HIST210: Partisans and Collaborators: World War II in Occupied Europe

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

After a brief survey of the main events leading to the declaration of war and the invasion of Poland, this module allows you to explore resistance and collaboration in countries that were first occupied in 1940, namely, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and the Netherlands. The transition between active collaboration to increasing resistance is next traced through Vichy France. The module then moves to the Eastern and Mediterranean fronts where the resistance was more effectively organized. The countries studied in this segment include Yugoslavia, Greece, and the USSR (Belarus, Russia, Baltics and Ukraine).

Lastly, you’ll examine countries that were first part of the Axis and eventually switched sides from 1943 onwards (Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania). Special attention will be given to the treatment of Jews, the Holocaust and the difficulties of coming to terms with what remains a contested past. Besides political documents, you will engage with photography, posters, films, documentaries and personal memoirs.

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Introduce the different layers of opposition to fascism as it developed in the years prior to and during WWII
• Introduce the most important groups in the European left and their development throughout World War II
• Familiarise students with events underlying the development of World War II in occupied countries
• Scrutinise attitudes of individuals and groups when subject to a military occupation and living in a climate of civil war and internal strife
• Understand developments and contradictory forces pulling peoples’ alliances in different directions throughout World War II
• Acquaint students with the use of memoirs, testimonies, court cases, films or photography as historical sources
• Explore how historians use primary sources, and the relationship between primary and secondary sources
• Introduce the nature and practice of comparative history

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework:40%
• Exam: 60%

HIST212: On the Edge of Empire: Being Roman in Britain

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

What does it mean to be Roman on the edge of the Roman Empire? How can we write the history of people who have left very little written trace of themselves? This module explores these questions through an in-depth look at the history from the 1st century BCE to the 5th century CE of a single Roman province: Britain. You will learn to use a wide range of evidence, including not only Roman historians like Tacitus, but also archaeological evidence, stone inscriptions, and wooden documents like the Vindolanda Tablets, to reconstruct the nature of Romano-British society. How can we use pottery evidence to reconstruct Britain’s economic connections to the continent? How can Iron Age coins give us insight into the political machinations that led to Britain’s 1st century CE conquest by the Romans? Broader topics will include the effects of Roman imperialism on conquered peoples, the place of migration and ethnic diversity in Roman Britain, and the role historical trends such as post-colonialism and globalization have played in our understanding of life in the Roman provinces. The module may also include field trips to Roman sites and museum collections.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

HIST213: Europe and the World, 1450-1650: Bodies, Cultures, and Environments

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

During the 16th century, Europe witnessed some of the most important developments in the shaping of the modern world. Although you will learn about these events, the module will focus on the broader historical processes through which you can understand them. At the same time, you will engage with the methodologies and debates that historians of the present-day find most interesting, critically appraising their strategies for assessing patterns of historical change and continuity.

You will therefore examine the work of environmental historians, asking whether transformations in society and the economy can be explained by changes in climate. The module will also ask whether colonial expansion led people to develop new ideas about racial and cultural difference, while at the same time trying to understand how newly colonized people tried to navigate their way through new hierarchies and relationships.

In addition, it will ask whether long-standing questions about transformations in religious life, popular culture, and the centralization of government can be enriched by approaching them through the prism of new approaches. When you study the body, health, and disease, for instance, you’ll discuss the unexpected role of medical expertise in the development of a renewed form of Catholicism at the end of the 16th century. Meanwhile, focusing on the history of printed news may enable you to understand why rumours and religious bigotry spread so rapidly during the Reformation and Wars of Religion.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework 100%

HIST235: Making Modern Britain, 1660-1720

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms Only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

