Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies

Classes from disciplines such as art history, economics, geography, history, politics, religion, and sociology comprise the classes available within this cross-disciplinary path. 

Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies 2023-2024 Courses

Anthropology and Images

Open, Seminar—Fall

Images wavered in the sunlit trim of appliances, something always moving, a brightness flying, so much to know in the world.—Don Delillo, Libra

A few cartoons lead to cataclysmic events in Europe. A photograph printed in a newspaper moves a solitary reader. A snapshot posted on the internet leads to dreams of fanciful places. Memories of a past year haunt us like ghosts. What each of these occurrences has in common is that they all entail the force of images in our lives, whether these images are visual or acoustic in nature, made by hand or machine, circulated by word of mouth, or simply imagined. In this seminar, we will consider the role that images play in the lives of people in various settings throughout the world. In delving into terrains at once actual and virtual, we will develop an understanding of how people throughout the world create, use, circulate, and perceive images and how such efforts tie into ideas and practices of sensory perception, time, memory, affect, imagination, sociality, history, politics, and personal and collective imaginings. Through these engagements, we will reflect on the fundamental human need for images, the complicated politics and ethics of images, aesthetic and cultural sensibilities, dynamics of time and memory, the intricate play between the actual and the imagined, and the circulation of digital images in an age of globalization. Readings will include a number of writings in anthropology, art history, philosophy, psychology, cultural studies, and critical theory. Images will be drawn from photographs, paintings, sculptures, drawings, films, videos, graffiti, religion, rituals, tattoos, inscriptions, novels, poems, road signs, advertisements, dreams, fantasies, phantasms, and any number of fabulations in the worlds in which we live and imagine.

Faculty

Ethnographic Writing

Sophomore and Above, Seminar—Fall

Transnational migration, human-animal relations, and American community life are but a few of the cultural realities that anthropologists have effectively studied and written about. This is no easy task, given the substantial difficulties involved in understanding and portraying the concerns, activities, and lifeworlds other than one’s own. Despite these challenges, ethnographic writing is generally considered one of the best ways to convey a nuanced and contextually rich understanding of people’s experiences in life. To gain an informed sense of the methods, challenges, and benefits of ethnographic writing, students in this course will try their hands at a concerted work of ethnographic writing. Along with undertaking a series of ethnographic writing exercises, students will be encouraged to craft a fully-realized piece of ethnographic writing that conveys something of the features and dynamics of a particular world in lively, accurate, and comprehensive terms. Along the way, and with the help of anthropological writings that are either exceptional or experimental in nature, we will collectively think through some of the most important features of the craft of ethnographic writing from the use of field notes and interviews, the interlacing of theory and data, the author’s voice in ethnographic prose, and the ethical and political responsibilities that come with any attempt to understand and portray the lives of others. This seminar will work best for students who already have a rich body of ethnographic research materials to work with, such that they can quickly delve into the intricacies of writing about their chosen subject.

Faculty

Becoming Roman? Art and Architecture of the Provinces and Frontiers of the Roman Empire

Open, Seminar—Spring

This course focuses on works of art, buildings, and monuments created and commissioned by people living in diverse areas of North Africa, West Asia, and Europe that either became part of the Roman Empire or were located along its vast frontier. We will explore and challenge traditional categories, such as “Roman” and “provincial” art/architecture. Key questions to consider include the following: How were individuals’/communities’ personal, civic, and religious identities expressed in art/architecture that was influenced by interaction with Roman culture broadly but also highly localized? The course will also include a component focused on the contemporary situation at sites including Palmyra in Syria, which has suffered extensive recent destruction, and related heritage preservation initiatives.

