Gender in the Middle East (GEN 441)

2021 Fall
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Gender Studies (GEN)
3
6
Ayşecan Terzioğlu aysecan@sabanciuniv.edu,
Click here to view.
English
Undergraduate
--
Formal lecture,Interactive lecture
Interactive,Learner centered,Communicative,Discussion based learning
Click here to view.

CONTENT

This course introduces the key issues and debates in the study of gender in the Middle East. It aims to provide a gendered analysis of the prevailing discourses, ideologies and social movements in the region and to equip students with skills and methodologies to analyse the shaping of the gender identities in relation to social, political and cultural processes from the late 19th century to the present. The course also aims to link the historical questions and issues regarding gender to contemporary discussions and discourses on femininities and masculinities in the Middle East. Core topics include the interconnections between feminism and nationalism , the veiling debate, women’s agency, Islamic feminism, masculinities, and politics of sexuality during and after the Arab Spring.

OBJECTIVE

Understanding major social problems related to the gender norms and roles in the Middle East and its diasporas. Exploring how different people of the Middle East tackle with these problems individually and collectively.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

  • Explore the core issues regarding the common historical and current gender norms and roles in the Middle East and diasporas.
  • Learn about how different aspects of everyday life in the Middle East is gendered, and how alternative conceptions of gender norms and roles are produced on a daily basis.
  • Learn about individual and collective gender struggles against particular gender norms and roles in the region.
  • Understand how the gender-based activisms in the region interact with the global gender-based activisms.

PROGRAMME OUTCOMES


1. Understand the world, their country, their society, as well as themselves and have awareness of ethical problems, social rights, values and responsibility to the self and to others. 5

2. Understand different disciplines from natural and social sciences to mathematics and art, and develop interdisciplinary approaches in thinking and practice. 4

3. Think critically, follow innovations and developments in science and technology, demonstrate personal and organizational entrepreneurship and engage in life-long learning in various subjects; have the ability to continue to educate him/herself. 4

4. Communicate effectively in Turkish and English by oral, written, graphical and technological means. 5

5. Take individual and team responsibility, function effectively and respectively as an individual and a member or a leader of a team; and have the skills to work effectively in multi-disciplinary teams. 4


1. Develop knowledge of theories, concepts, and research methods in humanities and social sciences. 5

2. Assess how global, national and regional developments affect society. 5

3. Know how to access and evaluate data from various sources of information. 5


1. Demonstrate an understanding of the multiple methodologies and interpret different approaches, concepts, and theoretical legacies in the interdisciplinary field of Cultural Studies. 5

2. Identify interconnections of knowledge within and across the disciplines of sociology, anthropology, literature, visual studies, philosophy, and geography. 5

3. Cultivate a critical approach to the study of culture, articulating the relations between culture, power, and history; exploring cultural diversity and socio-cultural change at the local, national and global level; and exploring the corresponding demands for rights and social justice. 5

4. With the use of appropriate technologies, be able to present advanced oral and written evaluations of developments in the realm of cultural production, consumption, and representation. 4


1. Demonstrate safe working habits and a general understanding of materials and processes in the visual arts. 2

2. Demonstrate knowledge of representational processes using visual as well as audial material as mediums of representation. 3

3. Show working knowledge of the process of transforming abstract/textual concepts into concrete, audio/visual forms. 3

4. Appreciate and express the cultural significance of art and understand its evolution and purposes. 4

5. Develop an awareness of compositional and organizational strategies for the effective deployment of formal elements of visual art. 2

6. Read visual texts with a deep knowledge of art history and theory and the ability of situating the content and form of the visual representation both in a historical and thematic context. 2

