The Politics of Solidarity in the Middle East

This course introduces MSc Middle East Politics students to the politics of solidarity and transnationalism, with a particular focus on the Arab world during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. These connections animated struggles for social justice, national liberation, and economic, gender and racial equality, and brought together individual actors, social movements, and states. These different spatial scales and transformative interactions may be overlooked by focusing on the ‘Middle East’ as a geopolitical unit, and on ‘nationalism’ as a dominant conceptual frame.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

• Engage critically with theoretical approaches to solidarity within the disciplines of politics, history and geography

• Demonstrate knowledge of empirical case examples of solidarity and transnational connection centred on the Arab world and wider Middle East, from the colonial period to the present day

• Assemble and interpret primary sources in researching and retrieving discourses and practices of solidarity

• Demonstrate strong oral and written analytical and argumentation skills

Workload

Two-hour seminar per week

Method of assessment

Assessment is 100% Coursework (comprising one 2500 words essay and one 3000 word essay).

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules