Near East Studies

This course students to the study of a rapidly changing Middle East and North Africa from a multidisciplinary angle. The course debunks preconceived stereotypical ideas students might have acquired through the media about a region often typified as a war zone and an area rife with conflict. Students gain a comprehensive understanding of the MENA from multifarious angles including history, politics, and culture.

This course is an introduction to sociology of the Arab region. It focuses on the processes of change and continuity that have helped establish the main elements of contemporary Arab societies. This course analyzes the linguistic, ethnic, and religious structures of the region, as well as the different trajectories of state formation, gender policies, family structures, the relationships between religion and power, and the main transformations since 2011 as a result of Arab Spring.

This course is a survey of the architectural output of the Islamic world from from Spain to Indonesia from the 7th century to the present. It presents major examples of religious and secular architecture, including mosques, madrasas, palaces, and caravanserais and offers an insight into different Islamic dynastic styles in their respective geographic territories beginning with the Umayyads in Syria and ending with the contemporary architecture. With the help of visual material and field trips, the course analyzes major monuments with the objective of arriving at an understanding of each dynasty’s contribution in the context of the continuous development that nurtured it. The course facilitates enjoyment of Islamic architecture, provides an understanding of how art historians think and argue with one another, and expands visual memory.

The Ottoman Empire was one of the four principal political, military, and cultural forces in the premodern world (together with the Qing, Mughal and Habsburg empires), and still a power to be reckoned with in the modern period until 1918. With its core in the Aegean and Balkans, the empire exercised hegemony over large parts of the Middle East, North and East Africa, and Central Europe for many centuries. Taking the perspective of world history, this course provides a basic knowledge of Ottoman history and culture, especially during the last three hundred years of its more than six centuries long existence. In a more general sense, the course introduces the developing historical fields of empire studies and court studies. The course reviews the current historiographical debates about the nature and impact of Ottoman rule, including the question of ‘modernization’. Special attention is paid to the entanglements of politics, religion and ethnic identity in the region. This includes a critical appraisal of hackneyed terms and binaries, such as the east-west dichotomy, the ‘clash of civilizations’ thesis, and the very concept of ‘the Middle East’ itself. In addition, the course introduces students to Ottoman institutions of imperial rule, such as the court and the palace, the army, the role of religion, and Ottoman architecture.

The death of the Prophet and his succession gave rise to two different and sometimes rival conceptions of religious authority and political power in Islam. The historical perspective enables us to understand the changing relationships, reconfigurations, and contemporary dynamics in the Middle East. This course, based on a multidisciplinary approach, examines the impact of relations between Sunnis and Shiites on the geopolitics of the Middle East, and the extent to which they are also shaped by regional geopolitics. As these divisions are part of specific political and regional contexts, it is necessary to go beyond a strictly confessional reading of regional geopolitical issues. This course develops critical thinking skills, as well as the capacity for analysis and reflection, in order to shed light on the multidimensional dimension of these interactions.

The death of the Prophet and his succession gave rise to two different and sometimes rival conceptions of religious authority and political power in Islam. The historical perspective will enable us to understand the changing relationships, reconfigurations and contemporary dynamics in the Middle East. The aim of this course, based on a multidisciplinary approach, is to understand the impact of relations between Sunnis and Shiites on the geopolitics of the Middle East, but also to grasp the extent to which they are also shaped by regional geopolitics. As these divisions are part of specific political and regional contexts, it is necessary to go beyond a strictly confessional reading of regional geopolitical issues. This study will enable students to develop their critical thinking skills, as well as their capacity for analysis and reflection, in order to shed light on the multidimensional dimension of these interactions.

This is an independent research course with research arranged between the student and faculty member. The specific research topics vary each term and are described on a special project form for each student. A substantial paper is required. The number of units varies with the student’s project, contact hours, and method of assessment, as defined on the student’s special study project form.

This course investigates the nineteenth-century roots of contemporary issues in the middle east. It introduces the issues, actors, and processes that have shaped the post-Ottoman region and its neighbors during the past two centuries. The course surveys broad trends in the evolution of the Ottoman Sultanate during the nineteenth century, then focus on themes for discussion and analysis. It also examines the Ottoman state, the diverse communities that made up the empire, and the great powers that surrounded it. The course attends to political, military, economic, social, and cultural developments, attempting to understand historical breaks and continuities that continue to affect the region today. Finally, it critiques analytical categories (nation, class, faith, and gender) while relating them to concrete case studies and asking whether they are relevant to different societies.

This course offers a systematic review of international migration and refugee movements to, through, and from the Middle East and North Africa over the last decade. It addresses their trends, causes, and consequences for individuals and societies, and stresses the universality of international mobility determinants, as well as the specificity of the context in which they operate in the region.

This course examines the roots of the primitive Arab state, its conquests, expansion, and evolution, as well as its cultural influence both on the spaces dominated by Arabs and other political institutions of their environment, highlighting in particular the dialogue with Europe throughout the Middle Ages. It is divided into three units: the birth of the Islamic world-- unity, expansion, and culture; geopolitical transformation of the Islamic world; political (re)presentation of Islam.

This course offers a unique opportunity to study some of the world’s oldest religions in a comparative perspective. It is an interdisciplinary initiative between the disciplines of the Study of Religions, Egyptology, and Assyriology. The course is theme-oriented and each unit has both a more theoretical part along with an empirical component that focuses on texts and objects from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Themes studied include deities and concepts of the divine, mythologies, temples and sacred space, ritual leaders and other religious agents, rituals and festivals, hymns and prayers, magic, healing rituals and divination, conceptions of death and afterlife. The course also introduces the main textual sources (such as the Gilgamesh Epic, the Babylonian Epic of Creation, the Myth of Isis and Osiris, and the Book of the Dead), excerpts of which are read in English translation. The course provides a general overview of the basic theoretical debates in the history of religions, as well as a basic overview of religious beliefs and practices in ancient Egypt and ancient Mesopotamia (c. 3300 BCE – 300 CE). The empirical material in class come from the religions of the ancient Near East, but the analytical tools used are applicable on historical religions at large.