Race and Ethnicity in the Middle East and North Africa

3 units

This seminar explores formations, articulations, and legacies of race in the Middle East and North Africa. The main purpose is to acquaint students with different theories and methodological approaches to studies of race and racialization in the region. Given the large scope of the topic, the course will mainly focus on Egypt and Sudan, as well as the Arabian Peninsula and Persian Gulf. In dialogue with a transnational body of scholarship, political theory, as well as artistic and literary production, we will read about the following set of topics: slavery and abolition; race and racialization; empire and colonialism; third world-ism and nationalism; revolution and solidarity; ethnicity and nationality; migration and minorities. By studying how peoples of the region have debated issues of race and racialization, from the Abbasid era to the contemporary moment, we come to realize the legibility and urgency of race as an analytics in Middle East studies. In considering pre-modern and modern articulations of race across the region, we begin to understand how race has functioned as a technology of power and hierarchization, and its intersectional role in forming categories of ethnicity, nationality, or even gender and sexuality. This section is intended for graduate students only. Undergraduate students should enroll in L75 4043.