ANTH 271 - Contemporary Arab Studies: Culture, Religion, Politics

Semester Offered: Spring
1 unit(s)

(Same as RELI 271) This course introduces students to the study of the contemporary Arab world and its many diasporic communities. In addition to Arab-majority societies, we consider the experiences of minoritized populations such as Amazigh, Kurds, Armenians, and others, as well as how neighboring regions—including Turkey, Iran, Central Asia, the Balkans, and the Sahel—have co-constituted Arab politics, cultures, and imaginaries. Moving beyond headlines and monolithic portrayals, we explore the region’s internal diversity and historical complexity through a cultural studies lens. Our approach includes close engagement with ethnography, history, visual art, film, poetry, and literature, with attention to religious life throughout these genres—all as prisms through which to understand politics, identity, and everyday life differently. The course provides students with tools to rigorously analyze and contest Orientalist stereotypes while situating key geopolitical debates in their broader social and historical contexts. Key themes include gender and sexuality, protest and revolution, labor and leisure, multiple forms of piety and spirituality, and music and popular culture. Taking a transdisciplinary approach, the course is taught by faculty from various fields who bring distinct methodological perspectives. Guest lectures and at least one field trip in the greater NYC/Hudson Valley area deepen our collective inquiry. Ultimately, this course not only recasts reductive views of the Arab region and its diasporas, but offers a critical vantage point from which to think anew about the shared conditions of our contemporary world. China Sajadian, Kirsten Wesselhoeft.

Two 75-minute periods.

Course Format: CLS