Module ARAM236 for 2021/2
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
ARAM236: Sociology and Anthropology of the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula
This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.
Module Aims
The main aim of this module is to provide you with specialised knowledge and critical understanding of the societies of the contemporary Gulf and Arabian Peninsula. This module aims particularly at exploring the social dynamics and fracture lines at work in this region and to show how social categories are historically and politically constructed. Through deconstructing the supposed Gulf exceptionalism, this course further aims to develop your analytical thinking skills as independent researchers and your intellectual ability to place issues discussed in a wider context, beyond common knowledge immediately available in the media, or conventional readings of the region’s society, politics and economy.
| On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
|---|---|
| Module-Specific Skills | 1. Identify and critically assess the main contemporary social dynamics in the societies of the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, including the historical foundations of social structures and hierarchies; the debates about migration and citizenship; the organisation and production of Gulf cities; and the narratives and counter-narratives of modernity. 2. Critically evaluate different analytical and methodological approaches and concepts in the study of societies of the Arabian Peninsula. |
| Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Demonstrate an ability to draw from broader concepts in sociology and anthropology, and to analyse the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula through conceptual lenses established in the study of other regions of the world. 4. Demonstrate an ability to embrace a multi-disciplinary approach in order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic. 5. Analyse and assess academic texts and prevailing notions critically. |
| Personal and Key Skills | 6. Demonstrate skills of reasoned and supported argumentation in writing and in oral presentation. 7. Demonstrate skills of finding, analysing and synthesising information from a range of sources. 8. Engage in independent study and group work, including the presentation of material for group discussion. |
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.
Al-Rasheed, Madawi. A Most Masculine State. Gender, Politics and Religion in Saudi Arabia (Cambridge University Press, 2013).
Beaugrand, Claire. Stateless in the Gulf: Migration, Nationality and Society in Kuwait (I. B. Tauris, 2017).
Bsheer, Rosie. ‘Whither Arabian Peninsula Studies?’, in A. Ghazal and J. Hanssen (eds). The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African History (Oxford University Press, 2015).
Carapico, Sheila (ed.). Arabia Incognita: Dispatches from Yemen and the Gulf (Just World Books, 2016).
Elsheshtawy, Yasser. Temporary Cities. Resisting Transience in Arabia (Routledge, 2019).
Khalaf, Abdulhadi, Omar Alshehabi and Adam Hanieh (eds). Transit States. Labour, Migration and Citizenship in the Gulf (Pluto Press, 2014).
Lori, Noora. Offshore Citizens. Permanent Temporary Status in the Gulf (Cambridge University Press, 2019).
Menoret, Pascal. Joyriding in Riyadh. Oil, Urbanism and Road Revolt (Cambridge University Press, 2014).
