HSS2038 Modern Middle East
4 Intermediate Liberal Arts Credits
This course studies Middle Eastern politics, culture, and society from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. To do this, we will focus on a wide variety of historical developments in different areas of the Middle East, starting with the late Ottoman period and moving into the Mandates of the interwar period, moments of decolonization, and eventually focusing on the post-independent states that emerge in the second half of the 20th century. Additionally, the course provides historical contexts to events, actors, and conflicts that have come to shape the present-day Middle East as well as the world, such as the Arab-Israeli conflict, the politics of oil, the rise of Islamism, and the US-Middle East relations. In order to understand these complex issues, we will engage with works of scholarly analysis, primary documents, memoirs, fiction, and film.
Prerequisites: (FCI1000 or AHS1000) and (WRT1001or RHT1000)