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.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. 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 Skills3. 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 Skills5. 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 ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
221280

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activity2211 x 2hr seminars
Guided independent study128Private 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).