DISCOURSES AND DEBATES ON THE MIDDLE EAST

Transcription

1 DISCOURSES AND DEBATES ON THE MIDDLE EAST Course Instructors: Umut Ozkirimli (Course Coordinator) Fall Telephone: (office) Office Hours: Mondays 12:00 14:00, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Finngatan 16, Lund Spyros A. Sofos Course assistant: To be announced Course Dates and Location Start date: 3 September 2012 End date: 5 November 2012 Course days: Lectures, Mondays 14: N.B.: On some occasions the classes will take place on Mondays and Wednesdays (see the weekly schedule). Any additional changes to the schedule will be announced in due time. Course Objective: The course introduces the major debates on the Middle East in various social science disciplines, ranging from sociology and political science to anthropology and international relations, among others. The aim is to lay the conceptual and theoretical groundwork for a better understanding of the political and cultural dynamics of Middle Eastern societies. Particular emphasis will be laid in this context to the thorny relationship between Islam and the Middle East, the pros and cons of the discourse of clash of civilizations, debates on orientalism, secularization, modernization, nationalism, multiculturalism and minorities, globalization and securitization. The course concludes by discussing the relevance of the concepts and theories that guide these debates for understanding the contemporary Middle East. 1

2 Course Structure: The course consists of mandatory lectures and written assignments. All students are expected to take an active part in discussions and complete the readings prior to the classes each week. Course Grading and Assignments: The specific assessment for each class component is as follows: Class Attendance (20%) All classes are mandatory. Extraordinary personal or health reasons must be communicated to the course coordinator before the class. Pop Quizzes (40%) There will be three pop quizzes (i.e. given without prior warning) during the course based on the readings assigned for each week. Final Paper(40%). The papers will be submitted electronically to Umut Ozkirimli on 5 November 2012 at 17:00, and should be 7-10 pages long (double space, times new roman). N.B.: Important note on plagiarism. The Oxford Dictionary defines plagiarism as to take and use as one's own the thoughts, writings, or inventions of another. All of the following are considered plagiarism: turning in someone else's work as your own; copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit; failing to put a quotation in quotation marks; giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation; changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source without giving credit; and copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the majority of your work, whether you give credit or not. Please note that plagiarism is considered as an act of fraud in most countries and may lead to various preventive measures including, in severe cases, expulsion. Most cases of plagiarism can be avoided, however, by citing sources. Simply acknowledging that certain material has been borrowed, and providing your audience with the information necessary to find that source, is usually enough to prevent plagiarism. This information has been reproduced from For more information, see also: David Gardner, Plagiarism and How to Avoid It?, Plagiarism: What It is and How to Recognize and Avoid It, 2

3 Course Schedule and Readings All students are expected to complete the Preliminary Reading List before the start of the course. See below for weekly reading assignments. Akbar, Ahmed S., Postmodernism and Islam: Predicament and Promise, revised edition, London: Routledge, Asad, Talal, Formations of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity, Stanford: Stanford University Press, Burgat, François, Islamism in the Shadow of al-queda, Austin: University of Texas Press, Cesari, Jocelyne, When Islam and Democracy Meet: Muslims in Europe and in the United States, New York: Palgrave, Eickelman, Dale and James Piscatori, Muslim Politics, Princeton: Princeton University Press, Gole, Nilufer, Islam in Europe: The Lure of Fundamentalism and the Allure of Cosmopolitanism, Princeton: Markus Wiener, Halliday, Fred, The Middle East in International Relations: Power, Politics and Ideology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Huntington, Samuel P., The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, New York: Free Press, Juergensmeyer, Mark, The New Cold War? Religious Nationalism Confronts the Secular State, Berkeley: University of California Press, Lewis, Bernard, What Went Wrong? Western Impact and Middle Eastern Response, Oxford: Oxford University Press, Lockman, Zachary, Contending Visions of the Middle East: The History and Politics of Orientalism, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, Mahmood, Saba, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject, Princeton: Princeton University Press, Mandaville, Peter, Global Political Islam, London: Routledge, Parekh, Bhikhu, A New Politics of Identity: Political Principles for an Interdependent World, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave, Roy, Olivier, Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah, London: Hurst & Co,