Perhaps more formative for the modern British state than any before or since, the years 1660 to 1720 saw Britain’s territorial boundaries and infrastructure forged; with constitutional monarchy, expanding state bureaucracy, and political parties as its principal tenets. During the same period, political power in England changed hands; new political personnel operated within novel political institutions and voiced innovative political economies. Making of Modern Britain will also challenge participants to analyse and debate formative changes to British literature, commerce, art, and architecture, as well as to discuss the changed relationship between Britain and the world during this period. Participants will therefore receive a broad understanding of late seventeenth and early eighteenth century British history; they will also develop expertise in the following subfields: cultural, art, political, parliamentary, global, economic, constitutional, gender, and business history.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

HIST259: Inventing Human Rights, 1776-2001

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

Of all intellectual and ideological concepts in the modern world, few are as contested and powerful as human rights. At their most influential, concerns for the protection of human rights have been used to justify international conflict and widespread military intervention in order to save the lives of thousands of people. Yet human rights critics argue that they are a form of cultural imperialism that limits the sovereignty of local populations. How has an ethical and moral concern for individual lives come to be so divisive? Why after years of supporting the establishment of international human rights law do many governments now pledge to scrap their own human rights acts? This module will examine the history of human rights, putting their development into a broad historical context. It will chart the development of rights discourses from the pre-modern era through to the present, assessing the influence that the enlightenment, imperialism and war have had on their construction. It will offer students the opportunity to explore differing aspects of the history of human rights. Indicative topics include: Codifying and Quantifying Rights: 1776, 1789, 1948, The Universality of Human Rights, Human Rights and Humanitarianism, 1807-2001, Decolonisation and Self-Determination, 1945-1991, Gendered rights, Capital punishment in the nineteenth and twentieth century, Responding to Genocide: The Holocaust, Bangladesh, Srebrenica, Amnesty International, 1961-2001, Helsinki Watch/Human Rights Watch, 1975-2001.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

HIST263: Disabling the Body: Bodily Difference in the Modern World

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 Semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a history module

Course Description

This module aims to:

Provide students with a developed understanding of the evolution of conceptions and experiences of disability in the modern period.

Familiarise students with the ways in which different social and political regimes have shaped the lives of disabled people in modern history.

Familiarise students with the different theoretical models of disability, and how these have manifested themselves in different historical socio-political contexts.

To engage students in the principal historiographical debates relating to the history of disability, from the Industrial Revolution to the 21st Century.

Educational Aims

Students who pass this module should be able to:

Demonstrate a critical understanding of the evolution of ideas relating to disability, while relating these to how the lived experiences of disabled people have changed over time.

Demonstrate a critical understanding of how different societies and political regimes have shaped conceptualisations of disability, as well as the experiences of disabled people.

Demonstrate their critical engagement with current scholarship on the history of disability, on a range of historical contexts.

Demonstrate an ability to critically analyse a broad range of historical and contemporary primary source material relating to disabled people.

Reflect on common themes that have defined the history of disability in the modern period.

Outline Syllabus

How has disability been experienced in the past? To what extent have different societies and political regimes ‘disabled’ individuals in different ways? Who or what defines the boundaries of bodily normality in any given society? This module will explore how varying cultural and political understandings of the body have affected the experiences of those living with impairments in the contemporary world, from the influence of eugenicist thought in 1930s-40s Germany, to the rise of disabled activism from the 1960s, and UN imperatives to raise the profile of disability rights from the 1980s. Drawing on cutting edge research from the small but rapidly blossoming field of disability history, this course will explore how individuals of different genders, religions, and social, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds experienced disability differently in recent history. Each week we will explore a different aspect of disability history within a specific geographical and temporal context, which will offer a well-rounded yet targeted perspective on the varying ways in which physical difference has been conceptualised, represented and experienced in recent history. In doing so, the module will offer a lens through which to better understand shifting conceptualisations of citizenship, statehood, and identity in the modern world.

