IAFF 6378 Readings in Arab Politics & Society

Dina El-Hefnawy

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

This course offers individual advanced level Arabic instruction on themes related to the student's academic course of study and intellectual interests. Topics, readings, and assignments will be discussed with the instructor at the beginning of the semester, with instruction and expectations targeted at the student's current level of proficiency. Please note that this course may be taken more than once, with a new individualized syllabus each term, and can be used to satisfy Middle East Electives or Professional Field courses on the MESP course of study. Taught Fall 2024.

Thu 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 6378 Iran in the Middle East

Sina Azodi

Mon 5:10 – 7:00 PM

Iran has long played a critical role in the international relations of the Middle East –historically one of the most tumultuous regions in the world. In this graduate course, we will critically discuss Iran's foreign and security policies, against the backdrop of its controversial nuclear and missile programs, support for proxy groups, and its contentious relations with other regional players, especially Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Israel. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with goals, characteristics, and evolution of Iran’s regional policies and the daunting challenges it faces. Some of the questions that this course aims to address: How do Iranians look at the region? What are Iran’s strategic goals in the Middle East? How does the rest of the region look at Iran? What are the driving forces behind Iran’s foreign and security policies? Taught Fall 2024.

Mon 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 6378 Political Economy of the Middle East

Shana Marshall

Thu 7:10 – 9:00 PM

This course will introduce students to the political foundations of the region’s economy. We will examine how the economy of the MENA has been shaped by encounters with external actors (foreign traders, colonizing governments, transnational firms, international financial institutions, development agencies, etc.) but also how the region has impacted the global economy, with a special focus on the Gulf states and their role in shaping global financial markets. We will examine the legacy and ongoing impact of Western development and reconstruction agencies and their discourses, with special attention to the region's agrarian zones as well as zones transformed by imperial wars. Other important regional actors such as militaries, oil companies, sovereign wealth funds and labor movements will also be examined. This course will introduce students to mainstream political economy approaches concurrently with their critiques, in order to provide an understanding of the evolution of theories and practices of economic development and their political origins. Taught Fall 2024.

Thu 7:10 – 9:00 PM

IAFF 6377 Middle East Studies Capstone

Arie Dubnov

Fri 5:00 – 6:00 PM

Second in a two-course sequence with IAFF 6377. A project-oriented course, designed to synthesize the skills and knowledge that students have acquired in their graduate study. Restricted to students in the MA in Middle East studies program. Taught Fall 2024.

Fri 5:00 – 6:00 PM

IAFF 6361 Middle East Studies Cornerstone

Arie Dubnov

Wed 7:10 – 9:00 PM

Multidisciplinary foundation course for the Middle East studies program. Introduction to key issues. Taught Fall 2024.

Wed 7:10 – 9:00 PM

IAFF 6378 U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Ambassador Gordon Gray

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

This course examines U.S. engagement in the Middle East since the 1940s by studying the evolution of U.S. policy, reviewing key decisions, and assessing 21st century challenges. Students will build on this foundation to determine what U.S. national security interests are – and what U.S. priorities should be – in this region, and how the current inflection point in the global world order affects them. The course also seeks to provide an analytical framework for better understanding differing perspectives on U.S. policy. Student presentations, writing assignments, and active class discussion will help students improve the analytical, written, and oral communications skills essential for a successful career in international affairs. The instructor is a former career diplomat who served as a U.S. Ambassador and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Taught Fall 2024.

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 3188 U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East

Ambassador Gordon Gray

Wed 12:45 – 3:15 PM

This course examines U.S. engagement in the Middle East since World War I by studying the evolution of U.S. policy, reviewing key decisions, and assessing 21 st century challenges. Students will build on this foundation to determine what U.S. national security interests are – and what U.S. priorities should be – in this region, and how the current inflection point in the global world order affects them. The course also seeks to provide an analytical framework for better understanding differing perspectives on U.S. policy. Student presentations, writing assignments, and active class discussion will help students improve the analytical, written, and oral communications skills essential for a successful career in international affairs. The instructor is a former career diplomat who served as a U.S. Ambassador and as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs. Taught Spring 2024.

Wed 12:45 – 3:15 PM

IAFF 6378 North Africa After the Arab Spring

Ambassador Gordon Gray

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

The popular protests that began in Tunisia over a decade ago catalyzed the uprisings in North Africa and the Middle East that came to be known as the Arab Spring. The outcomes in the four countries of North Africa – Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia – have been dramatically different. They therefore offer a fascinating platform for understanding the challenges of transition and stabilization. This course will examine the unique characteristics and policies of each country, as well as the drivers of popular discontent that they share.  It will also look at how foreign actors and transnational issues (e.g., migration and terrorism) continue to affect developments in these four countries. By the end of this course, students will have developed an analytical framework to assess current and future developments in North Africa, the Middle East, and beyond. They will be able to identify core U.S. interests in the region, understand the different tools available to policymakers, and explain how best to orchestrate those tools. The instructor served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco and as the U.S. Ambassador to Tunisia when the Arab Spring began there. Taught Spring 2024.

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

ANTH 6707 Making and Living Change in the Middle East: Anthropological Perspectives

Ilana Feldman

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

This course is an anthropological exploration of political and social change in the Middle East. We will consider how people work to make change in their communities, countries, and world and how they live with change as a dynamic process that they may not have sought and certainly do not control. In the first part of the course, we will work to build a conceptual vocabulary through which to consider the varied dynamics of political and social change in the region. We will consider temporality, scale, political imaginaries, and structural blockages in order to better understand how people experience change as a process, goal, and, sometimes, disappointment. When we turn to ethnographies on the Middle East, our themes will include: activism, protest, revolution, changing environments, and the aftermath of change. Taught Spring 2024.

Tue 5:10 – 7:00 PM

IAFF 6378 Persian for Arabic Learners

Zohreh Mirsharif

Tue 3:45 – 5:00 PM

Thu 3:45 – 5:00 PM

This innovative new course will be offered during the Spring Semester at the Elliott School (ESIA). This course is intended for students who have had at least one year of Arabic (or the equivalent), with the purpose of giving students a basic understanding of Persian (Farsi). This course is being taught by Dr. Mirsharif, a native speaker of Persian (Farsi). She is a really wonderful teacher and scholar, and she has a really dynamic personality. We think this is going to be a great course and will broaden the knowledge-base of our students. Moreover, as you know, one of the marvelous features of Persian (Farsi) is that the Arabic script is used to write it (although the phonemic values of the letters are slightly different, of course)....thus, you won't need to master a new alphabet...rather, you can jump right into learning the language! Taught Spring 2024.

Tue 3:45 – 5:00 PM

Thu 3:45 – 5:00 PM