Module ARAM232 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
ARAM232: Theorising the Middle East
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Aims
This module will be delivered in a series of filmed introductions to key theorists and their work, which will be accessed through a rich ELE site. These films will range from formal lectures, through interviews with experts from across disciplines at Exeter, to shorter interventions in which you and staff reflect on the value of particular theorists in their work.
You are expected to read at least two texts each week, one of which will be the work of theory and the other an example of the application of those theoretical ideas in a work of Middle East or Islamic Studies. These texts will form the basis of the weekly seminars in which theories, texts and their applications will be discussed.
Furthermore, the module will offer at least one ‘masterclass’ in which an invited speaker/visitor/fellow at the IAIS will lead a half- day workshop exploring the theoretical backdrop to their own work.
The module will also offer a planning session in which the use of theory in Masters dissertations will be explored.
In short, the module is designed to develop the advanced skills you will need to undertake an MA in Middle East Studies, especially to develop critical thinking at the highest level.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Critically analyze arguments by reading and discussing key texts in seminars; 2. Present concisely sophisticated arguments; 3. Explain difficult points to an audience also of non-specialists; 4. Identify key aspects of a philosophical and theoretical debate. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 5. Analyze arguments; 6. Criticize texts and question ideas 7. Introduce discussions, 8. Write well-argued essays. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 9. Construct and evaluate ideas, 10. Formulate and express ideas at different levels of abstraction, 11. Assess and criticize the views of others and to undertake an individual research project. |
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 Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
|---|---|---|
| 22 | 128 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
| Category | Hours of study time | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities | 22 | 11 x 2-hour seminars |
| Guided independent study | 60 | Reading for seminars |
| Guided independent study | 68 | Completion of course work |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
The online library
Other Learning Resources
Indicative Reading List
This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.
Abu-Lughod, Lila (1989) ‘Zones of Theory in the Anthropology of the Arab World,’ Annual Review of Anthropology 18: 267-206. Anderson, Benedict (1991) Imagined Communities. London: Verso.
Appadurai, Arian (1996) Modernity at Large. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Beblawi, Hazem and Giacomo Luciani (1987) The Rentier State. New York: Croom Helm.
Davis, John (1988) Libyan Politics. Tribes and Revolution. Oakland: University of California Press.
Eickelman, Dale (1998) The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.
Fraser, Nancy (1989) Unruly Practices. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
Gause, Gregory (2000) ‘The Persistence of Monarchy in the Arabian Peninsula: A Comparative Analysis,’ in Joseph Kostiner (ed.), Middle East Monarchies: The Challenge of Modernity. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.
Gershoni, Israel and James Jankowski (2009), Confronting Fascism in Egypt: Dictatorship versus Democracy in the 1930s.
Stanford: University of Stanford Press.
Göçek, Fatma Müge and Shiva Balaghi (eds) (1995) Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East: Tradition, Identity and Power.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Habermas, Jurgen (1981) The Theory of Communicative Action. Boston: Beacon Press.
Khalidi, Rashid (1991), ‘Arab Nationalism: Historical Problems in the Literature’, The American Historical Review 96(5): 1363- 1373.
Roy, Olivier (1994) ‘Patronage and Solidarity Groups: survival or reformation?,’, in Ghassan Salame (ed.), Democracy Without Democrats. London: I.B. Taurus.
Said, Edward (1978) Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.
Salame, Ghassan (1990) "‘Strong’ and ‘Weak’ States: A Qualified Return to the Muqaddimah" in Giacomo Luciani (ed.). The Arab State. London: Routledge.
