TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS: The Politics of Culture and Representation in the Arab World

This course will examine the various debates circulating in and around the Arab world related to the culture and politics of Arab societies. We will explore questions of representation in the region, whether that is Arab representations of themselves, Arab representations by the other, or minority struggles for representation. We will look at the relationship between individual, society and the state, and think critically about each of these concepts as they reproduce themselves and social relations. We will examine Arab society through anthropological and political texts, as well as in film and literature. Specific issues include: Orientalism, colonial encounters, cultural and political representations of Islam, critiques of social structures (tribes, family, class), gender and sexuality, political mobilization and notions of democracy, and more.