Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POC2123: Politics of the Middle East

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

Please note that this module is only delivered on the Penryn Campus.

Module Aims

This module aims to provide an introduction to the main themes and dynamics in the politics of the contemporary Middle East at the domestic, regional and global levels. It considers the political, economic, and social changes that have affected the region since the birth of the nation-state. In doing so, the module provides you with the cognitive skills and academic inquisitiveness that are necessary to nuance your understanding of the region.

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. evaluate the enduring legacies of colonialism on the politics in, and discourses about, the region and analyse the process of state-formation in the contemporary Middle East;
2. assess critically the impact of globalisation on economic and political liberalisation and appreciate the transnational dynamics of civil organizing and political mobilization in the region.
Discipline-Specific Skills3. evaluate different theoretical and practical approaches in the study of politics of the Middle East;
4. construct coherent yet concise arguments.
Personal and Key Skills5. write analytically for an academic and non-academic public;
6. develop good research and indexing praxis (on line and in the library);
7. defend one’s position on seminar discussions.

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.

Basic reading:

 

Edward Said, Orientalism

Asef Bayat, Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East

Dina Singerman, Avenues of Participation: Family, Politics, and Networks in Urban Quarters of  Cairo  

Betty S. Anderson, Nationalist Voices in Jordan: The Street and the State  

Joseph A. Massad, Colonial Effects: The Making of National Identity in Jordan 

David Szanton, The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines 

Zachary Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism  and Field Notes: The Making of Middle East Studies in the United States 

Lara Deeb and Jessica Winegar, Anthropology’s Politics: Disciplining the Middle East  

Adam Hanieh, Money, Markets and Monarchies: The Gulf Cooperation Council and the Political Economy of the Contemporary Middle East

Donatella Della Ratta, Shooting the Revolution: Visual Media and Warfare in Syria.

Sam Cherribi, Fridays of Rage: Al Jazeera, the Arab Spring, and Political Islam.

Tarek El-Ariss. Leaks, Hacks and Scandals: Arab Culture in the Digital Age.

Mohamed Zayani. Networked Publics and Digital Contention: The Politics of Everyday Life in Tunisia.

Daniel Ritter, The Iron Cage of Liberalism: International Politics and Unarmed Revolutions in the Middle East and North Africa.

Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, Conceiving Citizens: Women and the Politics of Motherhood in Iran.

Shahla Talebi, Ghosts of Revolution: Rekindled Memories of Imprisonment in Iran. 

Charles Tripp, The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East. 

Mounira Charrad, States and Women's Rights: The Making of Postcolonial Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco  

Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity