Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ARA1010: Politics and Economy of the Contemporary Middle East

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

Week 1 - Overview of the Middle East

Week 2 - Lecture: The Historical Context: Colonial Legacies and Post-Independence

Seminar: The Emergence of the State System in the Middle East

Week 3 - Lecture: Egypt from Nasser to Mubarak

Seminar: Egypt between Autocrats, Theocrats and Hegemonic Powers

Week 4 - Lecture: Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority

Seminar: The Palestinian Question and Lebanese Confessional Politics

Week 5 - Lecture: Ba'thist Syria and Post-Ba'thist Iraq

Seminar: Syria and Iraq: Between Dictatorships and Interventions

Week 6 - Lecture: Rentierism and Patrimonialism in the Gulf

Seminar: Revolutionary and Rentier Politics in Saudi Arabia and Iran

Week 7 - Lecture: The Political Dynamics of the Maghreb

Seminar: Democratization and Civil Reconciliation in the Maghreb

Week 8 - Lecture: Democratization in the Middle East

Seminar: Democratization in Crisis? Can the ‘Arab Spring’ Come True?

Week 9 - Lecture: Islamist Politics and the "War on Terror"

Seminar: Islamism between Violence and Democracy

Week 10 - Lecture: Gender and Development in the Middle East: Between Religious and Secular Agendas

Seminar: Critically Analysing the Human Development Report

Week 11 - Lecture: Conclusion; Review of the Final Examination

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 activity	26.5	A combination of lectures and guided seminar discussions, (11 x 1.5 hour lectures and 10 x 1 hour seminars) including group brainstorming and brief student presentations. Seminar discussions generally follow a related introductory lecture the previous week - except in the final session, where guided discussion and brainstorming take precedence, on the basis of guided reading
Guided Independent study	38	Weekly reading for lectures and tutorials
Guided Independent study	18	Researching and preparing group presentation
Guided Independent study	59.5	Researching and writing of summative essays
Guided Independent study	8	Web-based learning

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