NES 2516

Gender, Sexuality, and Social Change in the Modern Middle East

Course Description

Course information provided by the Courses of Study 2017-2018.

This course introduces students to basic themes and topics in the history of women and gender in Middle Eastern societies by exploring the forces of social change that influenced the lives of women (and men) in this region between the eighteenth and twentieth centuries. It will concentrate on selected themes such as modernity, nationalism, and colonization in order to encourage students to challenge preconceived assumptions about Middle Eastern women, discuss some of the many roles they have played in social change, and think comparatively about gender, history, and social life. Students will be introduced to a wide array of literature produced in Western Europe and elsewhere pertaining to the Middle Eastern societies and cultures for a critical analysis of how knowledge and discourses about gender roles had been constructed in the course of the nineteenth century. In addition, students will learn about the ways in which Islamic law and legal institutions defined and managed the issues in relation to women's status as well as sexuality and marriage as social institutions. We will investigate how historical and contemporary political and social forces such as nationalism, colonialism, and revolutions operated in the course of the twentieth century, shaping both women's movement and advocating for women's rights before the law, access to education and family issues. Finally, this course will introduce students to the debates on "gender as a useful category" by connecting it to the recent and growing scholarship on masculinity and queer studies in the Middle East. By doing so, we will analyze relationality of women, men, and transgender categories and their political and social implications in the past and the present.

When Offered Fall.

Breadth Requirement (GB)
Distribution Category (CA-AS)
Course Attribute (CU-ITL)

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