Understanding and Teaching the Modern Middle East

Description

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. 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in the Classroom: Lessons from the Modern Middle East | Omnia El Shakry Part Two: Understanding and Teaching Historical Content The Legacy of Islam in the Modern Middle East | Ovamir Anjum Colonialism, Empire, and Nationalist Movements | Sara Pursley Decolonization and the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