Spring 2006

MES 381 • Mid East Std: Approaches/ME THS

Course Description

The course will introduce graduate students to those theoretical, historiographical, and methodological issues that are central to the field of Middle Eastern Studies. Given the multidisciplinary nature of the field, this will of necessity involve exploring contributions and approaches in a variety of disciplines - from political science and history to geography and anthropology, from media studies and comparative literature to art history and language pedagogy. This will enable students to become familiar with particular disciplinary foci and methodologies as these are applied to research/teaching on the Middle East, and provide a basis for identifying shared intellectual concerns that can sustain a coherent framework and unifying vision for Middle Eastern Studies.

Texts

Zachary Lockman, Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism. Cambridge University Press, 2004. Amitav Ghosh, In An Antique Land: History in the Guise of a Traveler's Tale. Vintage Books (Paperback). 1994.

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