Course Details
Weekly Meetings
Course Description
This graduate seminar provides a general introduction to the modern history of state building and attendant social mobilizations in the Mashriq (i.e., the Arab East), with a comparative emphasis on Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The course takes as its central concern the modern state, both as a political sociability (i.e., the nation-state) as well as a range of institutional arrangements (i.e., the particular political economy of power within). Despite their varied geographic, demographic, and sociopolitical legacies, the majority of contemporary states in the Middle East and North Africa can be said to have coalesced around a particular macro-trajectory of political power, economic development, and social mobilization. Yet at the same time, the demographic, institutional, and strategic differences within said trajectory are significant enough to have produced differential manifestations of what many scholars and commentators have come to call the “Arab Spring.” While this course does not seek to “explain” the emergence of anti-regime uprisings in some states or the lack thereof in others, it does take these discussions as an entry point into the efficacy and utility of studying the history of the state in the region, both as a political sociability as well as a set of institutional arrangements. In doing so, it familiarizes students with some of the major theories, methods, and case studies that have come to define the fields of inquiry known as “state formation”, “economic development”, and “social mobilization" in the Middle East.
Rooted in a comparative historical perspective, the seminar is structured to offer three simultaneous lines of inquiry: (1) What are the major historical junctures of political and economic development in the Mashriq; (2) What are the similarities and differences in the state building histories of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria; (3) What is the status of the nation-state model as a form of political sociability in the Arab Middle East?
The seminar will address these three questions by exploring some of the cutting edge theoretical debates and empirical studies that have come to shape the scholarly consensus on these issues. Primarily drawing on the cases of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, the seminar will follow the trajectory of state building in the Arab East across four major periods: the late Ottoman, the colonial, the early post-colonial, and the late post-colonial. Rather than reinforcing culturalist, teleological, or linear narratives of state building, this course will highlight the particular interplay between structural transformations, institutional legacies, and contingencies.
Course Objectives
Course Requirements
This course is designed as a graduate seminar, which means that students’ success and that of the course will depend on their individual and collective commitment to the following:
Academic Integrity: In satisfying the above requirements, all students are expected to follow the University’s code of academic integrity. Any and all violations of this code will result in an automatic "F" on the assignment in question and a referral to the Office of Community Standards and Student Responsibility.
Services for Students with Difference: If you have a learning, physical, psychological disability for which you are or may be requesting reasonable academic adjustments, you are encouraged to privately alert me as soon as possible so we can make all appropriate arrangements. Students requesting accommodation based on the impact of a disability must provide written documentation from the Office of Student Accessibility Services. If the student has not yet registered with the Office of Student Accessibility Services, they are encouraged to do as soon as possible.
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Course Description
This graduate seminar provides a general introduction to the modern history of state building and attendant social mobilizations in the Mashriq (i.e., the Arab East), with a comparative emphasis on Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. The course takes as its central concern the modern state, both as a political sociability (i.e., the nation-state) as well as a range of institutional arrangements (i.e., the particular political economy of power within). Despite their varied geographic, demographic, and sociopolitical legacies, the majority of contemporary states in the Middle East and North Africa can be said to have coalesced around a particular macro-trajectory of political power, economic development, and social mobilization. Yet at the same time, the demographic, institutional, and strategic differences within said trajectory are significant enough to have produced differential manifestations of what many scholars and commentators have come to call the “Arab Spring.” While this course does not seek to “explain” the emergence of anti-regime uprisings in some states or the lack thereof in others, it does take these discussions as an entry point into the efficacy and utility of studying the history of the state in the region, both as a political sociability as well as a set of institutional arrangements. In doing so, it familiarizes students with some of the major theories, methods, and case studies that have come to define the fields of inquiry known as “state formation”, “economic development”, and “social mobilization" in the Middle East.
Rooted in a comparative historical perspective, the seminar is structured to offer three simultaneous lines of inquiry: (1) What are the major historical junctures of political and economic development in the Mashriq; (2) What are the similarities and differences in the state building histories of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria; (3) What is the status of the nation-state model as a form of political sociability in the Arab Middle East?
