Instructor: Rosie Bsheer
Description:
How was the region of North Africa and West Asia between the Atlantic and Central Asia constructed, physically and discursively, as “the Middle East”? What were the major local, regional, and global events that have most profoundly affected the political, social, cultural, and intellectual realities of the region since the mid-eighteenth century? Throughout the semester, we will draw on interdisciplinary readings to think critically about these and related questions about the challenges of studying the modern Middle East, the politics of modernity, Ottoman reform, the formation of modern nation states, colonialism and imperialism, social and intellectual movements, petro-states in global perspective, and Islam and politics.
Course Notes:
No prior college level History is required or assumed. Students seeking to fulfill their Social Sciences distribution requirement and first-years are welcome.