CSOCL 3412 Culture and Society of the Middle East
This course introduces students to the peoples, cultures and identities in the region broadly defined as the Middle East, and to the way in which social scientists have studied them. We will examine the social, economic and political institutions of several major cultures in a historical context and focus on elements of social structure and organization in contemporary urban and rural Middle East. We will explore how individuals organize, construct and discuss an everyday sense of personal, ethnic, national and supra-national identity, and deal with issues of being a majority or a minority population in a society. Other topics addressed include occidentalism, orientalism, status and position of women, secularism, modernity, religious resurgence, democracy, terror and war, human rights, and portrayal of Islam and images of Middle Eastern peoples in the Western media. Fulfills Global Perspectives requirement.