Required Texts
The following two books will serve as the primary textbooks for this course:
In addition, students are required to secure a copy and read to completion only one one of the following books:
Copies of all the above-listed books will be available for purchase at Little Professor Book Center, located at 65 South Court Street in downtown Athens.
Any additional reading assignments will be made available to students via PDF files. Also, all of the books from which said articles and chapters are assigned will be available at the university library under course reserves for this course. Please contact me immediately if you have any trouble accessing the readings.
- Ahmed, Leila. Women and Gender in Islam. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
- Nashat, Guity and Judith Tucker. Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Restoring Women to History. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998.
In addition, students are required to secure a copy and read to completion only one one of the following books:
- Barakat, Hoda. The Stone of Laughter. Translated by Sophie Bennet. New York: Interlink Books, 1995.
- Djebar, Assia. Fantasia: An Algerian Cavalcade. Translated by Dorothy S. Blair. New York: Heinemann, 1993.
Copies of all the above-listed books will be available for purchase at Little Professor Book Center, located at 65 South Court Street in downtown Athens.
Any additional reading assignments will be made available to students via PDF files. Also, all of the books from which said articles and chapters are assigned will be available at the university library under course reserves for this course. Please contact me immediately if you have any trouble accessing the readings.
Weekly Lectures and Reading Schedule
[Note: Below Schedule Reflects Previous Offering]
Week 1: Introduction to Middle East History [January 15-19]
Lectures
- Monday: No Class (MLK Holiday)
- Wednesday: Introduction
- Friday: The Middle East Beyond Orientalism [Click here to download lecture outline]
Required Readings
- Nadine Ajak, "The Casualties of Women's War on Body Hair," The Atlantic, 8 February 2017.
- Maya Mikdashi, "How Not to Study Gender in the Middle East," Jadaliyya, 21 March 2012.
- Lila Abu-Lughod, "Do Muslim Women (Still) Need Saving?" in her Do Muslim Women Need Saving (Harvard University Press, 2013), pp. 27-53.
Supplementary (Optional) Readings
- Zachary Lockman,"Said's Orientalism: A Book and Its Aftermath," Contending Visions: The History and Politics of Orientalism (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 183-215.
- Timothy Mitchell, “The Middle East in the Past and Future of Social Science” in The Politics of Knowledge: Area Studies and the Disciplines, edited by David Szanton (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004), pp. 74-118.
- Guity Nashat and Judith Tucker, "Chronology", "Series Editors' Introduction", and "Introduction," Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Restoring Women to History (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), pp. xxii-4.
- Chandra T. Mohanty, "Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses," Boundary 2 (Spring 1984), pp. 333-358.
- Kecia Ali, "Introduction," Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 1-27.
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Week 2: Theoretical (Re)Orientations [January 22-26]
Lectures
- Monday: A Brief Intro to MENA History and Thinking about Gender Comparatively [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: Women in Pre-Islamic Arabia and the Near East [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- James L. Gelvin, "Chapter 1: From Late Antiquity to the Dawn of a New Age,"The Modern Middle East.
- Sonya O. Rose, "Why Gender History" and "Bodies and Sexuality in Gender History," What is Gender History? (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2010), pp. 1-35.
- Leila Ahmed, "Mesopotamia" and "The Mediterranean Middle East", Women and Gender in Islam.
Supplementary Readings
- William Ochsenwald and Sydney Fisher, The Middle East: A History (McGraw-Hill, 2010), pp. 25-143.
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Week 3: Women and Early Islam [January 29 - February 2]
Assignment Due (Monday): Map Quiz I
Lectures
- Monday: Women in the Early Islamic Community I [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: Women in the Early Islamic Community II [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Nashat and Tucker, Selections from Women in the Middle East: Restoring Women to History, pp. 34-49.
- Leila Ahmed, "Women and the Rise of Islam" and "The Transitional Age," Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 9-78
- Denise Spellberg, "'Aisha and the Battle of the Camel," in Women in Middle Eastern History, edited by Nikki Kedie and Beth Baron (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 45-57.
Supplementary Readings
- Denise Spellberg, Selections from Politics, Gender and the Islamic Past (New York: Columbia University Press, 1996), pp. 1-100.
