module

Postgraduate Module Descriptor

ARAM232: Theorising the Middle East

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

Overview

This module introduces you in a multidisciplinary Area Studies department to a broad range of key theorists and theories whose work has underpinned scholarship in the fields of Anthropology, Political Science, Sociology, Literary Studies, History, Philosophy and Gender Studies. In doing so it seeks to enable you, irrespective of disciplinary background, to make self- conscious choices as to the theoretical underpinnings of their own work and to promote forms of theoretically-aware and interdisciplinary work found in some of the most successful scholarship in Arab, Islamic and Middle East Studies.

The module is framed around the idea of bridging theory and practice, through the systematic study of the work of a broad canon of theoretical writings, the analysis of the use of such theory in key works from Middle East Studies, and the reflective selection and application of theories and concepts in your assessed work.

The delivery of the module is designed so that it can be accessed by two distinct groups: PGT Masters students who will take the module as a credit-bearing component of their degree programmes and PGR PhD and MPhil students who will be able to access course materials and use them as a means to developing the theoretical bases of their doctorates in their first year of study.