Near East Studies

This course analyzes the major upheavals that have shaped the Middle East and North Africa's strategic landscape in the post-Cold War era. It is structured around three key modules. The first provides a chronological overview, from the 1990s "Unipolar Moment" to the collapse of the Syrian regime in December 2024. The second focuses on the persistence of authoritarianism, along with the violent backlash and counterrevolutions that followed the Arab Spring. The third examines U.S. foreign policy and the Global War on Terror. Special attention is given to the Proxy Wars and Culture Wars that will define the future of the region, to the shifting alliances within a context of competitive multipolarity, and to civil societies, literature, cinema, cultural and intellectual fault lines.

This course introduces urban studies in the Middle East, drawing on textual, visual, and collaborative resources to critically explore contemporary urban life in the region. It situates the region within broader discussions on the global “urban age,” an era where purportedly half of the world’s growing population lives and works in cities. The course explores the structural and everyday forces and actors—states, people, culture, nature, wars, and disasters—that shape and connect cities across the region. It draws on debates and methodologies in urban sociology, political economy, and anthropology. The course blends theory and practice through collaborative, experiential methods such as urban diary writing, visual ethnography, and field visits.

The course introduces students to 20th century Persian-language literary texts available in translation as a means of understanding the efforts of an ever-expanding Iranian intellectual class to address issues surrounding the rise of the modern nation-state in the Middle East generally and Iran in particular over this period via use of both the short story and the novel. The course can intersect with other departmental courses on modern Middle Eastern Studies, allowing students to explore their particular interests generally. But, it also intersects in particular with a course in modern Persian history which considers the political and socio-economic history of Iran since the 16th century.
 

Through the reading of a selection of Arabic literary texts in English translation by leading authors from across the Arab world, the course introduces students to the language, style, and themes of postcolonial Arabic literature. Students look at the features and significance of the "postcolonial voice" in Arabic literature produced in the aftermath of national independence and the end of colonial rule, and analyze some theoretical concepts in the context of postcolonial literary criticism. The course also develops understanding of the political, historical, and cultural contexts of the postcolonial approach to Arabic literature.