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Week 4: Gender and Sexuality under the Umayyad and Abbasid Dynasties [February 5-9]
Lectures
- Monday: The Umayyad and Abbasid Period [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: The Four Schools of Sunni Jurisprudence [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Glaire D. Anderson, "Concubines, Eunuchs, and Patronage in Early Islamic Cordoba," in Reassessing the Roles of Women as Makers of Medieval Art and Architecture (Leidin: Brill, 2012), pp. 633-669.
- Nashat and Tucker, Selections from Women in the Middle East: Restoring Women to History, pp. 45-55.
- Leila Ahmed, "Elaboration of the Founding Discourse," Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 79-101.
- Kecia Ali, "Claiming Companionship," Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 97-133.
Supplementary Readings
- Kecia Ali, "Transacting Marriage" and "Maintaing Relations," Marriage and Slavery in Early Islam (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2010), pp. 29-96.
- Huda Lutfi, "Manners and Customs of 14th Century Cairene Women: Female Anarchy vs. Male Shar‘i Order," In Women in Middle Eastern History: Shifting Boundaries in Sex and Gender, edited by Nikki Kedie and Beth Baron (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991), pp. 99-121.
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Week 5: Gender and Sexuality in the Ottoman Empire [February 12-16]
Lectures
- Monday: Gunpowder Empires [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: Elite Women of the Empire [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Leila Ahmed, "Medieval Islam," Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 102-123.
- Leslie Pierce, "Introduction," The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (1993), pp. 3-12.
- Leslie Pierce, "Wives and Concubines" and "The Imperial Harem Institution," The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (1993), pp. 28-56 & 113-152.
Supplementary Readings
- Nashat and Tucker, Selections from Women in the Middle East: Restoring Women to History, pp. 55-72.
- Leslie Pierce, "The Display of Sovereign Prerogative", "The Politics of Diplomacy," and "The Exercise of Political Power," The Imperial Harem: Women and Sovereignty in the Ottoman Empire (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993), pp. 186-266.
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Week 6: Midterm Week [February 19-23]
Assignment Due (Monday): In-Class Midterm Examination [Click here to download midterm study guide]
Lectures
- Monday: Midterm Exam
- Wednesday: Courts as a Site for Gender Construction and Resistance [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: TBA
Required Readings
- Judith Tucker, "Marriage," In the House of the Law: Gender and Islamic Law in Ottoman Syria and Palestine (1998), pp. 37-71.
- Elyse Semerdjian, "In Harm's Way: Domestic Violence and Rape in the Shari'a Courts of Aleppo," Off the Straight Path: Illicit Sex, Law, and Community in Ottoman Aleppo (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008), pp. 138-157.
Supplemental Readings
- Elyse Semerdjian, "People and Court: Policing Public Morality in the Streets of Aleppo" and "Prostitutes, Soldiers, and the People: Monitoring Morality through Customary Law," Off the Straight Path: Illicit Sex, Law, and Community in Ottoman Aleppo (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2008), pp. 63-137.
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Week 7: On Modernity [February 26 - March 2]
Lectures
- Monday: Class Cancelled [University Decision]
- Wednesday: The Middle East and the Modern World System [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Gender and the Modern State [Click here to download lecture outline]
Required Readings
- Nashat and Tucker, Selections from Women in the Middle East: Restoring Women to History, pp. 73-101.
- James L. Gelvin, "The Middle East and the Modern World System" and "Defensive Developmentalism," The Modern Middle East.
- Tuba Demirici and Selcuk Akin Somel, "Women’s Bodies, Demography, and Public Health: Abortion Policy and Perspectives in the Ottoman Empire of the Nineteenth Century," Journal of the History of Sexuality, Vol. 17, No. 13, September 2009, pp. 377-420.
- Khaled Fahmy, "Women, Medicine, and Power in Nineteenth-Century Egypt," in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, edited by Lila Abu-Lughoud (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998)
Supplementary Readings
- Margaret Meriwether and Judith Tucker (eds.), "Introduction," A Social History of Women & Gender in the Modern Middle East (Oxford: Westview Press, 1999), pp. AA-BB.
