Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ARA2134: Ethnography of the Middle East

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

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 assessmentSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Reaction papers (x4)500 words4-7Written
Seminar discussions1 hour per week9Oral

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.

CourseworkWritten examsPractical exams
10000

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment% of creditSize of the assessment (eg length / duration)ILOs assessedFeedback method
Essay502,500 words1-6, 7-8Written comments and mark
5 x Reaction papers30500 words each4-7Written comments and mark
Ethnographic Book or Article review 201,000 words3-5, 7Written comments and mark
0
0
0

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 assessmentForm of re-assessmentILOs re-assessedTimescale for re-assessment
EssayEssay (2,500 words)1-6, 7-81 month (date to be agreed)
5 x Reaction papersUp to 5 reaction papers (500 words each and the number depending on how many were initially submitted) on relevant articles chosen by the module tutor4-71 month (date to be agreed)
Ethnographic Book or Article reviewEthnographic Book or Article Review (1,000 words)3-5, 71 month (date to be agreed)

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.

Soraya Altorki and Camillia El-Solh, Arab Women in the Field: Studying your Own Society (Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1988).

Donna Lee Bowen and Evelyn Early (eds.), Everyday Life In The Muslim Middle East (Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 2002, 2nd ed.).

Dale Eickelman, The Middle East and Central Asia: An Anthropological Approach (Upper Sadder River, NJ, Prentice Hall, 2002, 4th ed).

Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (London, Routledge, 1967).

Richard Lawless, The Middle Eastern Village: Changing Economic and Social Relations (London: Croom Helm, 1987).


Supplementary readings

Abu-Lughod, L. (1999) Veiled Sentiments: Honor and Poetry in a Bedouin Society. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Chatty, D. (1996) Mobile Pastoralists: Development, Planning and Social Change in Oman. New York: Columbia University Press.

Deeb, L. (2006) An Enchanted Modern: Gender and Public Piety in Shi’i Lebanon. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Fernea, E. (1965) Guest of the Shaykh. Anchor Books.

Friedl, Erika (1989) Women of Deh Koh: Lives in an Iranian Village. Penguin Books, New York.

Lavie, S. (2002) The Poetics of Military Occupation. University of California Press.

Kanaaneh, R. A. (2002) Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel. University of California Press, Berkeley.

Özyürek, E. (2006). Nostalgia for the Modern: State Secularism and Everyday Politics in Turkey. Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press

Singerman, D. (1997) Avenues of Participation: Family Politics, and Networks in Urban Quarters of Cairo. Cairo: AUC Press.

Navaro-Yashin, Y. (2002) Faces of the State : Secularism and Public Life in Turkey. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Spellman, K. (2004) Religion and Nation: Iranian Local and Transnational Networks in Britain (Studies in Forced Migration), Berghahn Books.