Indicative topics will include:

Representations of disability

Eugenics, exclusion and repression

War disability

Work, ideology, and citizenship

Sensory disability: blindness, deafness, and ‘deaf-gain’

Disability and race

Neurodivergence

Gender and sexuality

Activism

Assessment Proportions

• 30% Coursework
• 60% Essay(s)
• 10% Participation

Assessment: Details of Assessment

Coursework (30%): one "op-ed" assignment, to be submitted in week 5 of the term in which the module is taught. This will consist of a 1000-1200 word commentary, in which the student will provide a historically-informed response to an issue relating to disability that has received attention in the media. This may, for example, consist of an analysis of a recent film released on the topic of disability in which the student situates the work within the historical evolution of disability representations; a discussion of a recent piece of legislation in light of its historical antecedents; or a historically informed analysis of a particular media discussion relating to disabled people. This assignment will enable students to develop their analytical and writings skills, particularly for popular audiences, and will thus contribute to fulfilling the module's learning outcomes.

Essay (60%): one 2000-2500 word essay to be submitted in the final week of the term in which the module is taught. Students will be provided with a list of essay questions relating to different themes on the course. Alternatively, students will be given the option to devise their own essay question based on their own interests, in discussion with the module convenor. Essays will require students to engage directly with the historiographical debates concerning a particular aspect of disability history and utilise primary sources to support their arguments, thereby allowing them to fulfil the module's learning outcomes.

Participation (10%): students will be graded according to their participation in class. More specifically, students will be given a participation grade based on the quality of their contributions to seminar discussion; their engagement with the historiography; and their willingness and ability to work with their peers. Seminars will be led in a way which combines large and small group work, thereby giving all students the opportunity to contribute to class discussion.

The specific criteria used to assess seminar performance will be:

• Preparation: careful preparation for seminars, including reading; research; and individual and/or group contributions;
• Content: effective contribution to seminar debate, including selection and analysis of material; coherence of argument; and development of ideas beyond received lecture or seminar information;
• Participation: effective participation in seminars, including raising questions and initiating debate; responding to other members and reflective listening; and (where relevant) working in groups.

HIST269: The Quagmire: The Vietnam War in US History and Culture, 1964-1975

Course Description

This course aims to...

Introduce students to the history of American involvement in the Vietnam War and the conflict’s legacy in the United States

Explore the broad political, societal, and cultural developments in the United States between 1964 and 1975

Introduce students to emerging research and continuing scholarly debates within the fields of US history, including debates over the Vietnam war's morality and justification, its effect on US society and culture, and the legacy of the war in the United States

Engage students with the myriad primary sources that historians use to study twentieth century America, including texts, pictures, television news clips, films, cartoons, and music.

Educational Aims

Students who pass this module should be able to...

Explain the history of American involvement in Vietnam and comprehend American policies and experiences resulting from engagement in the Vietnam War;

Understand how and why the Vietnam War has had such a profound effect upon American society and culture, and what this reveals about the late twentieth century United States;

Demonstrate, through the completion of several source analyses, an ability to scrutinize a variety of primary and secondary sources relating to the US involvement in Vietnam.

Demonstrate a detailed understanding of historians’ interpretations of key themes and concepts in modern US history through class discussions, presentations, essays, and examinations.

Outline Syllabus

The Vietnam War remains the only war that the United States has definitively lost in its 240-year history. This course explores the political, social, and cultural effects that the fighting in Southeast Asia triggered back home on American soil, specifically between the years 1964 and 1975. Utilising a range of sources from memoirs to music, films to television coverage, you will gain a greater understanding of the forces that shaped ‘the Sixties’ and why the Vietnam War deeply affected American society for decades to come. We will engage with the presidencies of Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, while exploring the anti-war movement, female and Black American involvement in the war, and how veterans fared when they came home to the United States. The module, of course, will not eschew the war itself, and the first lectures will ground you in the key figures, decisions, battles, and massacres that led to a conflict which killed an estimated two million Vietnamese civilians, and 58,000 American soldiers.

Assessment Proportions

Students take one exam and deliver two items of coursework.

Exam (60%) comprising of:

Exam - worth 100% - this will be 2hrs long and feature 2 essay style questions (from a list of 9) that will assess the students' knowledge and understanding/ability to analyse and evaluate key developments in the course content.

