This course meets in person in an ADA-accessible classroom located centrally on the UW Seattle campus. You will receive information about the Tuesday/Thursday lecture location before the quarter starts.
All in-class assessments in this course are closed book and timed, requiring memorization of material and the writing of complete sentences. There are two in-class paper-and-pen quizzes and two essay-style bluebook paper-and-pen exams (a midterm and a final). There are also three take-home writing assignments. Participation in Friday discussion sections is a required, graded element of the course. There are no Scantrons, no Panopto lectures, no "have ChatGPT write an essay and then critique it" assignments, etc. The instructors in this course pledge not to use so-called “AI” to grade assignments, generate course materials, or replace personal communication with students; we expect those enrolling in the class to follow the standards of academic integrity that we have modeled for you.
So, what is this class about?
HSTAFM 163: Modern Middle East is a survey of the history of the Middle East beginning in the early 19th century and ending in the early 21stcentury. Presuming no prior knowledge of the region, it aims to illuminate the profound and turbulent political, social and economic changes that this region has experienced in the modern era, the influences of which are evident in current events. We will examine these developments through materials selected from historical scholarship, primary source texts, fiction in translation, and visual sources. Discussions of all major Middle Eastern countries will be interwoven into the lectures as thematically appropriate, while the readings focus primarily on the Ottoman Empire, Algeria, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Israel, Iraq, and Iran.
One of the central goals of this course is to ensure that, by the end of the quarter, students will understand important phenomena in international history such as imperialism and anti-imperialism; religious-political movements; the differences between monarchies and revolutionary (usually military) political systems; the roots of identity-based conflict and characteristics of atrocity; and the political, social, and economic transformations wrought by what we call “modernity” and “development.” This knowledge is applicable in various academic and career fields far beyond the boundaries of Middle Eastern studies. The course also seeks to help students obtain a deeper understanding of the politics and society of the contemporary Middle East—topics they will often encounter while reading the news or engaging in other forms of civic participation—through the application of a historical perspective.
Learn more about the course instructor, Prof. Arbella Bet-Shlimon, here and the TA teaching Friday sections, Sergen Avcı, here.