HIST 245Middle Eastern Cities

3 credits · History · Penn State

This class explores the history of Middle Eastern and North African cities in the 19th-21st centuries. Cities are more than an agglomeration of buildings and bodies; they are also sites of tremendous political, economic, social, and cultural meaning, contestation, and change. The class focuses on the intersection of various urban settings (house, market, street, neighborhood), themes (sacred spaces, gender in the public sphere, sectarianism), and historical forces (nationalism, colonialism, war, revolution). The class draws on a wide range of primary sources such as memoirs, music, poetry, literature, and film, as well as multidisciplinary scholarship in history, anthropology, sociology, and architecture.