Understanding and Teaching the Modern Middle East

by Omnia El Shakry (Editor)

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299327606
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	10/20/2020
Series:	The Harvey Goldberg Series for Understanding and Teaching History
Edition description:	1st Edition
Pages:	384
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface XI
Acknowledgements XVII
Note on Transliteration XXI

Part One: The Middle East in the Classroom
Why Can’t You Find the Middle East on a Map?     15
Michael Gasper
Controversy in the Classroom: Lessons from the Modern Middle East     35
Omnia El Shakry

Part Two: Understanding and Teaching Historical Content
The Legacy of Islam in the Modern Middle East     49
Ovamir Anjum
Colonialism, Empire, and Nationalist Movements     68
Sara Pursley
Decolonization and the Reconfiguration of the Global Order     85
Muriam Haleh Davis
The History of Israel/Palestine     101
Sherene Seikaly
Understanding Sectarianism as a Global Problem     117
Ussama Makdisi
The Iranian Revolution: From Monarchy to the Islamic Republic     132
Naghmeh Sohrabi and Arielle Gordon

Part Three: Understanding and Teaching the Contemporary Middle East
US Foreign Policy in the Middle East     151
Nathan J. Citino
America, Oil, and War in the Middle East     168
Toby Craig Jones
Teaching the Global War on Terror     184
Darryl Li
Arab Uprisings in the Modern Middle East     201
Asef Bayat
Refugees in and from the Middle East: Teaching about Displacement in the Context of the International Refugee Regime     217
Rochelle Davis

Part Four:  Methods and Sources
Literature as a Source for Teaching Modern Middle East History     243
Elliott Colla
Cinema as a Source for Teaching Modern Middle East History     254
Kamran Rastegar
Gender and Sexuality: Sources and Methods     271
Hanan Hammad
Nuancing the Narrative: Teaching the Jewish Modern Middle East     283
Alma Rachel Heckman
The Armenian Genocide and the Politics of Knowledge     295
Christine Philliou
Using Primary Source Documents to Teach Nationalization and Imperialism in the Modern Middle East     309
Kit Adam Wainer
Keeping Current: Contemporary Engagement When Teaching Modern Middle East History     326
Ziad Abu-Rish
 
Contributors     343
Index     349

Editorial Reviews

This book is unique in its breadth and scope. There is no comparable volume that offers guidance on teaching the Middle East at the university or high school level. Chapters include a diverse range of voices, and the gender balance among the contributors is commendable and significant, placing it at the cutting edge of academic pedagogy.”—Rachel Harris, editor of Teaching the Arab-Israeli Conflict

“With the emphasis on the diversity of elements involved in the topics covered and a conscious avoidance of ‘essentialist’ approaches, the authors individually and the volume as a whole succeed in presenting analyses that are not Orientalist or civilizationalist, while avoiding ideological polemics.”—John Voll, Georgetown University

“This effective, rigorous, and critical volume is an excellent contribution to help rethink and reframe teaching and understanding the modern Middle East. . . . A welcome and ambitious intervention that doesn’t shy away from addressing difficult topics. It anticipates many of the problems and questions that often emerge in classrooms and proposes novel ideas on how to address them. . . . This superb volume is highly recommended.”—The History Teacher

From the Publisher