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Week 8: Imperialism and Colonial Feminism [March 5-9]
Lectures
- Monday: Modern Imperialism in the MENA during the 19th and 20th Centuries [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: Colonial Representations of MENA Societies [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Colonial Reconstructions of Gender Relations [Click here to download lecture outline]
Required Readings
- Lisa Pollard, "Inside Egypt: The Harem, the Hovel, and the Western Construction of an Egyptian National Landscape" and "Domesticating Egypt: The Gendered Politics of Egyptian Occupation," Nurturing the Nation: The Family Politics of Modernizing, Colonizing, and Liberating Egypt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995), pp. 48-99.
- Julia Clancy-Smith, "Islam, Gender, and Identities in the Making of French Algeria, 1830-1962," In Domesticating the Empire: Race, Gender, and Family Life in French and Dutch Colonialism, edited by Julia Clancey-Smith and Frances Gouda (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, 1999), pp. 154-174.
Supplementary Readings
- Julia Clancy-Smith, "Introduction" & "The Shaykh and His Daughter: Implicit Pacts and Cultural Survival, c. 1827-1904," Rebel and Saint: Muslim Notables, Populist Protest, Colonial Encounters (Algeria and Tunisia 1800-1904) (Berkeley: UC Press, 1997). pp. 1-10 & 214-253.
- Ahmad A. Sikainga, "Shari'a Courts and the Manumission of Female Slaves in the Sudan, 1898-1939," The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 28(1) (1995), pp. 1-24.
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Spring Break: No Class [March 12-16]
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Week 9: The New Woman and the New Man [March 19-23]
Lectures
- Monday: The Transformations of Modernity [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: Producing Ideal Women and Men [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Afsaneh Najmabadi, "Crafting an Educated Housewife in Iran," in Remaking Women: Feminism and Modernity in the Middle East, edited by Lila Abu-Lughod (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998), pp. 91-125.
- Mona L. Russell, "Advertising and Consumer Culture in Egypt" and "al-Sayyida al-Istihlakiyya and the New Woman," Creating the New Egyptian Woman: Consumerism, Education, and National Identity, 1863-1922 (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004), pp. 49-96.
- Muray Yildiz, "'What is a Beautiful Body?' Late Ottoman 'Sportsman' Photographs and New Notions of Male Corporeal Beauty," Middle East Journal of Culture and Communications 8 (2015), pp. 192-214.
Supplementary Readings
- Mona L. Russell, "Part II: Teaching the New Woman," Creating the New Egyptian Woman: Consumerism, Education, and National Identity, 1863-1922 (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2004), pp. 99-170.
- Joseph Massad, "Anxiety in Civilization," Desiring Arabs (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2007), pp. 51-98.
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Week 10: The Emergence of Women's Organizations and Movements [March 26-30]
Lectures
- Monday: Pre-World War I Formations [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: A Women's Movement? [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Nashat and Tucker, Selections from Women in the Middle East: Restoring Women to History, pp. 101-131.
- Leila Ahmed, "The First Feminists" and "Divergent Voices," Women and Gender in Islam, pp. 169-207.
- Elizabeth Thompson, "Rise of the Subaltern Movements" and "Climax of the Colonial Welfare State," Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege, and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).
Supplementary Readings
- Lisa Pollard, "Reform on Display: The Family Politics of the 1919 Revolution," Nurturing the Nation: The Family Politics of Modernizing, Colonizing, and Liberating Egypt, pp. 166-204.
- Elizabeth Thompson, "Street Violence: Regending an Old Urban Space" and "Cinemas: Gendering a New Urban Space" and "The Press: Gendering the Virtual Public," Colonial Citizens: Republican Rights, Paternal Privilege and Gender in French Syria and Lebanon (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).
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Week 11: Post-Colonialism [April 2-6]
Lectures
- Monday: Understanding the Post-Colonial MENA [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Wednesday: Getting the Vote for Women [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Laura Bier, "Egyptian Women in Question: The Historical Roots of State Feminism," Revolutionary Womanhood: Feminisms, Modernity, and the State in Nasser's Egypt (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2011), pp. 23-59.
