Course Description: Course Requirements:

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1 Course Description: International and Area Studies MES 20: Perspectives on The Middle East Modern Arab Politics and Society Instructor: Yasmeen Daifallah Office hours: Tues-Thurs, 5:30-6:30 Café Strada This course provides an introduction to the history, politics, and societies of the modern Arab World. It assumes no prior knowledge of the Middle East or the Arab World on the part of the students. We shall explore the most salient ideas and events in the history of that region since the 18 th century, and learn about the current waves of social and political change since December 2010, in what have come to be known as the Arab Spring. This course has two major objectives: first, to familiarize you with the social, economic and political developments in Arab societies throughout the past two centuries, and second, to introduce you to the various approaches to studying that region. Although this course is about The Middle East, we will focus primarily on the Arab World. (We will not deal with Turkey, Iran or Israel except insofar as they are related to the history and development of Arab society and politics. We shall also discuss North African countries -Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya- that lie outside the geographical region of the Middle East). The course is divided into four major parts. The first provides a historical background of the region. The second explores major approaches to analyzing Arab politics and society. The third part covers three major contemporary issues in Arab politics: the persistence of authoritarian regimes, religion and politics, and gender. In part four, we will examine and analyze the Arab uprisings of the past two years, and revisit how some of themes we raised before (religion and politics, gender, etc.) feature in the aftermath of the Arab Spring. Course Requirements: Class participation: 15 % Students are expected to attend all class sessions, do the assigned readings, and participate in class through classroom activities, posing questions and comments about the reading material and lecture. Map quiz: 5 % Group project: 15% Students will be required to prepare a poster about an Islamist group in the modern Arab World. On April 17 th, each group will be required to present its poster and to deliver a ten-minute presentation about the group of their choice. Mid term: 25% Final exam: 40% Course Materials: Course materials will be provided in a reader sold at Copy Central on 2560 Bancroft

2 Way, posted on Bspace, or accessible through the internet. Course Structure: PART I: Historical Background Jan 23 rd : The Middle East: An Overview Manners, I. and Parmeneter, B In Understanding the Contemporary Middle East Schwelder, J. and Gerner, D. eds Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Pp Angrist, M.P Politics and Society in the Contemporary Middle East. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Pp Jan 30 th : Historical Background Map Quiz Cleveland, W A History of the Modern Middle East. Colorado: Westview Press. Pp Goldschmidt Jr., A Understanding the Contemporary Middle East. Pp Feb 6 th : Historical background (continued) Feb 13th: Nation-States and Arab Nationalism Cleveland, A History of the Modern Middle East. Pp (Pp optional). Hourani, A Arabic Thought in the Liberal Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp PART II: Approaches to Studying the Middle East Feb 20 th : The Battle of Algiers (Screening) Feb 27 th : The Area Studies Approach Bates, R Area Studies and the Discipline: A Useful Controversy? PS: Political Science & Politics 30, 2: (Bspace) Bill, J The Study of Middle East Politics: A Stocktaking, Middle East Journal, 50, 4 (Autumn): (Bspace) Anderson, L Politics in the Middle East: Opportunities and Limits in the Quest for Theory. In Area Studies and Social Science: Strategies for Understanding Middle

3 East Politics, ed. Mark Tessler. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Pp March 6 th : The Cultural and Statist Approaches Lockman, Z Contending Visions of the Middle East: the History and Politics of Orientalism. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp Beblawi, H The Rentier State in the Arab World, in The Rentier State, Hazem Beblawi and Giacomo Luciani ed.s. New York: Croom Helm Anderson, L The State in the Middle East and North Africa, Comparative Politics 20 (October): (Bspace) Bellin, E Coercive Institutions and Coercive Leaders. In Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Regimes and Resistance. Marsha Posusney and Michele Penner Angrist eds. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Pp Recommended: El Gobashy, M. Politics and Society of the Contemporary Middle East. Pp Part III: Issues in Arab Politics March 13 th : Persisting Authoritarianism Posusney, M The Middle East s Democracy Deficit in Comparative Perspective. In Authoritarianism in the Middle East Regimes and Resistance, Marsha Posusney and Michele Penner Angrist eds. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Pp Crystal, J Authoritarianism and its Adversaries in the Arab World in World Politics 46 (January): (Bspace) Bellin, E The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East, Comparative Politics, 36, 2. Pp (Bspace) Diamond, L Why Are There No Arab Democracies? Journal of Democracy, 21, 1. Pp (Bspace) March 20 th : Midterm Exam March 27 th : Spring break April 3 rd : Religion and Politics Wiktorowicz, Q A Genealogy of Radical Islam, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 28: (Bspace)

4 Kurzman. C Liberal Islam: Prospects and challenges, Middle East Review of International Affairs Vol. 3, No. 3 (September): Meijer, R Global Salafism: Islam s New Religious Movement. New York: Columbia. Pp Naguib, S Islamism(s) old and new in Egypt: The Moment of Change. El Mahdi & Marfleet eds. Pp April 10 th : Gender Gerner, D Mobilizing Women for Nationalist Agendas: Palestinian Women, Civil Society and the State-Building Process in From Patriarchy to Empowerment Women s Participation, Movements, and Rights in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia, Valentine Moghadam ed. New York: Syracuse UP. Pp Skalli, L Women, Communications, and Democratization in Morocco. From Patriarchy to Empowerment. Pp Shaaban, B Persisting Contradictions: Muslim Women in Syria, in Women in Muslim Societies: Diversity Within Unity, Herbert L. Bodman and Nayereh Tohidi eds. Boulder: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Pp Mernissi, F A Feminist Interpretation of Women s Rights in Islam, in Liberal Islam: A Source Book, Charles Kurzman ed. New York: Oxford University Press. Pp Tétreault, M. 02/10/ Women s Rights and the Meaning of Citizenship in Kuwait. Middle East Report. April 17 th : Group Presentations on Case Study of an Islamist Group PART IV: The Arab Spring April 24 th : What Happened and Why El-Amrani, I Why Tunis, Why Cairo? London Review of Books, Vol. 33, No. 4. pp El Ghobashy, M The Praxis of the Egyptian Revolution. MERIP. (Fall) 41.

5 Nouehied, L. & Warren, A The Battle for the Arab Spring. New Haven: Yale University Press. Pp and Rabbani, M. Dec Year Three. Jadaliyya. May 1 st : Religion, Gender, and the Arab Spring Cammett, M The Limits of Anti-Islamism in Tunisia, Foreign Policy Online. _democracy Nouehied, Lin & Warren, A. The Battle for the Arab Spring Pp Tadros, M Cross and Crescent in Post-Mubarak Egypt in The Journey to Tahrir. Sowers & Toensing ed.s. New York: Verso. Pp Herrera, Linda, Downveiling: Gender and the Contest over Culture in Cairo in Sowers & Toensing, The Journey to Tahrir. Pp May 6 th - May 10 th : RRR Week May 14 th : Final Exam