Culture Society: Arab World

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

ARST 518 -- Culture and Society of the Arab World Professors Fida Adely & Rochelle Davis Spring 2023: Thursday 3:30-6:00 In this course, students study contemporary Arab society in both broad conceptual terms as well as specific topics and case studies. We begin with some initial readings and discussion about studying society and culture with an attention to the varied ways in which communities in the Arab world view and organize themselves. We will read eight dynamic and different books that cover different aspects of contemporary Arab society, and we will also engage with films and other media. The course will be led as a seminar with the majority of the time devoted to discussion and critical understanding of the material. We will divide the class into two parts. The first will delve into the role of the state and issues related to the creation of modern nations, gender, labor, and art. The second part will allow us to discuss issues around race, religion, and ethnicity, through texts that address memory and belonging. The course will examine how these concepts, and the meanings attached to them, are understood and constructed locally by a variety of actors who experience and understand them differently given where they are situated within the Arab world even as the local is in turn shaped by national and global forces.