MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICAN STUDIES PROGRAM

Spring 2023

Spring 2023 COURSE SCHEDULE

Spring 2023 COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

MENA 290-3-20: Morocco in Film

Morocco was the World Cup underdog recently, but the country is little-known to many in the Anglophone world. This course introduces students to everyday life in Morocco through feature and documentary film, with an emphasis on Moroccan filmmakers. The country's geographical location in Africa was emphasized during the World Cup, but it is more commonly considered an appendage of the Muslim Middle East. It is in the heart of Tamazgha (the Amazigh or ‘Berber' world) with a French colonial past and close linkages to Europe. Course readings draw from anthropology, literature, biography, popular culture, and film studies. Thematic foci include ethnic minorities and majorities, migration, gender, law, human rights, and religion. Students develop analytical skills, especially in regards to perspective and bias in both image production and audience reception. Evaluation will be based on weekly journaling, discussion of films, and synthesizing essays. Most films will be available streaming on Canvas.

MENA 290-4-20: History of the Modern Middle East, 1789 – Present

The course surveys the factors that shaped the political, economic, and social features of the modern Middle East from 1789 to the present. The course begins with a study of traditional (mainly Ottoman) institutions; it then traces the forces which weakened those institutions and examines the efforts of Middle Eastern leaders to resist or encourage change. The second half of the course focuses on the period since World War I. It examines the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the significance of secular ideologies such as Arab nationalism and socialism, the successes and failure of the Nasser regime in Egypt, the rise of Islamism, the Iranian revolution, and the Middle East since the end of the Cold War.

MENA 290-4-21: Jews and Arabs in Palestine/The Land of Israel

This course will explore the historical relations between Jews and Arabs in Palestine/The Land of Israel from the close of the nineteenth century to 1948. According to prevalent assumption inside and outside academia, the relationship between Jews and Arabs in those years was solely characterized by mutual rivalry, violence, and conflict. This course, however, aims to challenge this belief by looking at diverse interactions that went beyond the political rivalry between the two communities. Relying on a 'History from Below' approach, we will examine shared identities and common experiences and discuss a wide range of daily encounters and collaborations that took place between ordinary Jews and Arabs in different public spheres such as mixed cities, education system, business and labor market, political organizations, leisure venues and more. Using primary historical sources, we will analyze the myriad ways in which Jews and Arabs formed personal and even romantic relationships in the background of the escalating national struggle

MENA 290-6-1: Specters of the Canon: Women Writers in Modern Hebrew Literature
The last decade of the 20th century was marked by the "feminization" of Hebrew literature. What thoughts arise regarding this "phenomenon" from our current perspective? Has the literary canon also undergone a "feminization" or has it remained male dominated? This course seeks to introduce central, important Hebrew women prose writers and to rethink their place in the historiography of modern Hebrew literature - from Dvora Baron, the first "mother," up to contemporary women writers. Have women writers succeeded in shifting from the margins to the center, or is their presence in the Hebrew canon merely spectral and partial as it had been before? During the course, we will read from the works of important and influential women prose writers, such as Baron, Yehudit Hendel, Amalia Kahana-Carmon, Orly Castel-Bloom, Ronit Matalon, Maya Arad, as well as contemporary writers from the new generation of women writers, such as Hila Amit Abas and Maayan Eitan. We will also read feminist, gender and queer theories that will accompany the literary discussions. While some classes will be solely dedicated to a specific writer, others will explore various writers through a prism of a common theme or a theoretical aspect. In this manner, the course seeks to point to the potential relations and correlations between these authors, which often remain outside of "strong" (male) historiographic depictions. By the end of the course, we will try to think of an alternative to the "strong" models of historiographic depictions through the recent prism of "weak theory." No previous knowledge of Hebrew, Israel or Judaism is required! All the Hebrew prose texts will be read in translation.

MENA 290-6-2: Otherness and Othering in Israeli Film

Since its inception, Israeli society is comprised of various and different social groups; immigrants, Arabs, Jews, foreign workers, religious people, secular people, ultra-orthodox Jews, Christians, to name several. In a society where many feel themselves as outsiders, what does Otherness actually mean? Is it a subjective stance or a definite (and "objective") position? Does Otherness exist only when juxtaposed with what is supposedly the social norms of "Israeli society" or can it stand by itself? Does Israeli society is othering others to have a false sense of unity? And is there an actual entity of "Israeli society" or is it only imagined by those who seek to be part of it? Film in its nature is an introspective tool, and in the case of Israeli film it has always been a prism through which Israeli directors examine questions of identity, the treatment of "others", and the relationship between the center and the margins. In this class we will watch various Israeli films that relate to the notion of otherness and to the dilemmas that arise from the characters' complex position in Israeli society. Among the movies we will watch are "Noodle", "Borrowed Identity", "Sandstorm" and "Baba Joon". We will read texts that will contextualize the movies and will shed light on the stance of otherness in Israeli society. No previous knowledge of Hebrew or Israel or Israeli cinema is required. All the movies will have English subtitles and all the readings will be in English, as well as the lectures and class discussions.

