Near East Studies

The class focuses on learning how to look at and to analyze Egyptian art and to place it in its historical, artistic, and cultural context. It focuses on Egyptian art from the end of the Middle Kingdom into the Ptolemaic Period (a review of earlier periods is provided) and includes: modes of representation, role of Egyptian art, reliefs, statuary, architecture, and minor arts, illustrated with images. Elements of Egyptian art that have influenced modern art are also discussed. This course involves a certain amount of memorization, which improves students’ memory capacity, so that each student has a "database" of images and can use it to situate monuments and artifacts within Egyptian history, as well as to develop visual awareness and memory. There is a focus on oral and written communication. Field trips include the Cairo Museum and pyramid sites such as Sakkara and Dahshur.

This course covers the history of Egypt from the Middle Kingdom to the end of Pharaonic history. The course focuses on the "official" history of Egypt rather than the cultural/social history that is covered in a separate course. The scope of "official" history includes: the different rulers of Egypt and their contributions to the state in terms of buildings, religious changes and foreign policy, the economy, social organization, and Egypt’s foreign relations. Literary sources are augmented by archaeological evidence. Field trips to archaeological sites are an important component of the course.

This course focuses on the practicalities of acquiring, processing, and curating archives as well as issues concerning access and research. It also introduces the different archival material available that is relevant to the study of Egyptology and its history. In addition to readings on the history of archives, their significance, and best practice, the course provides hands-on experience with the Selim Hassan archives from his excavation at Giza housed in the American University in Cairo’s Rare Books and Special Collections Library. Students catalogue the material (both photographic and textual), learn about conservation, and documentation (scanning and photography), and the upkeep and organization of digital archives. They then also work on the material (the extent depends on time permitting) to see what was published and what was not, and learn how to categorize the material for future use. In addition to the practical work, there are a series of assignments associated with archives. Thus, this course not only expose students to archival work and best practices, but also archival research and its role in publications. Field trips to Giza to visit the areas of Hassan’s excavations as well as to the archives of other archaeological institutes form part of the course, as well as guest lectures by archivists and scholars who use archives to further archaeological work.

This course introduces the settlements and daily life of the ancient Egyptians, including the material culture. It concentrates on the archaeological evidence from settlements of the three most important periods of ancient Egyptian civilization: the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. The course first discusses urban settlement patterns in ancient Egypt, and secondly the processes by which material assemblages form in settlements. The plans and structure of dwellings is also considered along with the material evidence found within them.

How has the media covered the war on Gaza and what are the underlying political, cultural and business imperatives that have shaped this coverage? What narratives are being foregrounded by legacy Western and Arab media respectively? What role is alternative media playing and what controls are different Social Media platforms imposing on permissible content? What is it like to be a Palestinian journalist in Gaza when journalists are being killed by Israel at an unprecedented rate? These are some of the questions that students critically engage with throughout this course, through a combination of theoretical readings, case studies, multimedia analysis, documentary screenings and guest speakers from the field. The course encourages students to connect scholarship with practice through writing, media monitoring, and creative projects that interrogate the relationship between communication and power in one of the most mediatized conflicts of our time.