Faculty

Queer and Feminist Cinemas of the Arab Middle East and North Africa

Open, Seminar—Fall

As a global backlash against the LGBTQ movement continues, a common critique has been that non-heterosexual identities, as well as feminism, have been Western imports supplanting local practices and traditions. Such discourse, however, elides the rich heritage of queer practices and identities found across the world. This seminar is a survey of the rich and diverse queer and feminist cinematic histories of the Arab Middle East and North Africa. Students will watch films and excerpts weekly alongside curated readings. Rather than translate European and American gender and sexuality subjectivities, students will engage with how these concepts and identities arise in local contexts as seen in these films. Likewise, the presentation of these topics can vary depending on the market for the film, whether that be mass-market circulation, local film festivals, or international audiences. Students will learn to situate the films within the respective historical, social, and political contexts in which they were made. Topics to be discussed include how queerness and feminism can intersect with class, political movements, workers’ rights, and gender identity. Screenings will showcase examples of queer and feminist cinema from Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon, and the United Arab Emirates from the 1960s to today. Course readings are interdisciplinary and draw upon film studies, gender studies, queer studies, history, and anthropology. Together, the readings seek to provide the historical and social contexts of the films and the conditions for producing films that can challenge or subvert social norms. Students will also produce a conference project from a curated list of films on a subject of their choice in conversation with the course instructor. All films and texts are in English; students are not expected nor required to have a background in Arab cinema.

Faculty

The Middle East and the Politics of Collective Memory: Between Trauma and Nostalgia

Sophomore and Above, Seminar—Fall

In recent decades, historians have become increasingly interested in the unique role and power of memory in public life and have sought to understand the innumerable ways that collective memory has been constructed, experienced, used, abused, debated, and reshaped. This course will focus on the rich literature on historical memory within the field of modern Middle Eastern history in order to explore a number of key questions: What is the relationship between history and memory? How are historical events interpreted and rendered socially meaningful? How is public knowledge about the past shaped and propagated? How and why—and in what contexts—do particular ways of seeing and remembering the past become attached to various political projects? Particular attention will be paid to the following topics: the role of memory in the Palestine-Israel “conflict”; postcolonial state-building and “official memory”; debates over national remembering, forgetting, and reconstruction following the Lebanese Civil War; Middle Eastern diaspora formation and exilic identity; the myth of a “golden age” of Arab nationalism; Turkish nostalgia for the Ottoman imperial past; and the role of museums, holidays, and other commemorative practices in the construction of the national past across the region. Throughout the course, we will attend to the complex interplay between individual and collective memory (and “counter-memory”), particularly as this has played out in several formulations of Middle Eastern nationalism.

Faculty

Women and Gender in the Middle East

Open, Seminar—Spring

Debates over the status of Middle Eastern women have been at the center of political struggles for centuries—as well as at the heart of prevailing Western media narratives about the region—and continue to be flashpoints for controversy in the present day. This course will explore the origins and evolution of these debates, taking a historical and thematic approach to the lived experience of women in various Middle Eastern societies at key moments in the region’s history. Topics to be covered include: the status of women in the Qur’an and Islamic law; the Ottoman imperial harem; patriarchy and neopatriarchy; the rise of the women’s press in the Middle East; women, nationalism, and citizenship; the emergence of various forms of women’s activism and political participation; the changing nature of the Middle Eastern family; the politics of veiling; Orientalist discourse and the gendered politics of colonialism and postcolonialism; women’s performance and female celebrity; archetypes of femininity and masculinity; and women’s autobiography and fiction in the Middle East. Throughout, we will interrogate the politics of gender, the political and social forces that circumscribe Middle Eastern women’s lives, and the individuals who claim authority to speak for women. The course will also briefly examine gender and sexuality as categories for historical analysis in the modern Middle East.

Faculty

Nationalism

Sophomore and Above, Large seminar—Spring

This course provides a broad historical and theoretical inquiry into the phenomenon of nationalism—one of the most enduring ideological constructs of modern society. Indeed, the organization of the globe into a world of bordered territorial nation-states—each encapsulating a unique social identity—is such a taken-for-granted feature of contemporary geopolitics that it is easy to forget that nations did not exist for most of human history and that nationalism dates back only to the mid-to-late 1700s. And yet, despite many predictions of its imminent demise at different moments in history—Albert Einstein quipped, famously, that nationalism was an “infantile disease” that humanity would eventually outgrow—nationalism remains, perhaps, as powerful an ideological force as ever in the United States as elsewhere. This course will examine a range of foundational questions about the emergence of nations and nationalism in world history: What is a nation, and how has national identity been cultivated, defined, and debated in different contexts? Why did nationalism emerge when it did? Who does nationalism benefit, and how do different social groups compete for control over national identity and ideology? How and why did nationalism become such a vital feature of anticolonial political movements beginning in the late-19th century? Is nationalism fundamentally a negative force—violent and exclusionary—or is it necessary for forging cohesive social bonds among diverse and far-flung populations? The course will begin with the emergence of nations and nationalism in Western Europe but will then move on to explore its evolution and spread to all parts of the globe, exploring a number of case studies along the way. The course will conclude with a brief survey of the state of nationalist politics today, with a particular emphasis on Brexit and white nationalism in the United States.