4 Said, Edward, Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient, London: Penguin Classics, 2003 Columbia University Press, WEEK 1 LECTURE 1 (3 September 2012) Introduction (Umut Ozkirimli - Mark Levine?) A general introduction to the course and the themes that will be covered in the following weeks; information on the structure and format of the lectures, the instructors and their expertise, assessment and grading; overview of the rationale for the course and its goals and objectives. A preliminary, interactive, discussion on the Middle East based on the Preliminary Reading List. Preliminary reading list WEEK 2 LECTURE 2 (10 September 2012) Orientalism and its detractors: framing the study of Islam (Umut Ozkirimli - Mark Levine?) What is orientalism? Is there a Muslim mind, shaping the evolution of Muslim societies? Can Muslim societies be explained by reference to some essential characteristics of Islam? Is politics a function of culture and religion? Are Muslim societies homogeneous? What is the impact of orientalist discourses on (foreign) policymaking? Do postmodernist accounts provide a working alternative to orientalism? Is there a binary opposition between the West and the Muslim world? How can the field of postcolonial studies contribute to the debates on orientalism? How can we explain the rise of Islamism in what some call a post-orientalist age? Required Readings: Burke, Edmund III and David Prochaska (eds), Genealogies of Orientalism: History, Theory, Politics, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2008, Introduction. Macfie, Alexander Lyon, Orientalism: A Reader, New York: New York University Press, 2001, Chapters 23, 24, 26, 35. Columbia University Press, 2010, Chapter 2. 4

5 WEEK 3 (17 September 2012) Reading week WEEK 4 LECTURE 3 (24 September 2012) Islam, nationalism and the Middle East: Critical reflections (Umut Ozkirimli) How can we explain the lack of interest in Islam in the field of nationalism studies? Why do we think of the Arab world or the Middle East when we talk of Islam and nationalism? Is the Middle East an exception so far as the relation between Islam and nationalism is concerned? What do we mean by Arab nationalism? What is the link between pan-arab nationalism and nationalism in particular Arab countries? Is there a future for Arab unity? Halliday, Fred, The Middle East and the Nationalism Debate, in Fred Halliday, Nation and Religion in the Middle East, London: Saqi Books, Kramer, Martin, Arab Nationalism: A Mistaken Identity, Daedalus, 122 (3), 1993, Khalidi, Rashid, Arab Nationalism: Historical Problems in the Literature, The American Historical Review, 96 (5), 1991, Zubaida, Sami, Introduction: Beyond Islam and Islam and Nationalism: Continuities and Contradictions, in Sami Zubaida, Beyond Islam: A New Understanding of the Middle East, London: I.B. Tauris, WEEK 5 LECTURE 4 (1 October 2012) Islam, the Middle East and international relations: a clash of civilizations? (Spyros A. Sofos) How can religion be incorporated into the study of international relations? Is there a need for rethinking international relations after 9/11? Is international relations theory inherently Eurocentric? How does area studies fit into this picture? Is there such a thing as political Islam? Is there an Islamic state? How can we make sense of the transnational reconfiguration of Islam? What is the role of (political?) Islam in foreign policy-making? Is there a clash of civilizations between Islam and other cultures? Adler, Emanuel and Michael Barnett, Security Communities in Theoretical Perspective, in Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett (eds), Security Communities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

