Teaching

Power, Memory, and the Middle East

This course examines the relationship between power, memory, and politics in the Middle East.  It seeks to understand how collective perceptions of the past are affected by, and in turn impact, key themes in contemporary regional politics, including violence and social change, sectarianism, the persistence of authoritarian regimes, and political identity.  Using methodological and theoretical approaches drawn from political science, sociology, and memory studies, we trace power and memory’s operations through case studies in Algeria and France, Syria, Iran and Iraq, Israel and Palestine, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia and Yemen.  In teasing out mechanisms by which memory is reproduced, contested, and disseminated, and identifying memory’s role in the construction and maintenance of collective identities and the sovereign state, we gain insights into the networks of actors that influence regional and national politics as well as the social tools and ideologies they harness in order to do so. Students will be introduced to political themes in the region as they develop analytical tools for thinking critically about power and memory. 

The Spatial Politics of Israel-Palestine

This course tacks between an empirical examination of the ongoing conflict in Israel and Palestine and an engagement with spatial and visual politics at a theoretical level.  Inextricably tied up with place and territory, political debates in the region are approached through an examination of spatial concepts such as borders, movement, barrier, periphery, camp, cities, senses, and globalization. Thus, rather than tackling contentious political debates and considering conflict resolution exclusively from a state and institution-centric perspective, the course looks at contemporary politics from the ground up and examines cases from both sides of the Separation Barrier in order to gain textured insights and a balanced historical perspective.  In so doing, it situates Israel-Palestine in a global network of actors and power relationships, introducing students to key approaches in the interpretive analysis of conflict. Over the course of the semester, students will grapple with politics surrounding the residuum of colonial borders, urban architectures and infrastructures, human mobility and technologies of population control, diaspora, military urbanism, sedentarization, and affective politics. Students should come away with a strong understanding of core features of the conflict in Israel and Palestine, as well as a firm grasp of concepts in spatial politics that have application for the study of peace and conflict, group identity and nationalism, and political violence, across geopolitical contexts.

Desert Politics:  the Arabian Peninsula

For decades, the Middle East has captured global attention, often with dramatic headlines that frame the region through a lens of security, conflict, or crisis.  The tumult captured in media only tells part of the story, often eclipsing or sidestepping important underlying political and social realities. Offering one inroad to understanding regional politics and their geopolitical ramifications, this course examines the modern histories, social organizations, cultures and political systems of 21st Century Arabia, focusing on Oman, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. At the heart of the region, these rapidly transforming desert nations provide sites for a critical investigation into themes that are central to Middle Eastern and global politics more broadly. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach and drawing on literatures in political science, anthropology, history, and international law, the course engages fundamental questions related to the ongoing role of Islam in society, “tribes” and non-national sovereignties, state formation and international influence, durable authoritarian rule, civil society, contemporary dissent, and resource debates over land, water, and oil. Moving between ethnographic and localized understandings of power and larger, transnational concerns and theories, students should come away with a strong understanding of core features of society and politics on the Arabian Peninsula and how these relate to contemporary news events and geopolitical challenges.