Module ARA1038 for 2022/3
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
ARA1038: Religious Minorities of the Middle East
This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.
Module Aims
You will develop knowledge of the cultural complexity of the Middle East and the environment in which this arose. You will develop your ability to evaluate sources, both for accuracy and for underlying prejudice and bias. You will develop your ability, not only to work within a group of students, but also to ask the right questions from someone with a different cultural outlook. You will learn to use the principle of religious literacy. You will also develop your ability to think about the target audience for your project and what their needs will be.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
---|---|
Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate awareness of the major religious minorities now living in the Middle East 2. Demonstrate understanding of the conditions under which many of the religious minorities developed and of the conditions which currently threaten the survival of some 3. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge of at least one of the religions |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 4. Evaluate sources critically, especially where the sources do not come from the religions themselves 5. Demonstrate awareness of the variety of disciplinary approaches needed to understand religions which may differ considerably in structure and expression from religions more familiar to us |
Personal and Key Skills | 6. Through seminar and group work, demonstrate communication and skills, the ability to work in groups, and competency in handling different types of information that might require you to think outside the box 7. Work independently, retrieve, sift and integrate primary and secondary sources, construct coherent arguments, write lucidly, and apply research and bibliographic skills. 8. Demonstrate effective presentation skills |
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 or all of the following topics:
- What is Religious Literacy?
- Late Antiquity and the Rise of New Religions
- Islam and After
- Religious Conflict in the 19th and 20th Centuries
- Christian Groups
- Non Christian Groups (Yezidis, Yaresanis, Alevis, Druze, Mandaeans)
- Project Workshops
- Project Presentations
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 |
...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 activities | 9 | 9 x 1 hour lectures |
Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 9 | 9 x 1 hour seminars |
Scheduled learning and teaching activities | 4 | 2 x project preparation workshops |
Guided independent study | 128 | Private study or teamwork |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).
The Worlds of Mandaean Priests: mandaeanpriests.exeter.ac.uk
The Yezidi photo archive: Yezidiphotoarchive.com
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 presentation on the target audience for your specific project who are they and what are their needs? | 15 minutes | 6-8 | Verbal feedback from peers and teacher |
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 |
---|---|---|
90 | 0 | 10 |
...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 |
---|---|---|---|---|
Written essay | 45 | 2,000 words | 3-4, 7 | Full written (verbal on request) |
Project (including group presentation) | 45 | Group presentation (15 mins) and 1,500 words of briefing notes (including a reflexive methodology of 500 words), in addition to text (and where applicable, images) of Presentation. Presentation will be recorded. | 1-2, 5-6, 8 | Full written (verbal on request) |
Class participation | 10 | Attendance,participation in formative assessment, participation in group work (subject to any ILOs) | 1-2, 5 | Oral |
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 | 2,000 words (45%) | 1-2, 4, 7 | August/September reassessment period |
Project | Essay 2,000 words (45%) | 3-4, 7 | August/September reassessment period |
Class participation | Mini-project (e.g.small PowerPoint or digital output) to be agreed with teacher (only applicable where ILO/medical certification supplied) | 1, 4, 7 | August/September reassessment period |
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.
Buckley, J.J. The Mandaeans: Ancient Texts and Modern People. Oxford: OUP, 20012.
The Great Stem of Souls: Reconstructing Mandaean History. Piscataway: Gorgias, 2006.
Courbage, Y. and P. Fargues. Christians and Jews under Islam. London: I.B. Tauris, 1998.
Dalrymple, W. From the Holy Mountain: A Journey among the Christians of the Middle East. New York: Henry Holt & Company, Incorporated, 1999.
Drower, E.S. The Mandaeans of Iraq and Iran.
Ginkel, J. J. Van, and T. M. Van Lint. Redefining Christian Identity: Cultural Interaction in the Middle East since the Rise of Islam. Leuven: Peeters Publishing, 2006.
Griffith, S. H. The Church in the Shadow of the Mosque: Christians. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007.
J. S. Guest, Survival Among the Kurds: A History of the Yezidis, 2d ed. London: Routledge, 1993.
Joseph, J. Muslim-Christian Relations and Intra-Christian Rivalries in the Middle East: The Case of the Jacobites in an Age of Transition. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983.
Karabell, Z. Peace Be Upon You: Fourteen Centuries of Muslim, Christian, and Jewish Coexistence in the Middle East. New York: Knopf Publishing Group, 2007.
Kreyenbroek, P. G. Yezidism—Its Background, Observances and Textual Tradition. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 1995.
Pacini, A. Christian Communities in the Arab Middle East: The Challenge of the Future. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Rowe, P.S. Routledge Handbook of Middle Eastern Minorities. London: Routledge, 2019.
Waterfield, R. E. Christians in Persia. New York: Allen & Unwin, 1973.