Education

The staff at the Crown Center teach innovative courses at Brandeis University to advance the students knowledge of the region.

Current Semester: Fall 2009

POL 164A - Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East
Friday 9:10am-12pm
Prof. Shai Feldman, Dr. Khalil Shikaki

Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East offers students a unique opportunity to familiarize themselves with two different perspectives on the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the efforts to resolve it.  The course will be taught by three scholars of Middle East Politics. Prof. Shai Feldman, director of the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, is a former director of the Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University in Israel. Dr. Khalil Shikaki is the director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.

During the first half of the semester, Prof. Feldman will focus on the regional dimension of the conflict and the efforts to resolve it.  During the second half, team-taught by Prof. Feldman and Dr. Shikaki, discussion will shift to the Palestinian-Israeli bilateral dimension of the conflict. 

Enrollment in this class will be limited to 30, with preference to juniors, seniors, and graduate students.  The class will be held in seminar form, encouraging active student participation.  It will ensure that students taking this class will be able to derive maximum benefit from the presence of these three Middle East scholars on campus during the fall semester.

HIST 111B - The Iranian Revolution: From Monarchy to the Islamic Republic
Monday and Wednesday 5:10-6:30pm
Dr. Naghmeh Sohrabi

This course examines the roots of the 1979 revolution in Iran and the nature of the state and society that resulted from it. It begins with a discussion of pre-revolutionary Iran, examining the social, cultural, political, and economic forces that laid the groundwork for the 1979 revolution. As a history course, it also analyzes the multiple narratives of the revolution itself—as an Islamic movement, an anti-monarchical movement, and an anti-imperialist movement. In the last section, the course examines the evolution of the Islamic Republic and the tensions that have resulted from its specific historical development. This course draws on secondary literature, textual primary sources, and visual materials.

Previous Semester: Spring 2009

POL 177B - National Security Strategy: The Case of Israel
Friday 9:10-12:00pm
Prof. Feldman

This seminar-style class focuses on Israel’s national security strategy. The class has three purposes: First, to identify the components and explore the evolution of Israel’s national security strategy. Second, to explore key concepts in national security studies, such as offense, defense, deterrence, preemption, prevention, proliferation and arms control, counterterrorism and counterinsurgency, and to assess their relevance to Israel’s pursuit of national security. Finally, to evaluate the extent to which Israel’s strategy is typical of small states facing numerically superior neighbors.

The seminar complements the department's larger course on the competing Arab-Palestinian-Israeli perspective and discourses on the Middle East conflict, team-taught by Prof. Feldman and others. The proposed seminar provides a more in-depth examination of the full range of Israeli national security issues. It places the study of Israeli national security into the intellectual frameworks of international relations/national security concepts/literatures, and thus builds on our introductory courses in international relations and complements our courses on US foreign policy and on US national security. Please note a signature is required.

A sample syllabus is available here

POL 133A - Contemporary Politics in the Middle East
Monday and Wednesday 5:10-6:30pm
Mr. Rubin

Examines the Western impact on the Middle East state system, and the key challenges to the stability of these states and to the regional order. Topics include Arab nationalism; religion and minorities, the Arab-Israeli conflict and other issues. 

ECON 122B - The Economics of the Middle East
Tuesday and Thursday 5:10-6:30pm
Prof. Habibi

Examines the Middle East economies--past experiences, present situation, and future challenges--drawing on theories, policy formulations and empirical studies of economic growth, trade, poverty, income distribution, labor markets, finance and banking, government reforms, globalization, and Arab-Israeli political economy.

NEJS 197B - Political Cultures of the Middle East
Tuesday 1:30-4:30pm
Kanan Makiya          

Explores the way people make assumptions about power, authority, and justice. Focuses on Israel,  Turkey, Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, and Iraq.


