Revolutions, Socialism and Islamism in Northern Africa: Algeria Beyond the War

(2.5-3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

During the Arab springs, Algeria gave the impression of remaining impervious to regional dynamics until 2019, when the country experienced its own form of collective mobilization, the hirak. Something of an outlier to current events in the Maghreb, Algeria is an excellent case study for a deeper historical understanding of the region. Based on texts, images, and film sources, this course will lead us from the enthusiasm of independence in 1962 (after the defeat of the colonial domination), Third worldism, and socialist utopia, through the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, the rise of Djihadi Islam and the first of its kind civil war between the army and the armed Islamists in the 1990, and its aftermath and to the more recent uprisings in North Africa.