The seminar will address these three questions by exploring some of the cutting edge theoretical debates and empirical studies that have come to shape the scholarly consensus on these issues. Primarily drawing on the cases of Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, the seminar will follow the trajectory of state building in the Arab East across four major periods: the late Ottoman, the colonial, the early post-colonial, and the late post-colonial. Rather than reinforcing culturalist, teleological, or linear narratives of state building, this course will highlight the particular interplay between structural transformations, institutional legacies, and contingencies.
Course Objectives
- Understand the macro-level chronology of modern state formation in the Middle East.
- Identify major figures, events, and processes that helped define each period of state formation.
- Obtain an advanced command of the political, economic, and social transformations implicated in modern state formation.
- Develop elements of critical knowledge consumption, including the deconstruction of teleological narratives and the identification of discourses of power.
Course Requirements
This course is designed as a graduate seminar, which means that students’ success and that of the course will depend on their individual and collective commitment to the following:
- Discussion (20%): Students are expected to attend weekly seminar meetings and actively participate in the discussion. This portion of the course grade will be entirely dependent on a student's consistent attendance and productive engagement in the seminar meetings. Discussion is defined as the practice of engaging in a text-based discussion of the readings assigned for the week, both in reference to individual texts as well as the the sum total of their arguments. This entails several possibilities, including the ability to summarize the thrust of the readings, questioning the logic and coherence of specific assigned readings, drawing out the implications of authors’ assumptions and arguments, as well as connecting different texts to one another (both within a particular week and across weeks). It is highly advised that students not only complete the weekly readings prior to each seminar meeting, but have thought about them enough to formulate questions or raise important points as part of their discussion participation.
- Map Quizzes (10%): Students will be required to prepare for and pass two map quizzes, each dealing with a particular phase of state formation in the modern Middle East. Students will be tested on their knowledge of the different states, major cities, large bodies of water, significant mountain terrains, and strategic points of the regions on which they are quizzed. The two map quizzes will be administered during weeks three and six. A detailed prompt for each quiz will be distributed to students one week preceding each of the map quizzes.
- Reading Responses (30%): Students are expected to submit two-page reading responses for weeks two, three, four, and five, as well as a flex week to be selected from any week between weeks seven and thirteen (making the count five reading notes in total). These short essays will highlight and address the most important issues raised in the assigned readings, the various positions taken by the authors, points of controversy, and your opinions about the debate set up by juxtaposing the different texts to one another. A solid reading response will include a discussion of all readings assigned for the week, and take note of the thesis of each reading, the units of analysis the authors deploy, and the interjections of the texts into the weekly topic. Reading notes are due one hour before the start of each seminar meeting, with an electronic form submitted via email and hardcopy brought to the seminar meeting.
- Final Paper (40%): A 10-15-page historiographic essay is the most significant project each student will work on during this course. The paper must be a comparative review in nature (i.e., comparing, contrasting, and discussing three works), address one of the thematic periods (i.e., late Ottoman, colonial, early post-colonial, late post-colonial) and states (i.e., Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, or Syria) explored in the syllabus, and demonstrate a command of the particular topic beyond the level attained through syllabus reading and in-class discussion alone. The final draft must include an introduction, a background section, a discussion of the major and minor themes surrounding the topic, a consideration of the varied units of analysis used by the authors, an identification of the primary and secondary sources drawn by them, and a conclusion. Students are to select their paper topic in consultation with the course instructor by means of an appointment during the four weeks of the term, at which point the instructor will assign the three works to be considered. A paper outline will be due in class during the tenth week (10%). The final draft of the paper is due at the scheduled date and time of the course’s final exam (40%).
Academic Integrity: In satisfying the above requirements, all students are expected to follow the University’s code of academic integrity. Any and all violations of this code will result in an automatic "F" on the assignment in question and a referral to the Office of Community Standards and Student Responsibility.
Services for Students with Difference: If you have a learning, physical, psychological disability for which you are or may be requesting reasonable academic adjustments, you are encouraged to privately alert me as soon as possible so we can make all appropriate arrangements. Students requesting accommodation based on the impact of a disability must provide written documentation from the Office of Student Accessibility Services. If the student has not yet registered with the Office of Student Accessibility Services, they are encouraged to do as soon as possible.