Coursework (40%) comprising of:

Essay - worth 80% - this will be a 2,000-2,500 word long essay in which the student will answer one of the set questions. The essay for the module will be due in the final week of the term in which the module is taught.

Social Media Officer - worth 20%

The Social Media Officer role is designed to supplement student research and presentation skills. During the week prior to the assigned seminar taking place, students will be required to conduct their own research for primary sources that they think will illuminate understanding of that week’s topic.

Students will then post 2 sources on the course Instagram account during one week of term (the week prior to their class presentation) with an explanation of the sources. Posts can include pictures, letters, music, film, television footage, cartoons, or any other relevant source. This forms one part of the assessment.

Students pick one of the sources that they posted on the social media feed and deliver a short (2-3 min) non-assessed presentation to class on that topic.

This assessment uses a course Instagram account - students do not need to have their own account. The sources will still be available for externals to view before exam board.

HIST270: The History of the United States, 1789-1865

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

develop students interest in social and cultural history but will also have the opportunity to learn about more strictly defined political and economic issues.

Educational Aims

On successful completion of this module students will be able to...

Express, in an exam setting, knowledge of the key themes and events in the history of the United States in the nineteenth century.

Demonstrate competence in both written and oral analysis and interpretation of the history of the United States.

Competently undertake historical research. This includes familiarity with the University Library and its cataloguing systems and an ability to critically use on-line and electronic archives.

Outline Syllabus

This module combines a lecture series that offers an overview of the history of the United States in the 19th century with a closely linked set of seminars that focus on the construction of race, class and gender difference over the same period. This combination allows students to explore an important thematic aspect of world history (the construction of race, class and gender difference) while simultaneously providing grounding for further study and research into the history of the United States in the 19th and/or 20th centuries.

The module builds upon skills that you gained in Part I and, in particular, will explore the history of the United States, from the passage and implementation of the US Constitution (1789) to the conclusion of the Civil War (1865). The module is particularly focused on the culture and politics of race, class and gender in the rapidly industrialising and expanding nation.

Seminars meet fortnightly and are structured around primary readings and recommended secondary texts that offer critical and historical insight into the topics under consideration.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework (40% of final assessment):

• Examination (60% of final assessment)

HIST271: The History of the United States, 1865-1989

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

This module combines a lecture series that offers an overview of the history of the United States in the 20th century with a closely linked set of seminars that focus on the construction of race, class and gender difference in over the same period. This combination allows students to explore an important thematic aspect of world history (the construction of race, class and gender difference) while simultaneously providing grounding for further study and research into the history of the United States.

The module builds upon skills that you gained in Part I and, in particular, will explore the history of the United States from the end of the Civil War (1865) to the fall of the Berlin Wall (1989). The module is particularly focused on the culture and politics of race, class and gender.

Educational Aims

This module aims to:

• Develop students' knowledge of the broad contours and key events of twentieth-century United States history, beginning with post-Civil War Reconstruction and concluding with the fall of the Berlin Wall.
• Develop students interest in social and cultural history but will also have the opportunity to learn about more strictly defined political and economic issues.
• Familiarise students with the ways that different groups have struggled to extend the promises of democracy defined in the US Declaration of Independence (1776) and the Bill of Rights (adopted 1791), to all Americans, regardless of their race, class or gender.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

HIST279: Gandhi and the End of Empire in India, 1885-1948

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

By what means was Indian independence seized from the British Empire in 1947? This module explores opposition to British rule in India from the end of the nineteenth century until 1947 when colonial India was divided to create the nation states of India and Pakistan. In particular, we will explore the modes of resistance that emerged from the Indian freedom struggle and in particular, the role of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Gandhi transformed the Indian National Congress, an organization that had been founded in 1885 as a loyal and moderate organization. Gandhi created a mass movement that challenged the colonial state in extraordinary ways. British rule in India gradually lost credibility and struggled to find the means of maintaining control in the face of massive resistance to its right to govern India.

