Many students learn about the Middle East through a sprinkling of information and generalizations deriving largely from media treatments of current events. This scattershot approach can propagate bias and misconceptions that inhibit students' abilities to examine this vitally important part of the world. Understanding and Teaching the Modern Middle East moves away from the Orientalist frameworks that have dominated the West's understanding of the region, offering a range of fresh interpretations and approaches for teachers.
The volume brings together experts on the rich intellectual, cultural, social, and political history of the Middle East, providing necessary historical context to familiarize teachers with the latest scholarship. Each chapter includes easy-to-explore sources to supplement any curriculum, focusing on valuable and controversial themes that may prove pedagogically challenging, including colonization and decolonization, the 1979 Iranian revolution, and the US-led "war on terror." By presenting multiple viewpoints, the book will function as a springboard for instructors hoping to encourage students to negotiate the various contradictions in historical study.
Omnia El Shakry is a professor in the Department of History at the University of California, Davis. She is the author of The Arabic Freud: Psychoanalysis and Islam in Modern Egypt and The Great Social Laboratory: Subjects of Knowledge in Colonial and Postcolonial Egypt and the editor of Gender and Sexuality in Islam.
Author(s): Omnia El Shakry
Series: Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 384
Tags: Middle East, Politics, International Relations, Islam, Arab, East, History, Orientalism, Iran, Colonization, Decolonization
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Note on Transliteration
Introduction: The Middle East in the World | Omnia El Shakry
Part One: The Middle East in the Classroom
Why Can’t You Find the Middle East on a Map? | Michael Gasper
Controversy in the Classroom: Lessons from the Modern Middle East | Omnia El Shakry
Part Two: Understanding and Teaching Historical Content
The Legacy of Islam in the Modern Middle East | Ovamir Anjum
Colonialism, Empire, and Nationalist Movements | Sara Pursley
Decolonization and the Reconfiguration of the Global Order | Muriam Haleh Davis
The History of Israel/Palestine | Sherene Seikaly
Understanding Sectarianism as a Global Problem | Ussama Makdisi
The Iranian Revolution: From Monarchy to the Islamic Republic | Naghmeh Sohrabi and Arielle Gordon
Part Three: Understanding and Teaching the Contemporary Middle East
US Foreign Policy in the Middle East | Nathan J. Citino
America, Oil, and War in the Middle East | Toby Craig Jones
Teaching the Global War on Terror | Darryl Li
Arab Uprisings in the Modern Middle East | Asef Bayat
Refugees in and from the Middle East: Teaching about Displacement in the Context of the International Refugee Regime | Rochelle Davis
Part Four: Methods and Sources
Literature as a Source for Teaching Modern Middle East History | Elliott Colla
Cinema as a Source for Teaching Modern Middle East History | Kamran Rastegar
Gender and Sexuality: Sources and Methods | Hanan Hammad
Nuancing the Narrative: Teaching the Jewish Modern Middle East | Alma Rachel Heckman
The Armenian Genocide and the Politics of Knowledge | Chritine Philliou
Using Primary Source Documents to Teach Nationalization and Imperialism in the Modern Middle East | Kit Adam Wainer
Keeping Current: Contemporary Engagement When Teaching Modern Middle East History | Ziad Abu-Rish
Contributors
Index