Faculty

First-Year Studies: Islam, Muslims, and America

FYS—Year

When presidential candidate Donald Trump said, “I think Islam hates us,” and called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States, his words echoed and amplified the confusions and prejudices of many Americans. Paradoxically, once Trump became president, his first international visit was to Saudi Arabia—and photos show him holding hands with King Salman as they walked together. The disconnect between Trump’s words and actions was consistent with the long and complicated history that the United States has had with Islam and Muslims. Thomas Jefferson was intrigued by the Qur’an and Islamic law and argued that Muslims should be eligible for American citizenship, yet he remained silent about the enslaved Muslims working on his own plantation. The hypothetical Muslim worked well for Jefferson’s argument for freedom of religion in the new country but did little for actual Muslims living in America. Enslaved Africans were brought involuntarily to this country and were forcibly kept from practicing their religion. Many of their descendants began to rediscover Islam in the early 20th century and were joined by an increasing number of Muslim immigrants after the Immigration and Nationality Act ended racial quotas on immigration in 1965. Along the way, converts with European ancestry added their numbers, as Muslims became the most diverse religious community in the United States. Although Muslims currently comprise only 1% of the American population today, their significance goes well beyond their numbers. From Thomas Jefferson, to Malcolm X, to the post 9/11 era, perceptions about Muslims have functioned as barometers of deep social and political anxieties. To carefully examine these anxieties is to expose major fault lines in the domestic and foreign policies of the United States. In this class, we’ll explore these tensions but will also look at the variety of ways in which Muslim Americans have flourished in America and contributed substantially to its intellectual and creative heritage. Material studied throughout the year will include examples from the rich body of American Muslim memoirs, social and political critique, theology, literature, poetry, and art. During the fall semester, students will meet with the instructor weekly for individual conferences. In the spring, conferences will take place on a biweekly basis.

Faculty

Jalal al-Din Rumi: Poet, Storyteller, and Mystic

Open, Small Lecture—Fall

As growing numbers of people have turned away from institutional religions, many have turned instead to new forms of spirituality that freely adopt and adapt elements from long-standing traditions. One example of this can be seen in the explosion of publications and products related to the Persian-speaking poet Jalal al-Din Rumi (d. 1273). Short inspirational quotes attributed to Rumi (sometimes falsely) appear on car bumper stickers and in wedding vows, and day books provide collections of quotes to provide inspiration 365 days of the year. For those whose interest and curiosity leads them to want to dive deeper, there are study groups that meet in locations scattered throughout the world to read and discuss Rumi’s works together. Online courses provide spiritual programs based on the insights of Rumi. In this course, we will explore passages (in English translation) from Rumi’s major poetic and prose works to better understand what makes these writings so compelling for contemporary spiritual seekers. Although many of these seekers do not consider themselves as members of a particular religion, Rumi himself was a practicing Muslim; his six-volume poem, entitled Masnavi, has been labeled “the Qur’an in Persian.” We’ll look at translations that stay close to the particularities of Rumi’s Muslim background and the original Persian, as well as to those that take liberties in the interest of presenting what one author describes as “universal spiritual truths.” We’ll discuss whether this trend represents a distortion or appropriation of Rumi or whether it is part of the natural flow of an evolving spiritual tradition in new environments. The class will consist of one interactive lecture each week (maximum 30 students) and one weekly group conference (maximum 15 students each).