You will explore Gandhi’s philosophies of personal restraint and political resistance to the injustices of the colonial state. You will also trace the emergence of religious politics in India during this period and the increasing pace of communal conflict, in particular Hindu-Muslim antagonism. What was the role of the colonial state in firing communal anxiety? Did Gandhi’s political ideas allay or encourage the conflation of political action and religious identity? The course ends with the partition of India, the largest migration in history and a process in which over one million people lost their lives, and the event that led, in 1948, to Gandhi’s assassination by a Hindu fundamentalist.

Educational Aims

The aim of this module is to allow students to develop an understanding of the means by which British political authority was resisted in South Asia. Students will gain an insight into the ways in which different social and political orders were affected both by colonialism and the freedom struggle. They should also become familiar with the particular historiographical questions raised by studying anti-colonial resistance. The course will develop an understanding of immediate and longer term affects of constitutional change in colonial governance, and students should also develop an appreciation of the ways in which orders of authority are reflected in the built environment.

Outline Syllabus

This course will begin by considering the relationship between imperialism and nationalism in South Asia. It will go on to explore the inception of political and religious organisations which were formed towards the end of the nineteenth century to challenge British Imperial authority. Students will engage with the various forms of criticism directed at the colonial state as well as the means by which popular support was garnered by nascent nationalist organisations. The course will examine the rise of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi as a political leader, within and outside of the Indian National Congress. The course will culminate with the Quit India movement and the British acceptance of decolonisation.

Topics covered will include:

• Religion, caste and nationalism
• The role of Indian women and the 'woman question' in nationalism
• Gandhi's philosophy of resistance
• Communalism and nationalism
• The constitutional organisation of British withdrawal
• The Partition of India

Lectures will provide introductions and background to the themes of the course. Seminars will develop explorations of visual and textual sources through discussion and assessed group work.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

HIST282: The Historian in the Digital Age

• Terms Taught: Lent / Summer Terms only
• US Credits: 4 Semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

This module aims to provide students with a knowledge of:

- the strengths and limitations of digital approaches to historical research

- how researchers have used digital approaches to provide new insights about the past

- the different digital approaches to historical research

- critically evaluating the effectiveness of digital approaches to history

- a range of IT skills relevant to historians

Educational Aims

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

- be able to use on-line and other electronic archives in a critical manner.

- undertake historical research in a competent manner using digital methods.

- be able to critically evaluate the use of digital approaches to historical research

Outline Syllabus

Historical sources are increasingly becoming available in digital form. The most widely used sources are large textual corpora including Early English Books Online, which claims to include everything published in English before 1700, the British Library Newspapers collections which have continuous runs of local and regional newspapers for up to 100 years, and the Old Bailey Online which includes the Old Bailey proceedings from 1674 to 1913. Quantitative sources, such as census returns and vital registration (birth, marriages and deaths) data, provide another type of rich, digitised historical source. These sources have the potential to offer major new insights into a wide range of historical topics, however, to do so requires a new generation of historians who have digital skills to complement their historical expertise.

This course will provide an introduction to the rapidly developing field of Digital History. It starts from the assumption that the student has only basic IT skills. It introduces them to a range of software tools and approaches, and the issues and challenges of using them properly in historical research. These will be applied to a wide range of historical sources and topics. The course is taught using a combination of lectures and workshop sessions held in an IT lab. By the end of the course the students will have a range of practical skills in topics such as spreadsheets, databases, and managing texts. As well as providing the student with an understanding of new ways in which historians are researching their discipline, these skills can be applied to other courses taken by the student, such as their dissertation, and provide transferrable skills that will help with their employability.

Assessment Proportions

Essay (40% of final assessment): An essay of 2,500 words chosen from a list of options. The deadline for this will be Friday of week 6.

