This module offers students an in depth exploration of anthropological research on the Middle East. Previously deemed a 'parochial' sub-region in the discipline, the Middle East has, over recent decades, become a central site of ethnographic research and anthropological theorising on questions of gender, piety, political movements, migration and displacement, racialisation, and climate breakdown. Students will be able to engage with these questions, as well as other key anthropological themes, throughout the module as they learn about social life in different parts of the region. Exploring anthropology in and from the region offers a specific ethnographic grounding to questions of wider import in the discipline: the position of the anthropologist in relation to their interlocutors in the field (often glossed as 'positionality', sometimes also 'subjectivity'); in the textual portrayal of interlocutors and their thoughts and ideas (often glossed as issues of 'representation', 'voice', and/or 'authorship'); and in the positions they take with the world at large (often glossed as matters of 'engagement' or 'commitment').
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Evaluate theories and concepts used in Middle East anthropology.
Assess how regional interests relate to wider anthropological theory.
Demonstrate familiarity with ethnographic examples from the Middle East.
Evaluate the role of anthropologists in portraying the Middle East and its peoples.
Assessment
40774-01 : 1500 word written assignment - Essay 1 : Coursework (40%)
40774-02 : 2000 word written assignment - (Essay 2) : Coursework (60%)