Previous Classes

POL 134A - Strategies of Islamic political activism in the Arab Middle East
Tuesday and Friday 12:10-1:30pm
Mr. Lawrence Rubin

This course will examine the role of Islamic political and social movements in Middle East politics.  Using social science approaches and case studies, students will acquire a conceptual and empirical understanding of various manifestations of Islamic movements, ranging from the populist Muslim Brotherhood in Egyptto radical, violent organizations such as al-Qaeda. We will explore the conditions under which Islamic actors choose to employ violence and/or enter the political process to achieve their goals.  Particular attention will be paid toward understanding developments within Islamic movements since 9/11, the War in Afghanistan, and the War in Iraq.   

HIST 111A - History of the Modern Middle East
Tuesday and Thursday 5:10-6:30pm
Prof. Naghmeh Sohrabi

This course examines the history of the Middle East from the nineteenth century to contemporary times. It focuses on political events and intellectual trends, such as imperialism, modernity, nationalism, and revolution that have shaped the region in the modern era.  As a history course, it also examines the way historical discourse is formed.

NEJS 194A - Civil Society in the Middle East
Spring 2008
Prof. Banu Eligur 

The democratization of the Middle East has been highly debated, particularly since the end of the Cold War. This course focuses on the extent to which civil society in the Middle East is comparable to its Western counterpart and whether civil society can trigger democratization in the region. The course has three primary goals: First, it introduces students to the concept of civil society and its relation with democracy; second, it examines civil society in the Middle Eastern context; and finally, it analyzes cases of civil society and democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, the Palestinian Authority, and Israel).

NEJS 190A-Describing Cruelty
Spring 2008
Prof. Kanan Makiya 

This seminar will consider different ways of thinking about and describing the phenomenon of political cruelty. The focus is on physical cruelty and the cases dealt with are drawn largely from the Middle East. We will examine a broad range of intellectual efforts and literary or artistic works that engage with political cruelty (Human rights reports, theoretical works, literary texts, films, paintings, monuments and memorials). How do they succeed or fail in describing cruelty? What is cruelty, and in the effort to represent it, what do we learn about ourselves? The emphasis is on understanding the nature of cruelty, thinking about how to describe it, and examining one's purpose for doing so in the first place.

NEJS 161B - Representations of the City
Spring 2008
Prof. Kanan Makiya

The city is an artifact housing a community of anonymous persons, one that has carried great creative and destructive potential across the ages. Works of the imagination--in literature, theology, and architecture--expose unquantifiable dimensions of that potential. In this course we examine ten such works with a view to what the city has been in the past, is today, and can become in the future.

POL 135B - Jordan, Israel and the Palestinians: Between War and Peace
Spring 2008
Prof. Asher Susser 

This course will discuss interrelationship between Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian national movement from the issue of the Balfour Declaration and the establishment of the British Mandate over Palestine until the present. I t will trace the emergence of the Palestinian national movement and its conflict with the Zionist movement; the war of 1948 and its consequences; Jordanian rule of the West Bank until 1967 and the subsequent competition and clash between Jordan and the PLO for control over the destiny of the Palestinians; and the impact this had on the evolution of the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.

POL 136A - Political Islam: Introduction to Islamist Social Movements in the Middle East
Fall 2007
Dr. Banu Eligur

Since the 1990s, political Islam has successfully mobilized in the Muslim world by utilizing democratic means.  Political Islamist parties, with diligent movement activists and strong organizational resources, have been challenging to democratic and semi-democratic polities in Muslim populated countries by successfully competing in elections.  This course provides an introduction to Islamist social movements and has three primary goals: First, it introduces students to the main concepts in political Islamist thought, contemporary political Islam, and its relation with democracy; second, it examines major theoretical approaches of social movement in literature; finally, it analyzes cases if Islamist mobilization in the Middle East and North Africa (Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Algeria, and Yemen) within the framework of social movement theory.

POL 133A - Contemporary Politics in the Middle East
Fall 2007
Prof. Asher Susser

This course discusses the formation of the modern Middle East, against the background of the Western impact on the region, and the subsequent creation of the Middle East state system. It then moves on to analyze the various key challenges that have emerged over time to the stability of these states and to the regional order. These include discussions of the rise and decline of Arab nationalist; religion, minorities and the state; the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict; population growth and economic stagnation; stateness, territorial identity and Islamic resurgence; the weakening of the Arab state order; and the consequent ascendance of the non-Arab powers in the region (Iran, Turkey and Israel).

