Module POC3127 for 2020/1
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POC3127: Gendered Politics of the Middle East
This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 academic year.
Please note that this module is only delivered on the Penryn Campus.
Module Aims
The module offers an overview of the main debates that inform and are informed by the study of gender and sexuality in the Middle East. It is a highly inter-disciplinary module that combines different theoretical and methodological approaches. The module emphasises the tight links between theory and activism whilst stressing the limits of binary analysis.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
---|---|
Module-Specific Skills | 1. Identify some of the key social, economic and political contexts that inform and are informed by gender in the Middle East. 2. Demonstrate an understanding of gender in the Middle East beyond representational politics, notably the woman question or the practice of veiling |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Evaluate critically the role of the state, religious authorities, donors and further political actors in the construction of discourses on/of gender and sexuality in the Middle East 4. Evaluate different theoretical and methodological approaches employed in the study of gender and sexuality in the Middle East |
Personal and Key Skills | 5. Write analytically for an academic and non-academic public 6. Demonstrate good research and indexing praxis (online and in the library) 7. Communicate arguments effectively through written submissions and verbal presentations |
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 of the following topics or readings:
- Why Gender and Sexuality? Epistemic Violence and the Middle East
- Pre-modern/Islamicate Sexualities: History as Empowering?
- Gendering the Nation-State: Modernity and the “Woman Question” (Egypt)
- Rethinking the Private/Public Divide: Personal Status Laws (Lebanon / Tunisia/ UAE)
- Queering the Middle East: Queer Theory vs. LGBT analysis (Queer IR)
- Islamic/Queer Feminisms: An Oxymoron? (Iran)
- Gender and Conflict in the Middle East: The Case of Kurdish Militant Women
- Sexuality and Conflict in the Middle East: The Case of Pinkwashing (Israel/Palestine)
- Masculinity and its Paradoxes I: “Live and Die like a Man”
- Masculinity and its Paradoxes II: Gendering the Arab Spring
- Popular Culture as Counter-Narratives? Emerging Scholarship and Future Research
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 Activity | 22 | 11 x 2hr seminars |
Guided independent study | 128 | Private study students are expected to read suggested texts and make notes prior to seminar sessions. They are also expected to read widely to complete their coursework assignments. More specifically, students are expected to devote at least: 66 (6 hours per topic/week) hours to directed reading; 6 hours to completing the formative research outline; 42 hours (3 hours/day over two weeks) for completing the essay; 10 hours (2 hours/day over 5 days) for completing opinion pieces. The 4 remaining hours serve as a margin to be adjusted depending on the student in question |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|
Group project (small group of 2-4) | 5-8 Minutes | 1-7 | Written or verbal |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
---|---|---|
100 | 0 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
---|---|---|---|---|
Essay | 50 | 2000 words | 1-7 | Written |
Collection of opinion pieces | 50 | 2000 words | 1-7 | Written |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
---|---|---|---|
Essay | Essay (2000 words) | 1-7 | August/September reassessment period |
Collection of opinion pieces | Collection of opinion pieces (2000 words) | 1-7 | August/September reassessment period |