Spring

This course integrates between sociological themes such as stratification, gender, culture, ethnicity, race, religion, political sociology and economy in order to study the Israeli society with all its diversity. Israeli society is a unique case for sociological study. A young nation which on the one side has a successful economy, but on the other side is dealing with an ongoing conflict with its Arab and Palestinian neighbors. Inequality rates in Israel are among the highest in the OECD, based on class, gender, ethnicity and nationality. Israel is exhibiting opposite trends between promoting gay rights and becoming more religious. In its 70th year Israel is facing deep social and political dilemmas which intertwine with major sociological themes. This course wishes to reveal these dilemmas and their deep complexities. The course will be divided to meetings which in each of them sociological themes and theories will be explored and problematized vis-à-vis Israeli society.

This course will provide an overview of Anatolian/Hittite literature, as "defined" by the Hittites themselves, in the wider historical-cultural context of the Ancient Near East. In the course of discussions, we will try to answer some important questions about Hittite inscriptions, such as: why were they written down, why were they kept, for whom were they intended, and what do the answers to these questions (apart from the primary content of the texts themselves) tell us about Hittite society?

This course introduces students to the history of ancient Anatolia and its neighbors from the first historical texts around 2000 BCE, with a short detour through prehistory and the appearance of Proto-Indo-European culture, to the arrival of Alexander the Great. Some of the famous ancient Near Eastern civilizations that we encounter include the Assyrians, Hittites, Phrygians, Lydians, Persians, and Israelites. We will focus on the information provided by inscriptions - especially political and socioeconomic history - as well as the relevant archaeological and art historical records. No prior knowledge of Anatolian or Near Eastern history is required.

The class compares the histories of both Iraq and Palestine to explore questions relating to colonialism, nationalism and resistance in the modern Middle East. Each class will take up a theme, ranging from arm resistance to gender roles in post colonialist contextS, and will compare the Iraqi to the Palestinian case. GRADUATE Seminar, three hours,

This is the continuation of NEHC 20837/20837: History Early Turkish Republic I. Students will produce a seminar/research paper and meet to discuss selected readings on the transition from Ottoman Empire to Turkish Republic and the consolidation of the Republican regime.

This class explores works of Muslim intellectuals, who interpreted various aspects of Islamic philosophy, political theory and law in the modern age. We will look at diverse interpretations concerning the role of religion in a modern society, at secularized and historicized approaches to religion and at the critique of both religious establishments and nation states as articulated by Middle Eastern intellectuals. Consequently, we will contextualize concepts like “woman,” “nation,” “East” and “jihad” as we follow the meanings assigned to these conceptions by different intellectuals at different historical moments. The class likewise examines the ways in which Muslim reformers synthesized cultural trends to revive the Islamic faith in face of Western economic and political hegemony. Our debate will focus on the influence of the colonial settings on the formation of these new readings and on the ways in which Muslim thinkers both appropriated and critiqued Western notions of civilization and guidance. We will consider the impact of these new ideas on political theory, and in particular on the political systems which emerged in the modern Middle East. Finally, the class will scrutinize the ways in which Muslim writers manipulated new means of communication such as the print media in order to propagate their ideas regarding the nature of their state and society. Generally, we shall discuss secondary literature first and the primary sources later.

This course covers the period from ca. 1750 to the present, focusing on Western military, economic, and ideological encroachment; the impact of such ideas as nationalism and liberalism; efforts at reform in the Islamic states; the emergence of the "modern" Middle East after World War I; the struggle for liberation from Western colonial and imperial control; the Middle Eastern states in the cold war era; and local and regional conflicts.

Have you ever wondered what men looked like, how they lived and loved in the pre-modern Middle East? In this class, we will encounter cuckolded husbands, muscular heroes, angry kings, mad lovers, and chivalrous bandits – all fictional. We will analyze how masculinities are constructed in selected passages of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish literature in translation, and evaluate normative expectations, caricatures, and anxieties about masculinities in the cultural consciousness of the pre-modern Middle East.
In this course, you will become familiar with theoretical principles of the study of masculinities as well as acquire tools for literary analysis and close reading. Case studies will be drawn from a variety of literary sources, such as the Thousand and One Nights (Alf Layla wa-layla), the Persian Book of Kings (Shāhnāmeh), the love story of Laylā and Majnūn, as well as other texts.

For most of the duration of the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC), the ancient Egyptians were able to establish a vast empire and becoming one of the key powers within the Near East. This course will investigate in detail the development of Egyptian foreign policies and military expansion which affected parts of the Near East and Nubia. We will examine and discuss topics such as ideology, imperial identity, political struggle and motivation for conquest and control of wider regions surrounding the Egyptian state as well as the relationship with other powers and their perspective on Egyptian rulers as for example described in the Amarna letters.

Prior knowledge of the Middle East not required. This course aims to facilitate a general understanding of some key factors that have shaped life in this region, with primary emphasis on modern conditions and their background, and to provide exposure to some of the region's rich cultural diversity. This course can serve as a basis for the further study of the history, politics, and civilizations of the Middle East.