Abstract
The course examines events in the Middle East since World War I to address contemporary framings as a chain of inscrutable crises rooted in primordial religious or ethnic hatreds. It begins with the Arab Spring and examines the historical factors contributing to its occurrence. Additionally, the course explores themes including Orientalism, colonial rule regionalism, nation-state, social class, political mobilization, gender relations, economy, appropriation, urbanization, oil, religion, globalism, the Cold War, Identity, Arabism, local patriotism, Zionism, and Islamism. We will study the establishment of Israel and how its establishment impacted the region, the Palestinian/Arab-Israeli conflict, the Lebanese civil war, the Iranian Revolution, the Gulf War, and the War in Iraq through the lens of history using the analytical themes listed above as entry points. The geographical focus is the mashriq – eastern Arab world, Egypt, the Fertile Crescent, and the Arabian Peninsula. Also, we will discuss Turkey.
This is a history class. For that matter, we will concern ourselves with the past much more than the present. You will gain solid historical knowledge that provides an understanding of and a more profound way to articulate contemporary events, but current politics will not be the exclusive focus of the course.