Postgraduate Module Descriptor


ARAM232: Theorising the Middle East

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

  • Ibn Khaldun: the birth of social science; universal history; ‘asabiyyah
  • Marx: historical materialism; capitalism
  • Weber – Linz: secularization; spirit; capitalism; patrimonialism; sultanism; authoritarianism
  • Gramsci: hegemony; historicism; state and civil society
  • Edward Said: Orientalism; post-colonialism; post-structuralism
  • Habermas – Nancy Fraser: public sphere; communicative rationality
  • Benedict Anderson – Anthony Smith: nationalism; ethnie; imagined communities
  • Butler and Harraway: queer theory; performativity; masculinity
  • Rentier states: rentierism
  • Contemporary anthropological theory: the imaginary

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
221280

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities2211 x 2-hour seminars
Guided independent study60Reading for seminars
Guided independent study68Completion of course work

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

The online library

Other Learning Resources

http://elgg.exeter.ac.uk