POL 170A - Arms Control in the Middle East
Spring 2007
Prof. Shai Feldman & Dr. Chen Zak Kane

This course aimed to explore and analyze the theories behind, dynamics within, and problems encountered with arms control as part of regional security in the Middle East. Defining arms control and its place in international relations theory and exposes many of the practice's central paradoxes. Debates concerning verification, compliance, supplier regimes, and major arms control treaties will be identified and addressed along with the contemporary examples of Iraq, Israel, Libya, and - to a greater extent - Iran as case studies. By the end of the course, students were able to articulate the role of arms control in international relations, both in theory and practice, understand its role in the past, and hypothesize its future in the Middle East.

NEJS 183A - Modern Middle East History through the Arts and Popular Culture
Spring 2007
Dr. Naghmeh Sohrabi

Most of us, at one point or another, have been exposed to information about and from the Middle East. Television, radio, newspapers, academic articles, and travel give us an image of the region structured by the nature of the medium and the people who create, control, and disseminate the information. This course focused on one of the lesser-used sources--works of art and popular culture by Middle Easterners-- in order to illuminate and understand a number of pivotal political and historical events that have shaped the modern Middle East.

The course was divided into 3 sections. Section I provided historical background and theoretical tools necessary for the study of culture in the Middle East. Section II examined some of the most important events and defining moments of 20th century Middle East and their cultural productions. Section III looked at the question of representation and memory in modern Middle East culture and society.

Each week the course and the readings were divided in two sections: The first half of the course focused on the historical event at hand and the second half examined the assigned cultural artifact and the ways in which it reflects and shapes its historical reference.

ECON 122B - The Economics of the Middle East
Spring 2007
Dr. Mohammed Samhouri & Dr. Eric Graber

Sample Syllabus Available

The Economics of the Middle East presented students with overview the region's economies -- past experiences, present situation and future challenges drawing on theories, policy formulations and empirical studies of economic growth, trade, poverty, income distribution, labor markets, finance and banking, structural reforms, globalization and Arab-Israeli political economy. Special attention was given to important differences in economic structures of the region's countries and the role of petroleum in national development.

The instructors, Eric Graber and Mohammed Samhouri, economists and senior fellows at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies, drew on available literature and extensive experience in the region. Eric is a former advisor at the Ministry of Finance and National Economy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Mohammed is a former economic adviser to the Minister of Planning and Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Palestinian Authority.

Both, Eric and Mohammed have extensive experience teaching, consulting and writing about economics, technological change, business expansion and institutional reforms in the Middle East.

Students taking Econ 122b will be able to derive maximum benefit from the presence of these two specialists on campus during the spring semester. The class meetings will be in seminar format, encouraging active student participation. Each of the instructors will hold office hours and be accessible beyond the classroom to students taking the course.

Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East
Fall 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Semesters
Prof. Shai Feldman, Dr. Abdel Monem Said Aly, Dr. Khalil Shikaki

“Conflict and Peacemaking in the Middle East,” was team-taught during the fall 2005 and 2006 semesters by Crown Center director Shai Feldman and two senior fellows—Khalil Shikaki, director of the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, and Abdel Monem Said Aly, director of the Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. The course provided students with different prisms through which to view the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and efforts to resolve it. Students also learned about key developments in the history of the conflict, with particular emphasis on the Palestinian-Israeli dimension. This course will again be offered in the fall 2006 semester.

U.S. Policy in the Middle East
Spring 2006 Semesters
Prof. Shai Feldman, Dr. Geoffrey Kemp

In the spring 2006 semester, Feldman taught a course, “U.S. Policy in the Middle East,” with Geoffrey Kemp, director of regional security studies at the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C. The course provided students with an understanding of the evolution of U.S. policy in the Middle East and the country’s role in key developments in the history of the region.