Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Specific details of courses to be offered will be published prior to enrolment each term.

COURSE DETAILS:

 

Political modernity has long been premised on secularization: the privatization and indeed decline of religion have been cast as the price of “rational” civic life. Yet religion today is a vital feature of political life across the world, albeit in varied ways. This is especially evident in Muslim-majority settings, where the mobilizing power of religion has robustly influenced social and political developments – notably in the aftermath of the events of the “Arab Spring,” but also in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11, and in Iran long before 9/11. How do we account for this mobilizing power, at the level of state and civil society alike? Has this been effective in governance? What is the role of the shari’a in this regard, as a framework of private/public ethics and of regulation? Where does this leave citizenship, especially for women and minorities?

We will begin this course with an exploration of the nexus between religion and politics, before moving to modern political Islam -- and then to specific expressions of this in the form of movements and experiences in the contemporary Middle East & North Africa. Multimedia resources beyond the prescribed texts — including film, cyber-culture, and literary works — will inform our sessions in class and on Canvas.

Grading

Materials

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