MENA 290-6-20: Turkish Fiction Now

How is it possible to make art under conditions of authoritarianism and state repression?  This course asks this question in the context of Turkey where state law forbids works that insult the Republic. Students will be introduced to contemporary Turkish fiction through its major authors—Orhan Pamuk, Elif Shafak, Murathan Mungan, and Ferit Edgü. Through different styles and genres, these authors interrogate Turkey’s traumatic past and turbulent present. How do modern Turkish authors represent Turkey’s minorities, for example, or such politically repressed questions as the Armenian Genocide or gay liberation? This course will be led by Visiting Scholar Fahri Öz, academic, translator and poet currently in exile after being dismissed from his position at Ankara University for signing the Academic for Peace declaration in 2016.

MENA 301-3-21: Cinemas of Care

This course examines the representations of care in a wide range of films from Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, India, and China among others. Through close readings of these films, we will consider the ways through which care intersects with gender, race, nationality, and class. What does care mean? What is the relationship between care and narrative? How does film shape or challenge our understanding of care? To respond to these questions, the seminar brings together cultural products and critical texts across time, languages, and geographies. Ultimately, our objective is to think critically about how care is culturally constructed and represented.

MENA 301-3-23: Islam & Colonialism/Religion & Politics in Islam
This course examines the effects of colonialism on Islam and the effects of Islam on colonialism. It is designed to acquaint students with the broad history of European colonialism and imperialism from the 17th to the 20th century, and the roles of that history in shaping modern Muslim societies. It begins with the concept of "Orientalism" and how Orientalist representations of Islam fueled Europe's "civilizing mission." It then considers colonialism's impact on multiple dimensions of Islam and Muslim societies, including (but not limited to) Islamic law, Muslim worship and ritual life, forms and systems of knowledge, and the status of women. It ends with the rise of anticolonial resistance and the formation of proto-Islamist movements in the early twentieth century.

MENA 390-3-20: Muslim Politics

The emergence of Muslim politics is arguably one of the defining transformations of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This course explores the diversity of the contemporary political experiences of Muslims in multiple and shifting contexts to address questions such as: what is the role of ideology and faith in Muslim politics? Where does political Islam come from? How does politics play out in the lives of Muslims? How diverse are contemporary political experiences of Muslims? How did immigration, globalization, Islamic revival and violent extremism and securitization policies reshape the political and religious landscape of Muslim-majority nations as well as in non-Muslim countries? What does the study of political Islam teach us about the relationship between religious and politics in the modern world? The course is divided in three parts. In Part 1, we focus on the politics of Islamic revival through the trajectories of various Islamic political movements in the Middle East, Asia and Africa to understand the origins of the rise of political Islam and its national, regional and global impact. In Part 2, we turn to transnational Muslim networks and connections to explore the main issues around global political Islam in its various forms including violent Islamic extremism, Sufism, piety movements, economic networks. We discuss also anti-Muslim violence and its origins. In Part 3, we examine the social, political and historical dynamics shaping the politics of Muslim minorities in Europe and the USA, including the war on terror, identity politics, racialization and islamophobia. Our cross-cutting themes include state in the Muslim world, party politics, secularism, democracy, social movements, political violence, the politics of religion, security policies, globalization, citizenship, social and economic development… Our readings are drawn from political science, religious studies and anthropology.

MENA 390-3-21: Monuments and Memory
How do histories of violence shape the present and the material world? How are histories remembered, memorialized, erased, or forgotten? This class will explore histories of violence and ask how these pasts are remembered and contested today. The course will engage questions of violence, memory, and monuments. We will examine case studies from the US, the MENA region, and elsewhere, with a focus on Turkey and the ongoing legacies of violence against minority communities and spaces.

MENA 390-5-1: Sufism

This course introduces Sufism, the ‘mystical' tradition of Islam. After critically examining the concept of ‘mysticism' within Religious Studies, we will examine the historical origins of Sufism, its emergence from and relationship to foundational discourses within Islam, its engagement with the Qur'an, and the figure of the Prophet Muhammad in Sufi devotions. We will then investigate notions of ‘sainthood' in Islam, the roles of Sufism in popular Muslim piety, the centrality of the body and bodily disciplines in Sufi practice, and the critique and defense of Sufism in the context of colonialism. The course will offer a broad introduction to the historical and geographic range of Sufism in Islam, but will give special attention to Sufi traditions in the Indian subcontinent. We will conclude with critical reflections on the place of Sufism in contemporary Islam.

