Asian Languages & Civilization 243 - Environment, Technology, and Power in the Modern Middle East

(Offered as HIST 243 and ASLC 243)
This course offers an introduction to the methods and key debates in environmental history and the history of science and technology in the modern Middle East. What does the history of the region look like when we foreground humanity’s relationship with nonhuman actors like the rest of nature or technical objects? To answer that question, this course aims to offer a re-reading of familiar topics in history as well as the introduction of wholly new ones. Key themes include human-animal relations, water and food systems, imperial violence, disease, carbon energy, and military weapons systems. We will explore these themes across the Middle East, Southwest Asia, Northern Africa, and neighboring regions. After a unit on theory and methods, we will discuss the Age of Revolutions, colonial empires, post-war violence, and the region’s role in the global spread of carbon energy.

Fall semester. Two meetings weekly. Professor Ghazarian.

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Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: Close analysis of historical evidence, which may include written documents, images, music, films, or statistics from the historical period under study. Exploration of scholarly, methodological, and theoretical debates about historical topics. Extensive reading, varying forms of written work, and intensive in-class discussions.