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 Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, the syllabus will cover all of the following topics:
- Introduction: Deconstructing Gulf exceptionalism
- Origins of Social Hierarchies: Historical Circulations & Introduction of Nationality
- Contemporary Dynamics of Tribes and Tribalism
- “Transit States”: Migration, Kafala, Labour Market
- Impossible Citizens: Social Changes, Mobilities and the Myth of Temporariness
- Theorising the Organisation of Gulf Societies: Marxist and Anthropological Perspectives
- The Production of Gulf Cities: Segregation and Interactions
- Seeing from the Margins: Social Ordering and Subversive Practices
- Family and Gender Transformations in the Arabian Peninsula
- Bodies, Norms and Transgressions
- Narratives and Counter-Narratives of Gulf Modernity
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 and Teaching Activities | 22 | 11 x 2-hour seminars |
| Guided independent study | 32 | Essay (20 hours reading, 12 hours writing) |
| Guided independent study | 28 | Individual presentation (18 hours researching, 10 hours preparing presentation) |
| Guided independent study | 40 | Weekly reading (10 x 4 hours per week) |
| Guided independent study | 28 | Project (18 hours researching, 10 hours writing/preparing presentation) |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
Other Learning Resources
The International Crisis Group’s reports at www.crisisgroup.org;
Human Rights Watch (Middle East) produces good reports on the states of the Arabian Peninsula: http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-east/n-africa
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).