6 Halliday, Fred, Islam and the Myth of Confrontation, 2 nd edn, London: I.B. Tauris, 2003, Preface to the Second Edition: September 11 and After, Chapter 4. Philpott, Daniel, The Challenges of September 11 to Secularism in International Relations, World Politics, 55 (1), 2002, Tilly, Charles, International Communities: Secure or Otherwise, in Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett (eds), Security Communities, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998, Columbia University Press, 2010, Chapter 3. Wictorowicz, Quintan (ed.), Islamic Activism: A Social Movement Theory Approach, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004, Introduction. WEEK 5 LECTURE 5 (3 October 2012) The Sociology of Religion: the secularization thesis and the return of Islam (Spyros A. Sofos) What does the secularization thesis claim? What is the relationship between secularization and modernization? Is religion an impediment to the proper functioning of a modern state? Do the processes of modernization and secularization observed in Europe constitute a template for the rest of the world? What does Islamic Reformation imply? Can we talk of a desecularization process? How does Islam redefine itself in secular democratic settings? Berger, Peter L. (ed.), The Desecularization of the World: A Global Overview, in Peter L. Berger, The Desecularization of the World: Resurgent Religion and World Politics, Washington, DC: Ethics and Public Policy Center, Hannigan, John A., Social Movement Theory and the Sociology of Religion: Towards a New Synthesis, Sociological Analysis, 42, Lawrence, Bruce, Defenders of God: The Fundamentalist Revolt Against the Modern Age, Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1995, Chapters 1, 4 and 8. Columbia University Press, 2010, Chapter 4. WEEK 6 (8 October 2012) Reading week 6

7 WEEK 7 LECTURE 6 (15 October 2012) Multiculturalism and Islam: the question of minorities (Umut Ozkirimli - Spyros A. Sofos) Why are debates on multiculturalism in Europe restricted to the question of Islam and the presence of Muslim communities? Does Islam pose a threat to Western ways of life? What is Islamophobia and how can we deal with it? Are policies of integration and/or assimilation viable solutions? How can we strike a balance between the values of coexistence and diversity? How could we make sense of the role of diasporic communities? Can we talk of a reconfiguration of religiosity in Western settings? Allen, Christopher and Joergen S. Nielsen, Summary Report on Islamophobia in the EU after 11 September 2001, Vienna: European Union Monitoring Center on Racism and Xenophobia, Sniderman, Paul M. and Louk Hagendoorn, When Ways of Life Collide: Multiculturalism and its Discontents in the Netherlands, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007, Chapter 6. Sofos, Spyros A. and Roza Tsagarousianou, Islam in Europe: Public Spaces and Civil Networks, Basingstoke and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, forthcoming, Chapters 1 and 8. Columbia University Press, 2010, Chapter 6. WEEK 8 (22 October 2012) Reading week WEEK 9 LECTURE 7 (29 October 2012) The Middle East and Islam in Security Studies: the implications of 9/11 (Spyros A. Sofos) How did 9/11 contribute to the securitization of Islam? Is there a link between terrorism and (political?) Islam? Is Islam prone to violence? Can we talk about an Islamic challenge to global security? What are the root causes of terror and violence, Islamic or otherwise? How can we approach state violence? Cook, David, Understanding Jihad, Berkeley, LA: University of California Press, 2005, Chapters 5 and 6. Hoffman, Bruce, Holy Terror : The Implications of Terrorism Motivated by a Religious 7

8 Imperative, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism, 18 (4), 1995, Lincoln, Bruce, Holy Terrors: Thinking about Religion After September 11, 2 nd edn, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006, Chapter 1. Columbia University Press, 2010, Chapter 7. WEEK 9 LECTURE 8 (31 October 2012) Islam and the debates on globalization: is there a global ummah? (Spyros A. Sofos) How does globalization affect Islam in the Middle East and the Western world? Does globalization lead to a reconfiguration of public spheres and social networks? Can we talk about the formation of a global ummah as Olivier Roy argued? Is fundamentalism a reaction to globalization? Are there similarities between Islamist movements and antiglobalization movements? Allievi, Stefano and Joergen Nielsen (eds), Muslim Networks and Transnational Communities in and across Europe, 2003, Leiden: Brill, Chapters 1 and 12. Anderson, Jon W., New Media, New Publics: Reconfiguring the Public Sphere of Islam, Social Research, 70 (3), 2003, Bowen, John, Beyond Migration: Islam as a Transnational Public Space, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 30 (5), 2004, Columbia University Press, 2010, Chapter 8. WEEK 10 LECTURE 9 (5 November 2012) Taking stock: how to study Islam and the Middle East? (Umut Ozkirimli) A general assessment of the course. 8