ANTH 1755: This course seeks to examine cities, and city life, from various lenses: ethnographic, historical, and geographic. Through various studies of the growth and impact of cities, we will analyze changing infrastructures and technologies from/in/by urban life. Various worldwide contexts will uniform our conversations of greater urban living and an ongoing focus on the processes of urbanism in the Arabian Gulf (Dubai, Doha, Kuwait) threads through the course.
ANTH 1737:How are social media and visual technologies shaping new forms of identity, community, and politics in the Middle East? This course problematizes and analyzes the role of new media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Periscope, etc.) through an anthropological lens. We will adopt the lens of the smartphone and other internet enabled platforms to explore the stakes of this unique visual form of production, circulation, and storage of images and data.
Muslims in a Global Context is a semi-annual mini-course series for students, educators, and the broader community to learn from faculty experts and practitioners about issues of critical importance to the understanding of countries with significant Muslim populations. Each term the cluster of countries changes. Speakers for this session include: Dr. Juan Cole, University of Michigan (Monday, November 11), Dr. James Hoesterey, Emory University, Dr. Sidharth Chandra, Michigan State, Dr. Azlan Tajuddin, LaRoche College.
Religion has always been one of the most important elements of human society. Why? Sociologists have long turned their attention to religion—from classic sociologists like Durkheim and Weber struggling to understand the importance of religion, to the predictions of the coming death of religion in the 1960s. Along with these analyses we consider how political and economic structures both shape and are shaped by religion, examine the impact of secularization and fundamentalism on the world, the impact of mass media, fringe movements, and consumer culture.
This course aims to present a survey of contemporary Arab society, culture and politics. It draws on a mix of recent materials (including media, development reports, modern social histories, essays and criticism) to contribute to an understanding of modern Arab history and society, and the place of the Arabs in the contemporary world. The course will cover the field through student reports on cultural and social debates permeating Arab newspapers, magazines, films, literature, and public intellectual debate
This is a one-credit Arabic Language trailer to PS 1384/ANTH 1737 that will provide an opportunity to develop vocabulary in the Anthropology and Political Science disciplines. The trailer will expand course content through articles, chapters and other media in Arabic.
Course #:
PS 1902 (28416)
Prerequisites:
At least three semesters of Arabic language instruction
This course will examine the various debates circulating in and around the Arab world related to the culture and politics of Arab societies. We will explore questions of representation in the region, whether that is Arab representations of themselves, Arab representations by the other, or minority struggles for representation. We will look at the relationship between individual, society and the state, and think critically about each of these concepts as they reproduce themselves and social relations.
As a “world religion” Islam has had a profound influence on a broad array of nations, ethnic groups and local expressions of culture. It has played a role in shaping societies, politics, economics and law. Taking a broad, anthropological perspective on the study of religion, this course examines the many different ways in which culture and society have been influenced by Islam in different parts of the world.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Central Asia has once again emerged as a location of intrigue, serving as an area of strategic importance for the military campaign in Afghanistan; as a region where former communist continue to undergo the challenging transition to state independence; and as an expanse where superpower politics of Russia, China and the United States vie for influence over resources and regional politics. Most discussion of Central Asia, however, is initiated in relation to outside influences and the impact of inter-state policies—such as U.S.
