers and border walls, this assumed porosity of borders begs a reexamination of broader geographies of power and tactics of movement. In this course, we examine the historically and geographically specific constellations of borders and ask: How does the border become an architecture of regulation that extends access to mobility to some and denies it to others? What is a border? Is it the physical line drawn between two states? Who gets to draw these lines? Is a state border a given result of a natural and ethnic contract or the terrain of constant contestation or negotiation in global and international affairs? This course examines these questions by proposing to re-conceptualize border as equally the product of mobile social actors, contraband commodities and fluctuating values as they are of state policies aimed at managing these movements.
Bio coming soon
MENA 390-3-21	Popular Culture and Protest in the Middle East	Jessica Winegar	Monday/Wednesday 9:30 - 10:50 AM
MENA 390-3-21 Popular Culture and Protest in the Middle East This course will examine the connection between popular culture and politics in the Middle East and North Africa. Popular culture - including films, music, poetry, street art, the internet, and television - has been a critical means for expressing political viewpoints and indeed motivating political action. It has also been used by groups and governments seeking to maintain power and repress populist sentiment. This course will take a careful and critical view of different examples of popular culture from across the region, asking what kind of politics they embody and enable. We will concentrate on what popular culture tells us about social change and hierarchies of power related to nation-states, generations, social class, gender, race/ethnicity, and religion.
Bio coming soon
MENA 390-3-22	Politics of the Middle East	Wendy Pearlman	Tuesday/Thursday 2:00 - 3:20 PM
MENA 390-3-22 Politics of the Middle East This course explores the comparative politics of the Middle East and North Africa. The first half of the course focuses on the historical and institutional context of politics and government. Here we examine the emergence of independent states, the consolidation of regimes, and patterns in the relationship between state, society, and economy. We compare explanations for the endurance of authoritarian regimes, examine the role of Islam in politics, and also look at the Iranian Revolution and Islamic Republic. The second half of the course concentrates on dynamics of mobilization and conflict. Here we explore the Arab uprisings that began in late 2010 and their aftermath, current challenges facing the search for stability and democracy in the region, the Syrian war, and the origins and evolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Bio coming soon
MENA 390-4-20	The Arabian Peninsula since the 18th Century	Henri Lauzière	Monday/Wednesday/Friday 2:00 - 2:50 PM
MENA 390-4-20 The Arabian Peninsula since the 18th Century This course aims at introducing students to major themes in the modern history, politics and societies of the Arabian Peninsula, which is an often neglected but increasingly pivotal region of the Middle East. The first half of the course will concentrate on state formation and the political, economic and ideological forces that shaped the Peninsula until the British withdrawal. The second half of the course will be more thematic and will address some of the most important challenges that the region has faced since the 1970s. Because of its undeniable regional importance and influence, Saudi Arabia will receive particular attention throughout the quarter, though lectures and readings will cover other emirates of the Gulf as well as Yemen. The course combines lectures and some discussions.
Bio coming soon
MENA 390-4-21	Archaeology and Nationalism	Ann Gunter	Monday/Wednesday 5:00 - 6:20 PM
MENA 390-4-21 Archaeology and Nationalism Archaeology and nationalism have been closely intertwined at least since the idea of the nation-state emerged following the French Revolution. Archaeology offers nationalist agendas the possibility of filling in national historical records and extending the past far into prehistory. Its results can be displayed in museums, occupy entire sites, and be readily accessible online ?thus potentially reaching many new audiences beyond traditional print media. In turn, nationalism has contributed significantly to the development of archaeology as a modern discipline. Drawing on new critical approaches and examples selected from a wide geographical range, this course explores the role of archaeology in the creation and elaboration of national identities from the eighteenth century to the present day. Issues include the institutionalization of archaeology; the development of museums and practices of display and interpretation; the creation of archaeological sites as national monuments and tourist destinations; cultural property legislation and repatriation of artifacts; and archaeology and monuments under totalitarian regimes.
Bio coming soon