printer friendly pageHISTORY 283F: Capital and Crisis in the Middle East and the World
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History 283F is an undergraduate course for 5 units;
History 383F is a graduate course for 4-5 units.) How do economies change in times of crisis? How do economic crises intersect with pandemics, violence and environmental disaster to redefine the workings of capital? This course approaches these questions through critical reading in the histories of capitalism, crisis, and intersections between legal history and political economy, using the Middle East region as a starting point for the study of global phenomena. We will examine the ways in which constructions like race and ethnicity, gender, and the human/non-human divide have mediated the social and spatial expansion of capital in the region, especially through legal categories and instruments that transform rapidly in times of crisis. Temporally, we will focus our examination between two moments of economic crisis: the ¿long depression¿ of the late nineteenth century and the financial crisis of 2008. We will ground our historical reading in attention to current events, in particular the Middle East¿s ongoing experience of the pandemic-induced global financial crisis of 2020.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Barakat, N. (PI)
HISTORY 283J: Global Islam
(Undergraduates, enroll in 283J; Graduates, enroll in 383J.) Explores the history and politics of Islam in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and the Americas --- and of the novel connections that have linked Muslim communities across the globe in modern times.
Terms: Sum
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
Instructors:
Crews, R. (PI)
HISTORY 284E: Contemporary Muslim Political Thought (HISTORY 384E)
This course aims to provide an intellectual history of contemporary Muslim political thought. It presents post-nineteenth century Muslim contributions to political thought. It is designed as a survey of some major thinkers from the Arab world to Iran and Southeast Asia, from Turkey to North America, who sought to interpret Islam's basic sources and Islamic intellectual legacy. Our readings include primary texts by Tahtawi, Tunisi, Afghani, Rida, Huda Sharawi, Qutb, Shariati, and Mernissi among other prominent figures. We will analyze recurring ideas in this body of thought such as decline, civilization, rationality, ijtihad (Islamic independent reasoning), shura (deliberative decision-making), democracy, secularism, Muslim unity, khilafah (caliphate and vicegerency), freedom, equality, and justice. We will discuss their current significance for the ongoing theoretical debates in Muslim political thought, Muslim intellectual history, and comparative political theory.
Last offered: Autumn 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
HISTORY 285C: The Immigrant in Modern America (JEWISHST 285C)
The 2016 presidential election propelled the topic of immigration to the center of public attention. This is not the first time, however, that questions of immigration and what it means to be an American have revealed deep divisions within the U.S. This course explores the reception of immigrants in modern America, including differing views toward immigration; how immigrants help shape ideas about the American nation; and the growth of state bureaucracy and policing apparatus as a response.
Last offered: Winter 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 285E: Counterinsurgency and Torture: Algeria, Vietnam, and Iraq
This course covers the post-WWII history of counterinsurgency, a type of warfare in which a powerful, state-backed military is pitted against guerrilla fighters, or insurgents. In the context of decolonization (the dissolution of European overseas empires) and the United States' growing role on the world stage, we will examine four counterinsurgency campaigns: the French in Indochina (1946-1954) and Algeria (1954-1962); and the Americans in Vietnam (1964-1973) and Iraq (2003-2011). Using a combination of secondary and primary sources, including declassified government documents, maps, photography, film, music, news broadcasts, and recorded tapes of presidential phone calls, we will ask four overarching questions: 1) How did military planners and politicians learn from prior counterinsurgencies, and what are the strengths and pitfalls of an approach to warfare that applies historical "lessons learned" to contemporary problems? 2) Are torture and violence against civilians the results of mishandled counterinsurgency, or are they inherent to the doctrine? 3) Why have counterinsurgency strategies persisted despite long-term failures and public criticism? 4) How does historical thinking allow us to participate more effectively in debates about counterinsurgency and torture in America today? Throughout, we will explore how counterinsurgency and torture have traveled across space and time, intertwining historical trajectories in Southeast Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East.
