Anthropology of the Middle East

ANTHRO 1846 Subject & Catalog Number

Description

Where is the Middle East, and what makes it such a contested region? This course introduces students to the social, cultural, political, and economic complexity of the Middle East from an anthropological perspective. Although it is not a historical survey, the course begins by examining the international power relations and nation-building projects that have reshaped the region since World War I and that undergird its current dynamics. We then turn to ethnographies to explore the depth and diversity of lifeworlds across the region, shaped by varied political forms, social experiences, and embodied differences. Topics include, but are not limited to, economic life, the environment, health, migration, gender and sexuality, the limitations of human rights frameworks, religious practices, state power, and everyday life. Throughout the course, we consider how ethnography—as a set of methods, a mode of knowledge production, and a genre—offers conceptual and critical tools for studying the region. We situate each ethnography within broader anthropological scholarship and reflect on its implications for dominant approaches to colonialism, imperialism, international relations, and Islam. Approximately half of the weeks will also include a film, documentary, photography collection, or other artwork from or about the region, to be watched or experienced as an assignment, helping to draw connections between ethnographic research and cultural production.