Project (60% of final assessment): This will take the form of a practical exercise whereby students will apply digital humanities techniques to a particular historical topic. A range of historical topics will be provided for students to choose from, or students can pursue their own project. A project portfolio will be submitted along with a 1,500 word write up. The deadline for this assignment will be Friday of first week of the term following the end of the module (i.e. week 11 or 21).

HIST286: Restless Nation: Germany in the 20th Century

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term only
• US Credits: 4 semester credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: Has previously taken a History module

Course Description

This module gives a broad thematic overview of the history of Germany in the twentieth century. Few country’s histories have been more tumultuous over the past two centuries than that of Germany. Rapid industrialisation, varied federal traditions, revolutions, the launching of and defeat in two world wars, responsibility for war crimes and genocide on an unparalleled scale, foreign occupation and re-education, and political division for four decades have made German history, and the ways in which Germans have remembered it, contentious and of broad public concern. In few countries have visions of the nation's history been so varied and contested, and few peoples have created and faced such challenges when confronting their 'transient' or 'shattered' past.

In order to provide a thematic focus, this module will examine in particular the reasons for the rise of National Socialism, the character of National Socialism, and the difficulties of the Federal Republic of Germany to deal with its difficult and contentious past, that is the attempt at 'coming to terms with the past' (Vergangenheitsbewltigung).

Educational Aims

The module aims to equip students with an overview knowledge of the key themes and events in German history from the 1890s to the 1990s. Though students will gain an insight into the timing and pace of change, there is also a thematic focus to the module: the rise of National Socialism within a struggling democratic society, the character of National Socialism, and the difficulties of the Federal Republic of Germany to deal with its difficult and contentious past. This is to enable students to understand different political systems, the temptations of fascism, and the challenges to 'come to terms with the past' (Vergangenheitsbewältigung).

The module will thus focus on the 'shattered' past of 20th century Germany as a 'restless nation' and the varied attempts to make sense of this history. The module will also help students to appreciate the politics of history, that is the uses and abuses of history in political and wider cultural debates.

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%

PPR.236: Politics and History of the Middle East

• Terms Taught: Michaelmas Term Only
• US Credits: 4 Semester Credits
• ECTS Credits: 7.5 ECTS
• Pre-requisites: At least one entry-level course in politics.

Course Description

In the few years that have passed, the Middle East has experienced momentous changes. Most notable of these changes are the so-called ‘‘Arab Spring’’ uprisings, which started in late 2010, and the following consequences of these uprisings on the international relations of the region. Topics include the early emergence of Arab states, origins and sustainability of authoritarian regimes, state types and personality cult, masculinity and constructions of identity and belonging, women’s movements, social mobilization and the Arab uprisings. The course offers students from a variety of backgrounds the opportunity to engage with the most important themes in the study of the politics of the Middle East and to locate and contextualise them within wider debates and scholarship of international politics.

Educational Aims

On successful completion of this module students will be able to:

• Identify the central themes in an argument;
• Compare and contrast differing political arguments and positions and assess their validity;
• Demonstrate an ability to apply theory to empirical cases and problems;
• Argue their own position verbally and show understanding of positions of others;
• Work co-operatively in a group setting.

Outline Syllabus

Topics include the early emergence of Arab states, origins and sustainability of authoritarian regimes, state types and personality cult, masculinity and constructions of identity and belonging, women's movements, social mobilization and the Arab uprisings. The course offers students from a variety of backgrounds the opportunity to engage with the most important themes in the study of the politics of the Middle East and to locate and contextualise them within wider debates and scholarship of international politics. The syllabus will typically include the following topics:

1. Introducing the region: a theoretical framework
2. The impact of colonial and Ottoman legacies on the current politics of the Middle East
3. Competing ideologies: rise of secular nationalism and Islamism after WW2
4. Building nation-state and the sustainability of authoritarianism in the region
5. Personality cult and legitimacy
6. Women's movements and national struggles
7. Arab uprsinings
8. Sectarianism

Assessment Proportions

• Coursework: 40%
• Exam: 60%