Faculty

Invisible Beings and Fantastical Worlds in Islam

Open, Seminar—Spring

The Qur’an declares itself to be a book “for those who believe in the unseen” and gives vivid descriptions of multiple worlds and beings that are invisible to the human eye. Muslims throughout the centuries have expanded upon this Qur’anic foundation in their explorations of what exists beyond or at the very limits of human perception and power. In this course, we will examine writings from the past and present about jinn, angels, satanic beings, and Heaven and Hell. We’ll read about the visions and travels of individuals who claim to have accessed other worlds and beings through their dreams, altered states, near-death experiences, and magic. When a philosopher named Ibn Arabi declared in the 13th century that he could hear and understand the speech of animate and inanimate objects on Earth, was he engaging in fantastical, imaginative, deluded thinking or paranormal observation? How have academics and others who live in disenchanted spaces engaged with writings and practices that reject a purely materialist understanding of reality? How has scientific study in such areas as quantum physics and plant intelligence led to alternative ways of viewing what used to be called “primitive” thought? While, in our class work, we’ll be looking at these questions and topics primarily through Muslim writings, individual conference projects could involve the exploration of these topics through the lenses of other traditions. No background in Islam is necessary for taking this seminar.

Faculty

Sociological Theory

Open, Lecture—Fall

By covering both “classical” and “contemporary” sociological theories, this course is designed to provide students with a well-rounded understanding of sociological thought and its evolution. The main objective of the course is to introduce theoretical perspectives within sociology and how those theories have shaped the boundaries of the discipline. We will begin by exploring the concept of “sociological imagination.” Building upon that preliminary understanding, we will examine certain core sociological concepts such as class, race, gender, culture, power, institutions, and identity. While recognizing the lasting impact of sociology’s pioneering theorists—Durkheim, Weber, and Marx—we will also explore approaches that critically engage and problematize aspects of the “canon.” Our examination extends to encompass contemporary perspectives, including feminist theory, postcolonial theory, and race critical theories. Incorporating these contemporary sociological approaches, we will gain multifaceted insights into the complex interplay between sociological constructs and broader societal contexts. As the course draws to a close, students are expected to leave with a deeper appreciation of the complexity of society and the expanded array of theories through which it can be examined. Group conferences will be centered on research on related topics of students’ interest, as well as engaging in creative group projects.

Faculty

Race and Slavery in the Middle East and North Africa

Open, Seminar—Fall

How do we imagine slavery in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)? How do we make sense of the histories of slavery in understanding race in the larger region today and its interconnections beyond geographical boundaries? While contemporary critical scholarship on transatlantic slavery provides a necessary corrective to colonial narratives, this course proposes to go further by bringing in voices, histories, and experiences from predominantly the Middle East and North Africa region. Drawing on a long sociohistorical arc inclusive of a wide range of localities such as Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, and Iran, this course offers an enriched understanding of constructions and legacies of slavery, as well as our conceptions of race as they play out in the current moment. The course is divided into three parts: Part I begins by establishing the theoretical and epistemological foundations of racial formation theory, as well as historiography. It will set the stage for an in-depth discussion on how theory informs our analyses of race and slavery in MENA. In Part II, we will develop an overview of race and the history of slavery in the region by examining racialized and gendered experiences, practices, and textual formation. Finally, in Part III, we will focus on case studies dealing with historical legacies and present-day practices of race in modern nation-states. Through an elaboration of myriad contemporary connections, the course will open up possibilities of generating more complex and nuanced historiographies that go beyond current understanding of such a phenomenon. For conference, students can look at cases both within and outside the region. Other possibilities for conference work include certain thematic areas such as language, gender, media constructions, use of religion, and contemporary politics.