7. Employ necessary background knowledge regarding art administration in the body of museums and galleries. 2

8. Show a practical and technical command of materials and methods in one or more media of the visual arts. 1

ASSESSMENT METHODS and CRITERIA

  Percentage (%)
Final 40
Midterm 30
Participation 10
Other 20

RECOMENDED or REQUIRED READINGS

Readings

October 6-7. Orientalist and Colonial Legacies:
Nikki R. Keddie, Is There a Middle East?, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 1973, 4:3, 255-27
Edward Said, 1978. Orientalism. New York: Pantheon Books, Introduction (1-30)
October 13-14/October 20-21: Gender in the Middle East-First Glances:
Lila Abu-Lughod, 2002. ?Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others?, American Anthropologist 104(3):783-790.
Nancy Lindisfarne, 2002. ?Starting from Below: Fieldwork, Gender and Imperialism Now?, Critique of Anthropology, 22(4): 403-423.
Paul Amar, 2011. Middle East Masculinity Studies: Discourses of ?Men in Crisis,? Industries of Gender in Revolution, Journal of Middle East Women?s Studies, 7(3), 36-70.
Can Aciksoz, 2019. Sacrificial Limb: Masculinity, Disability and Political Violence in Turkey, Introduction, 1-14, University of California Press.
October 27: Meeting with the CULT 541 students about their final paper topic
October 28: No class due to national holiday
November 4-5: Beyond the Veil
Lara Deeb, 2009. ?Piety Politics and the Role of a Transnational Feminist Analysis?, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 15(1): 112?126
Banu Gokariksel, 2009. Beyond the Officially Sacred: Religion, Secularism and the Body in the Production of Subjectivity, Social&Cultural Geography, 10(6): 657-674
Sirma Bilge, 2010. ?Beyond Subordination vs. Resistance: An Intersectional Approach to the Agency of Veiled Muslim Women?. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 31(1): 9-28.
November 17-18: Desire and Love
Sertaç Sehlikoglu, 2021. Working Out Desire: Women, Sport&Self-Making in Istanbul. Prologue, Introduction, Chapter 1: Self, xv-74. Syracuse University Press.
Johnson, P., Nahleh, L. A., & Moors, A, 2009. Weddings and War Marriage Arrangements and Celebrations in Two Palestinian Intifadas. Journal of Middle East Women's Studies, 5(3), 11-35.
Jenny White, 2002. ?Two Weddings?, in Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, Donna L. Bowen&Evelyn A. Early (eds), Indiana University Press.
November 24-25: Medical Technologies
Elly Teman, 2003. ?The Medicalization of "Nature" in the "Artificial Body": Surrogate Motherhood in Israel?. Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 17(1), 78-98.
Marcia C. Inhorn, 2004. ?Middle Eastern Masculinities in the Age of New Reproductive Technologies: Male Infertility and Stigma in Egypt and Lebanon?, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 18(2): 162-182.
Zeynep Gurtin et al., 2015. Islam and Assisted Reproduction in the Middle East: Comparing the Sunni Arab World, Shia Iran and Secular Turkey, in The Changing World Religion Map, Springer.
December 1-2: Challenging Gender Norms
Jalil Roshandel, Fatemeh Sadeghi& Shima Tadrisi, 2019. Gender Equality and Empowerment in Iran: A Comparison between Ahmadinejad's and Rouhani's Governments, Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, 42 (3), pp. 35-53.
Sherine Hamdy, Coleman Nye, 2017, Lissa: A Story About Medical Promise, Friendship, and Revolution, University of Toronto Press
December 8-9: Being Queer in the Middle East
Nivi Manchanda, 2015. Queering the Pashtun: Afghan Sexuality in the Homo-Nationalist Imaginary, Third World Quarterly, 36(1), 130-146
Dina Georgis, 2013. ?Thinking Past Pride: Queer Arab Shame in Bareed Mista3jil,? International Journal of Middle East Studies, 45(2): 233-251
Sofian Merabet, 2014. Queer Beirut. Austin: University of Texas Press. 1-42; 227-245
December 15-16: Gender, Militarism and War
Susan Sered, 2000. ?The Militarized Body: Rape and the Woman Soldier? in What Makes Women Sick: Maternity, Modesty and Militarism in Israeli Society, Brandeis UP, 68-103
Zena El-Khalil, 2009. Beirut, I Love You: A Memoir, SAQI, 78-125
Karam Dana &Hannah Walker, 2015. Invisible Disasters: The Role Israeli Occupation on Palestinian Gender Roles, Contemporary Arab Affairs, 8(4), 488-504
December 22-23/December 29-30: Mobility, Diaspora and Gender
Farha Ghannam, 2011. ?Mobility, Liminality, and Embodiment in Urban Egypt?, American Ethnologist, 38 (4), 790-800
Gokce Yurdakul, Anna C. Korteweg, 2013. ?Gender Equality and Immigrant Integration: Honor Killings and Forced Marriage Debates in Netherlands, Germany and Britain?, Women?s Studies International Forum, 41(3), 204-214
Stephanie Parker, 2015. ?Hidden Crisis: Violence Against Syrian Female Refugees?, Lancet, 385 (9985), 2341-2342
Ays?ecan Terziog?lu, 2018. ?The Banality of Evil and the Normalization of Discriminatory Discourses against Syrians in Turkey?, Anthropology of Contemporary Middle East and Central Eurasia (ACME), 4(2), Special issue, 34-47