module

Postgraduate Module Descriptor

ARAM225: Gender and Politics in the Middle East

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Overview

This course explores the relationship between gender and politics in the modern Middle East and North Africa, providing an in-depth survey of key dynamics and debates that shape the region and its communities.  Starting with the question of methodology and approach, you will interrogate discourses that ‘exceptionalise’ the MENA or ‘culturalise’ issues relating to gender therein.  We will address how gender is constructed, experienced and performed, as well as how gender is significant to nation- and state-building, conflict and violence, and resistance and transformation.   While the course is directly informed by feminist politics and praxis, it moves beyond a narrow focus on ‘women’ to include men and masculinities, as well as sexuality and queer politics.  Through engaging with power, we will explore how gender shapes politics – and politics shapes gender – at the levels of subject, society and state across diverse Middle Eastern and North African contexts.

The course consists of weekly short lectures followed by an extended seminar discussion, including student presentations.  No prior knowledge of the subject is required.