MINORITIES IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Teachers:
Jakob Skovgaard-Petersen (JSP), Carmit Romano-Hvid (CRH), Rasmus Chr. Elling (RCE)
(TBA = To be announced)
Classes:
Wednesdays, 11h00-13h00, Room U5
COURSE PLAN
5/9: INTRODUCTION
General introduction to the topic and the course (JSP)
Lecture: The Arab Minority in Israel: what is meant? (CRH)
12/9: THEORIES AND CONCEPTS
Lecture: The Theoretical Field (RCE)
Discussion: Groups and Categories – Distinguishing the Social from the Sociological (RCE)
Required reading:
1) May, Modood & Squires: ‘Ethnicity, Nationalism and Minority Rights: Charting the Disciplinary Debates’ in
Stephen May, Tariq Modood & Judith Squires (Eds.). 2004. Ethnicity, Nationalism and Minority Rights, Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
2) Tapper, Richard: ‘Who are the Kuchi? Nomad self-identities in Afghanistan’ in Journal of the Royal Anthropological
Institute (JRAI), Vol. 14: pp. 97-116. Link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.14679655.2007.00480.x/abstract.
3) Keddie, Nikki R.: ‘The Minorities Question in Iran’ in Keddie, Nikki. 1995. Iran and the Muslim World: Resistance
and Revolution, New York: New York University Press.
19/9: MINORITIES AND IDENTITY POLITICS
Lecture: Cosmopolitanism and the Minority Issue in Middle Eastern History (JSP)
Discussion: What is Ethnic and National Identity? State Formation, Nation Building and the Minority Other (RCE)
Required reading:
1) Sami Zubaida: ‘Cosmopolitan Citizenship in the Middle East’. Open Democracy July 20, 2010.
Link: http://www.opendemocracy.net/sami-zubaida/cosmopolitan-citizenship-in-middle-east
2) Amy Mills: ‘The Place of Locality for Identity in the Nation: Minority Narratives of Cosmopolitan Istanbul’ in
International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 40, No. 3: pp. 383-401. Link:
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1950324.
3) