Basic reading:

Edward Said, Orientalism

Asef Bayat, Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East

Dina Singerman, Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in Urban Quarters of  Cairo  

Betty S. Anderson, Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State  

Joseph A. Massad, Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan 

David Szanton, The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines 

Zachary Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism  and Field Notes: The Making of Middle East Studies in the United States 

Lara Deeb and Jessica Winegar, Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East  

Adam Hanieh, Money, Markets and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East

Donatella Della Ratta, Shooting the Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria.

Sam Cherribi, Fridays of Rage: Al Jazeera, the Arab Spring, and Political Islam.

Tarek El-Ariss. Leaks, Hacks and Scandals: Arab Culture in the Digital Age.

Mohamed Zayani. Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia.

Daniel Ritter, The Iron Cage of Liberalism: International Politics and Unarmed Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, Conceiving Citizens: Women and the Politics of Motherhood in Iran.

Shahla Talebi, Ghosts of Revolution: Rekindled Memories of Imprisonment in Iran. 

Charles Tripp, The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East. 

Mounira Charrad, States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco  

Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity