Global Arc

This course will examine contemporary religious trends in Iran, with special attention given to the interaction between Shi`ism and contemporary social and economic processes in Iran and elsewhere. The social and political contexts of various approaches to religion will be explored. We will examine the ethnic, social and cultural patterns that dominate religious movements in Iran today.

This course exposes students to the historical, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural factors that have shaped Indigenous Amazigh communities in Tamazgha (North Africa) and its diasporas. It examines the role that Amazigh communities have played in revitalizing their cultures in contemporary Tamazgha and makes visible the acknowledgement the Amazighity of lands in North Africa and complexities of language, cultural identity, and colonialism in the region. Many resources in the source will be taken from the instructor's talks with family members, other Indigenous scholars, and activists in the community.

Fear of the use of oil as a weapon has actuated fateful US polices such as overthrow of an Iranian regime in 1953 and the use of military force in the Persian Gulf since 1984. Yet while the US obsesses about a supply constraint that never materializes, obverse phenomena occur in the Middle East. There, the OPEC cartel was organized to keep over-abundant oil off the market. In this seminar, students will join their professor in surveying the history of Western beliefs about commodities, empire, and wealth.

Provides a framework for understanding the political and economic issues that both challenge and encourage development in the Middle East and Northern Africa. Students will think creatively about the issues raised by designing a development project aimed at tackling a specific problem in a Middle Eastern country. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

For decades scholars predicted that as nations modernized, religion and its corresponding institutions would become increasingly irrelevant. No phenomenon has discredited the secularization thesis more than the powerful resurgence of Islamist movements that began in the 1970s. Given the rapid social and economic development experienced by most Muslim countries, why has political Islam emerged as the most potent force of political opposition in all of these countries? To address this question, the course examines the origins and discourse of political Islam and the goals and organization of Islamist groups. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

An examination of the political dimensions of Islam, involving a study of the nature of Islamic political theory, the relationship between the religious and political establishments, the characteristics of an Islamic state, the radicalization of Sunni and Shi'i thought, and the compatibility of Islam and the nation-state, democracy, and constitutionalism, among other topics. Students will be introduced to the complex and polemical phenomenon of political Islam, using examples drawn mainly, though not exclusively, from cases and writings from the Middle East. Two lectures, one preceptorial.

Introduces advanced undergraduates to the basic methods of research and analysis in history and the social sciences as well as to fundamental debates in the field of Near Eastern Studies. Topics addressed include causality, research design, case studies, selection bias, historicism, Orientalism, ethnography, textual analysis, and the ethics of research.

The course traces the great powers' struggle for control over the Middle East, as it affected Afghanistan. It begins with an introduction to the social and ethnic background, touching on the rise of the tribal Afghan kingdom in the 18th century. It will then focus on the rivalries between Russia and Britain in the 19th century ('the Great Game'), and on those between the Soviet Union and the US in the 20th. We will conclude by studying Washington's support in the 1980's for Islamist groups fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan, its consequences, and the Taliban movement.

Spanish Islam profoundly influenced medieval Judaism and Christendom alike - and through them, world civilization - from the Muslim conquest of most of Spain in A.D. 711 to the fall of the last Moorish stronghold in Granada in 1492 - on the eve of Columbus' voyage. Vital debate on modern Spanish identity centers on whether medieval Spain's Muslims and Jews were "foreign" or somehow "Spanish," too. A fruitful but uneasy 800-year coexistence ended in the expulsion of all Muslims and Jews, posing crucial questions regarding the roots of enduring cultural and religious strains in today's world.

An investigation of minority and minorities in the modern Middle East, this course looks at the categories that the social sciences and the humanities have used to frame and analyze the "problem" of minorities well as the historical development and transformation of minority cultures, identities and political practices in a variety of Middle Eastern contexts. Topics covered will include: minorities in the medieval and early modern Middle East; Kurdish communities in Turkey and Iraq; the Armenian historical experience; Shi'i Muslims in the Arab world; Berbers in North America; and Palestinian citizens of Israel.