GOVT 60.17 Arab Political Thought

This is a gateway course to Arab political thought. It will introduce students to the main political and intellectual debates in the modern Arab world since its nascent beginnings during the first half of the 19th century to the ideologies that animated the Arab Spring and its aftermath, including:

- Early accounts of political modernity

- Early Islamic revivalism

- Liberal thought

- Nationalism and Pan-Arabism

- Arab socialism, Marxism and the New Left

- Anti-Colonialism and Occidentalism

- Dreams of Domination

- Citizenship, democracy and human rights

- New directions in Arab thought: Liberalism, nationalism and Islamism

We will cover the basic contours and intellectual debates around these issues, analyzing the main texts tracing their development. The aim of this course is not only to familiarize students with the basic political features of the Middle East but also to equip students with the tools necessary to pursue future academic and analytical work on the politics of the region.

Instructor

Fishere

Cross Listed Courses

MES 12.05

Degree Requirement Attributes

Dist:INT or SOC; WCult:NW

The Timetable of Class Meetings contains the most up-to-date information about a course. It includes not only the meeting time and instructor, but also its official distributive and/or world culture designation. This information supersedes any information you may see elsewhere, to include what may appear in this ORC/Catalog or on a department/program website. Note that course attributes may change term to term therefore those in effect are those (only) during the term in which you enroll in the course.