- Margot Badran, "Suffrage and Citizenship," Feminism, Islam, and the Nation: Gender and the Making of Modern Egypt (Princeton University Press, 1996).
Supplementary Readings
- Maxine Moleyneux, "The Law, the State, and Socialist Policies: The Case of the People's Democratic Republic of Yeme, 1967-1990," in Women, Islam, and the State, edited by Deniz Kandiyoti (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1991), pp. 237-271.
- Valentine Moghadam, "Islamist Movements and Women’s Response," Gender and History (Autumn 1991), pp. 268-284.
- Susan Slyomovics, “Hassiba Ben Bouali, If You Could See Our Algeria: Women and Public Space in Algeria,” in Political Islam: Essays from Middle East Report, edited by Joel Beinin and Joe Stork (New York: I.B. Tauris, 1997), pp. 211-219.
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Week 12: Special Topics I [April 9-13]
Assignment Due (Monday April 9): Second Midterm
- Click here for prompt concerning Hoda Barakat's The Stone of Laughter.
- Click here for prompt concerning Assia Djebar's Fantasia: An Algerian Calcavade.
- For the "Guide to Good Writing," click here.
Lectures
- Monday: Film Screening
- Wednesday: Film Screening
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Leila Ahmed, Selections from A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence, from the Middle East to America (New Haven:Yale University Press, 2013).
Supplementary Readings
- Saba Mahmoud, The Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival and the Feminist Subject (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011).
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Week 13: Special Topics II [April 16-20]
Assignment Due (Monday April 16): Second Map Quiz
Lectures
- Monday: The Resurgence of the Veil [Click here to download lecture outline]
- Thursday: History, Same-Sex Relations, and the Binarization of Sexuality
- Friday: Discussion
Required Readings
- Khaled El-Rouayheb, "Introduction" and "Sodomites," Before Homosexuality in the Arab-Islamic World (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005).
- Lauda Boushnak and Mona Boushnak, "Coming Out in Lebanon," New York Times, 30 December 2017.
Supplementary Readings
- Dror Ze'evi, "Boys in the Hood: Shadow Theater as a Sexual Counter-Script," Producing Desire: Changing Sexual Discourse in the Ottoman Middle East, 1500-1900 (Berkley: UC Press, 2006), pp. 125-148.
- Joseph Massad, “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World,” Desiring Arabs (Chicago: University Chicago Press, 2005).
- BBC Documentary: "Gay, Trans, and Illegal in Lebanon"
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Week 14: Concluding Thoughts [April 23-27]
Lectures
- Monday: Gender and the Arab Uprisings
- Wednesday: Discussion
- Friday: Wrapping Up
Required Readings
- Maya Mikdashi, "Six Years In: The Uprisings Will Be Gendered," Jadaliyya, 6 November 2017.
- Yasmine El-Rifaie, "What the Egyptian Revolution Can Offer #MeToo," The Nation, 22 January 2018.
Supplementary Readings
- Nadje al-Ali and Nicola Pratt, "Iraqi Women Before the Invasion", "The Use and Abuse of Iraqi Women", and "Engendering the New Iraqi State," What Kind of Liberation? Women and the Occupation of Iraq (Berkley: UC Press, 2008).
- Shahrzad Mojab, "'Post-War Reconstruction: Imperialism and Kurdish Women's NGOs," in Women and War in the Middle East: Transnational Perspectives, edited by Nadje Al-Ali and Nicola Pratt (London: Zed Books, 2009), pp. 99-130.
Videos for Monday April 23
[Note: Make Sure You Click the CC Button for English Subtitles to Appear]
Video 1: Sabah Ibrahim on Her Experience in the Egyptian Uprising
Video 2: Nada Zatouna on Her Experience in the Egyptian Uprising
Video 3: Madeeha Anwar on Her Experience in the Egyptian Uprising
Video 4: Mahienour El-Massry on Her Experience in the Egyptian Uprising
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Finals Exam: Friday, May 4, 3:10pm-5:10pm
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Finals Exam: Friday, May 4, 3:10pm-5:10pm
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