History, Memory, and Silence in the Middle East

3 credits · Undergraduate credit

This senior/graduate seminar is an exploration in the anthropological approaches to the study of history and memory. It introduces and problematizes the concept of 'silence' in the ethnographic practices of history such as the silences of the empty archives, the ruptured oral historical accounts, and the fragments left behind by past events. Taking the demise of the Ottoman Empire as a starting point, the readings focus on minorities, refugees, and genocide survivors to probe into the history, historiography, and historicity that trace the lived experiences, mundane lives, and emotions of such marginal populations, underrepresented groups, undocumented individuals, and in-archived events. We take the creation of ethno-religious nation-states in the Middle East and the Balkans to navigate the following questions: How do we trace and represent the past in the aftermath of violence and destruction? How do historians and anthropologists conduct their research when the evidence is destroyed? Ultimately, what constitutes an 'evidence' for history, and how could we entertain material and immaterial remnants of the past to rethink our understanding of the 'archive'? Overall, the seminar invites participants to think of the role of historians and anthropologists as storytellers who are perpetually struggling with the politics of representation of the past. Second, we read ethnographies as genre of writing history with an eye on texts, research methods, and theories employed. The readings are anchored on the ethnography of Middle East and North Africa, with a comparative reference to the post-Ottoman Balkans. We take the Armenian genocide and the politics of its historiography, commemoration, and denial as a case study.