MENA 390-6-1: Art & Revolution, 1789-1917
The nineteenth century was an age of revolutions—not only in Europe but across the globe. As the Industrial Revolution rapidly reshaped the world's material and social relations, popular revolutions erupted to overthrow corrupt ruling classes and experiment with new forms of political and social organization. Some of these revolutions are well-known, such as the French Revolution (1789) and the Russian Revolution (1917); others deserve more attention, such as the Ottoman Constitutional Revolution (1908). At the same time, the nineteenth century witnessed the massive expansion of European imperialism in Asia, Africa, and the Americas, igniting numerous anti-colonial revolutions, including the Haitian Revolution (1791) and the Indian Rebellion (1857). These revolutions posed a direct challenge to "modern" Europe and its supposedly liberal values. Moving between these diverse political and cultural contexts, this course investigates art's role in representing revolutionary ideals and producing new kinds of political subjects in the nineteenth century. This course takes a global frame that centers capitalism, interimperial competition, race, and gender as the primary forces that drove revolutionary art-making throughout the world. Instead of a broad survey, this course closely analyzes individual artworks in a wide range of media, including painting, sculpture, drawing, prints, photography, and political cartoons.

MENA 390-6-2: What's Luck Got to Do With It?
Encounters at the Crossroads of Chance and Destiny In "Déviation" [Detour] a short story by the Algerian writer, Mohammed Dib, two people are driving back to their hometown when they hit a roadblock marked "road work" and must take a detour. A familiar everyday event that ordinarily might annoy but eventually gets the traveler to their destination. However, here, unbeknownst both to our travelers and to us, this is no ordinary detour but rather a crossroad where chance and destiny converge. We begin our course with this short story to explore not only the daunting and often unanswerable question of "is it chance? Is it desinty?" but also the relationship between storytelling and this double question. Focusing our analyses and discussions on different modalities of encounter, we will investigate the history of key notions in the debate on chance and destiny, beginning with these words themselves, and consider their broader political and historical implications. Our class topic is not limited to human-human encounters but rather expands to consider encounter as a relation in general. Students will contribute to the structure of the class not only theoretically and critically but also by drawing on their own everyday experiences of encounter and stories.

MENA 390-6-3: The Turkish TV Boom 

In the last two decades, Turkish television has boomed, and become the second largest exporter of televised series after the United States: more than 100 Turkish series are exported to more than 150 countries and have garnered more than 500 million viewers worldwide. But while Turkish government media have promoted historical dramas glorifying an Ottoman past, new platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and HBOMax have also introduced viewers to controversial Turkish social issues throughmob thrillers, modern romances, and supernatural adventures. This course concentrates on Turkish series and films available on the Netflix, as well as the public conversations about them and the policies that surround them in the form of bans, censorship, and boycotts. The study of these series and movies will help us explore the prevalent tension in the Turkey between the real situation in society and the ideological aspirations of government-backed productions. This course will be led by Visiting Scholar Fahri Öz, academic, translator and poet currently in exile after being dismissed from his position at Ankara University for signing the Academic for Peace declaration in 2016.

JWSH_ST 390-0-1: Water in Arid Lands: Israel and the Middle East

This seminar will explore how the availability of water has shaped the development of civilizations and driven innovation in water technologies. The course will investigate historical dimensions of water in Israel and the Middle East, focusing on ancient civilizations and the water infrastructures that are essential tools in aiding the development of water-poor societies. We will use this historical context as a stepping-stone to transition into a more recent history of the Middle East, focusing on the challenges that the nascent state of Israel faced following the influx of millions of immigrants. We will then examine efforts to develop the necessary water resources needed to support the burgeoning population as well as the irrigation projects designed to convert barren desert land into cultivated agriculture. This more recent history will help to set the stage for discussions regarding geopolitical conflicts over land and water that continue to this day. We will evaluate regional climate and water in the context of current and future geopolitical conflicts, reviewing recent advances in water technologies spurred by these limitations as well as the potential development of combined social and technological solutions for long-term water sustainability in Israel and the Middle East. We will end the course with discussions regarding opportunities for global translation of innovative water technologies and water-management solutions developed in Israel to other water-poor regions. In addition, the course will host a symposium featuring international experts. It will explore how water access and control contributes to trans-boundary politics and how recent advances in Israeli water technologies may serve as a model for sustainable water development in other water-poor regions of the world.

MENA 490-0-1: Producing Territory: People, Goods and Values on the Move
What is territory? Is it simply the physical space (land, air or sea) over which a state exercises sovereignty? How does this presumed alignment of territory and sovereignty come about and get maintained? This course examines these questions by proposing that territories products of mobile social actors, contraband commodities and fluctuating values as much as they are of state policies aimed at managing these movement.