Faculty

Race and Slavery in the Middle East and North Africa

Open, Seminar—Spring

How do we imagine slavery in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)? How do we make sense of the histories of slavery in understanding race in the larger region today and its interconnections beyond geographical boundaries? While contemporary critical scholarship on transatlantic slavery provides a necessary corrective to colonial narratives, this course proposes to go further by bringing in voices, histories, and experiences from predominantly the Middle East and North Africa region. Drawing on a long sociohistorical arc inclusive of a wide range of localities such as Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco, and Iran, this course offers an enriched understanding of constructions and legacies of slavery, as well as our conceptions of race as they play out in the current moment. The course is divided into three parts: Part I begins by establishing the theoretical and epistemological foundations of racial formation theory, as well as historiography. It will set the stage for an in-depth discussion on how theory informs our analyses of race and slavery in MENA. In Part II, we will develop an overview of race and the history of slavery in the region by examining racialized and gendered experiences, practices, and textual formation. Finally, in Part III, we will focus on case studies dealing with historical legacies and present-day practices of race in modern nation-states. Through an elaboration of myriad contemporary connections, the course will open up possibilities of generating more complex and nuanced historiographies that go beyond current understanding of such a phenomenon. For conference, students can look at cases both within and outside the region. Other possibilities for conference work include certain thematic areas such as language, gender, media constructions, use of religion, and contemporary politics.

Faculty

History and Theory: Anticolonial Thought in Contemporary Levant

Sophomore and Above, Seminar—Spring

This course will explore a wide spectrum of social theories that have emerged both within and about the contemporary Levant, the Eastern Mediterranean. We will cover the history of the formation of anticolonial thought and will address the ongoing legacies and structures of coloniality in various domains in the region. Despite its regional focus, the course will also encompass a diverse array of social theories developed by scholars globally. We will be examining concepts such as settler colonialism (Wolfe), orientalism (Said) and biopower (Foucault), among others. Throughout the semester, students will not only delve into historical and theoretical texts but also engage with a diverse range of media, including podcasts, films, memoirs, and news pieces. By the end of the course, students will gain valuable insights into the development of anticolonial thought in the Levant and its connections with global theoretical paradigms. Students will be equipped with the analytical tools (such as discourse analysis, content analysis, and historical analysis) necessary to critically engage with contemporary challenges and contribute to ongoing discussions about colonial legacies, power structures, and social justice in the region and beyond. Each student will be expected to deliver a minimum of one in-class presentation, focusing on the weekly material, over the course of the semester. Conferences will be centered on research on related topics of students’ interest and writing research papers. Students will also be engaging in creative group projects throughout the semester.

Faculty

Creative Nonfiction

Intermediate/Advanced, Seminar—Fall

This is a course for creative writers who are interested in exploring nonfiction as an art form. We will focus on reading and interpreting outside work—essays, articles, and journalism by some of our best writers—in order to understand what good nonfiction is and how it is created. During the first part of the semester, writing will be comprised mostly of exercises and short pieces aimed at putting into practice what is being illuminated in the readings; in the second half of the semester, students will create longer, formal essays to be presented in workshop.

Faculty

Details Useful to the State: Writers and the Shaping of US Empire

Open, Small Lecture—Fall

Are you going to ask where I am? I'll tell you—giving only details useful to the State... —Pablo Naruda, Letter to Miguel Otero Silva, 1948.

What might it mean for a writer to be useful to a state? How have states used writers, witting and unwitting, in projects aimed at influence and hegemony? How might a state make use of language as a weapon? How might a state inflect and influence the intimacy between a writer and what they may write? What might it mean for a writer to attempt to avoid being useful to a state? In this class, we’ll discuss an array of choices that writers have made in relation to state power, focusing particularly on the United States from just after World War II until the present. You’ll be asking to read excerpts from four books: Joel Whitney’s Finks: How the CIA Tricked the World’s Best Writers; Frances Stonor Saunders’ The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters; Eric Bennett’s Workshops of Empire: Stegner, Engle, and American Creative Writing During the Cold War; Peter Dale Scott’s long poem, Coming to Jakarta; and Dionne Brand’s Inventory. This is not a history or literature class: Our lens will be that of a writer, using deep study and playful practice to figure out the dilemmas and best practices of the present. Although this is a lecture class, with a limit of 30 students, you’ll be asked to participate, improvise, and do some class reading and writing, work with a partner, as well as participate in one group conference a week often focused on in-class writing exercises. The only prerequisite is the courage to think out loud with other people; aka, the courage required to learn.

Faculty