H248 Rethinking Middle East History

Key information

Start date: 25 September 2023
End date: 15 December 2023
Year of study: Year 2, Year 3 of 3 or Year 4
Duration: Term 1
Module code: 154800328
FHEQ Level: 6
Credits: 15
Department: School of History, Religions and Philosophies

Module overview

How should we understand the political worlds of the Middle East?

It is common to see the region’s modern and contemporary history as a succession of failings: the slow pace of reform in the nineteenth century; the failure of modernisation and economic development in the twentieth century; and today, the lack of democracy, the inability to achieve peace, the breakdown of military security, and the failure of states.

This module takes a different approach. It asks how we came to approach politics as the measuring of success according to a certain set of goals, such as development, peace, and security. Who defined those goals and how are they measured? How have others seen the problems of collective life, including intellectuals and political actors from the Middle East itself? Are there alternative ways to understand the present predicaments of peoples of the region and the paths towards a less precarious life? Can other accounts of the recent past, not framed as the failure of development or the inability to make peace, support alternative futures?

Objectives and learning outcomes

On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:

identify key features of the way the history of the Middle East has been told and explain why this history has been told as a succession of failings
engage with and evaluate alternative approaches to the study of Middle East history
compose evidence-based arguments about how a reimagined history of the Middle East supports alternative futures.

Workload

Lectures: 1hr per week
Seminars: 1hr per week
Independent study: 80hrs (over 10 weeks)

Method of assessment

1,000-word reading response or review (worth 30% of marks)
2,500-word essay (worth 70%)

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules.

Key staff

Lecturer in the History of the Middle East and Africa

Dr Hengameh Ziai

Postcolonial Theory, Critical Political Economy, Islamic Studies, African Studies, Middle East Studies, Ottoman History, Legal History, Science and Technology Studies, Histories of Capitalism, Anthropologies of Debt and Neoliberalism.