Courses

University of Pittsburgh

  • LING 1522 (19971)

    Arabic Life and Thought

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Linguistics
    Credits: 
    3

    No description is available at this time

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
    Region(s): 
  • PIA 2458

    POLITICAL ISLAM

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
    Credits: 
    3

    In the past several decades and especially since September 11, 2001, policymakers, scholars and individuals have been debating issues related to the compatibility of Islam and democracy, the growth of violent Islamist movements, and the causes of terrorism and suicide bombings. In many instances, such debates seem to boil down to a “clash of civilization.” To explore these issues we will examine a diverse body of literature drawing on political science, anthropology, economics, sociology, and history. We will focus our primary attention to Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East as well as Central and South Asia.

    This course begins by investigating the nature of the state in Islamic history and thought. We will explore the interaction between religion and the state prior to the rise of 20th century Islamist movements, focusing on the case of the Ottoman Empire. We then explore the rise the origins of contemporary Islamist movements, beginning with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. What are the intellectual origins of such movements? What impact do they have upon domestic politics in the countries where they emerge? Are Islamist movements compatible with democratic forms of governance? When do such groups engage in violence? How have governments responded to such violence and to what result? The course will explore these and other pressing questions by examining a broad range of movements (both violent and non-violent) in authoritarian and democratic settings, as well as in failed or persistently weak states.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes
    Student Population: 
    Graduate
  • PS 2505

    THE POLITICS OF VIOLENCE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Political Science
    Credits: 
    3

    This course will examine armed struggle, resistance, insurgency, terrorism and actions by non-state actors in the Middle East. We will consider the politics and actions of different groups, as well as the way people live during situations of conflict involving such non-state actors. We will explore meanings of violence, the logic of armed groups, and the implications of killing in warfare. We will also analyze the role of the state vis-a-vis these actors and the part the state plays in violent confrontation. Case studies will include Hizballah, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, including Hamas, the Algerian liberation movement and others.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Graduate
  • PIA 2547 (28456)

    THE POLITICS VIOLENCE MIDDLE EAST

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Graduate School of Public and International Affairs
    Credits: 
    3

    This course will examine armed struggle, resistance, insurgency, terrorism and actions by non-state actors in the Middle East. We will consider the politics and actions of different groups, as well as the way people live during situations of conflict involving such non-state actors. We will explore meanings of violence, the logis of armed groups, and the implications of killing in warfare. We will also analyze the role of the state vis-a-vis these actors and the part the state plays in violent confrontation. Case studies will include Hizballah, the Palestinian Liberation Organization, including Hamas, the Algerian liberation movement and others.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Graduate
  • Soc 1359 (27304)

    CONTEMPORARY ARAB SOCIETY

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Sociology
    Credits: 
    3

    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

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
    Region(s): 
  • PS 1902 (28416)

    Arabic Language Trailer for The Politics of Culture and Representation in the Arab World

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Political Science and Anthropology
    Prerequisites: 
    At least three semesters of Arabic language instruction
    Credits: 
    1

    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.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Graduate
    Undergraduate
  • PS 1384 (22171)

    TOPICS IN COMPARATIVE POLITICS: The Politics of Culture and Representation in the Arab World

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Political Science
    Credits: 
    3

    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. We will examine Arab society through anthropological and political texts, as well as in film and literature. Specific issues include: Orientalism, colonial encounters, cultural and political representations of Islam, critiques of social structures (tribes, family, class), gender and sexuality, political mobilization and notions of democracy, and more.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
  • PS 1351 (11592)

    GOVERNMENT & POLITICS OF THE MIDDLE EAST

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    Political Science
    Credits: 
    3

    A survey of the developing political systems of the Middle East and their positions in world affairs. Considered are the nature of political leadership, the challenge of generating political legitimacy, the emergence of militant Islam, and the legacy of Western and Soviet imperialisms. The course will examine the states of Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Israel as well as the Palestinians within a political development framework. (Comparative Field)

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    No
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
  • History 1001 (21682)

    RENAISSANCE EAST AND WEST

    Spring - 2013

    Department: 
    History
    Credits: 
    3

    The Renaissance was a decisive movement in world history. It developed as a cultural and intellectual movement in the global context. Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, Europe and Muslim world engaged in intense exchange of ideas, objects, and skills shaped the Renaissance in Europe and in the Muslim World. This course will begin with a critical history of the evolution of the term. It will then trace the history of the Renaissance from its origins in the fourteenth century, when the political and commercial worlds of both Europe and Asia were undergoing profound changes, to the highpoint of intellectual, economic and political exchanges between East and West in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It will address the intellectual, religious and political developments that defined the Renaissance, such as humanism, revival of the ancient texts in the Muslim world, Mongols, the Crusades, papal schism in Italy in the late fourteenth century, the northern European Reformation of the sixteenth century, and the rise of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth century. Finally, the course will consider the so-called Age of Discovery, the great overseas voyages of Columbus, da Gama, and Magellan that took place between 1480 and 1540. It will explore these voyages in the light of the desire to reach the markets of the east, and follow their development and consequences through the rise of maps and charts.

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes
    Student Population: 
    Undergraduate
    Subject(s): 
  • History 1753 (27382)

    THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE (1300-1923)

    Fall - 2012

    Department: 
    History
    Credits: 
    3

    This course traces the history of the ottoman empire from its origins as an obscure band of frontier warriors, to the highpoint of its geopolitical power in the sixteenth century, and on to its further evolution as an increasingly complex and peaceful society, down to the opening of the period of European imperialism and nation building. It will address not only the ottomans' political power, but also those economic, social, and cultural factors that helped explain that power and gave the empire such a distinctive place in the history of Western Europe, Balkans and the Middle East

    Primary Focus on Islam?: 
    Yes
    Region(s): 
    Subject(s): 

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