Terms: Win
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI
Instructors:
Gruskin, R. (PI)
HISTORY 286D: Yours in Struggle: African Americans and Jews in the 20th Century U.S. (JEWISHST 286D)
This colloquium explores the history of African Americans and Jews in 20th century US beginning with Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe and the Great Migration to America's urban centers. It considers the geographical and economic tensions that developed between two minority groups living in close proximity; the appropriation of black culture; Jewish claims to whiteness and performance of blackness; intercommunal relations during the Civil Rights movement; the breakdown of the black-Jewish alliance in the late 1960s; and the lingering ramifications of this shift today.
Last offered: Autumn 2019
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 286E: Labor Migration: Gender, Race, and Capitalism in North Africa and the Middle East
Current media coverage dwells on the plight of migrants passing through North Africa in search of higher-wage jobs in Europe. But labor migration from, to, and through North Africa and the Middle East is nothing new. Pushing beyond widespread views of labor migration as a policy problem for Western governments to "solve," we will instead explore how migrant laborers shaped the modern history of North Africa and the Middle East, from the late Ottoman Empire until today. We will read an array of texts in history and historical anthropology--each deploying different sources, methods, and empirical examples--to discuss how migrant laborers molded 1) conceptions of race and gender, 2) the development of capitalism, 3) political mobilization, and 4) the boundaries between nations and regions. Among other examples, we will discuss trans-Atlantic migrants from the Ottoman Levant who shaped labor and gender relations within the Middle East and the Americas; migrant workers from North Africa and the Middle East who sustained wartime industries in European empires and metropoles; the construction of an oil economy in the Gulf that was built by migrant labor; and sub-Saharan African domestic workers in the Middle East facing exploitation and crisis. Throughout, we will devote particular attention to the ways in which our readings place migrant laborers and their communities at the center of analysis, despite the fact that migrant laborers do not have a voice in dominant archives.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Gruskin, R. (PI)
HISTORY 286F: Jews in Trump's America and Before (JEWISHST 186)
This class considers the notion of American Jewish exceptionalism through the lens of Trump's America. The social and economic success of American Jewry over the last 350 years is remarkable, yet Jews continue to find their position in American society called into question. This course moves between past and present and will consider key moments in American Jewish life with a particular emphasis on contemporary currents, including post-liberal identity politics, Israel, and the rise of white supremacy.
Last offered: Spring 2020
| UG Reqs: WAY-EDP, WAY-SI
HISTORY 288C: Jews of the Modern Middle East and North Africa (CSRE 288C, JEWISHST 288C)
This course will explore the cultural, social, and political histories of the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) from 1860 to present times. The geographic concentration will range from Morocco to Iran, Iraq to Turkey, and everywhere in between. Topics include: Jewish culture and identity in Islamic contexts; the impacts of colonialism, westernization, and nationalism; Jewish-Muslim relations; the racialization of MENA Jews; the Holocaust; the experience and place of MENA Jews in Israel; and "Jews of Color."
Terms: Spr
| Units: 5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-EDP
Instructors:
Farah, D. (PI)
HISTORY 290: North Korea in a Historical and Cultural Perspective (HISTORY 390, KOREA 190X, KOREA 290X)
North Korea has been dubbed secretive, its leaders unhinged, its people mindless dupes. Such descriptions are partly a result of the control that the DPRK exerts over texts and bodies that come through its borders. Filtered through foreign media, North Korea's people and places can seem to belong to another planet. However, students interested in North Korea can access the DPRK through a broad and growing range of sources including satellite imagery, archival documents, popular magazines, films, literature, art, tourism, and through interviews with former North Korean residents (defectors). When such sources are brought into conversation with scholarship about North Korea, they yield new insights into North Korea's history, politics, economy, and culture. This course will provide students with fresh perspectives on the DPRK and will give them tools to better contextualize its current position in the world. Lectures will be enriched with a roster of guest speakers.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4-5
| UG Reqs: WAY-SI, WAY-A-II
Instructors:
Moon, Y. (PI)
;
Zur, D. (PI)
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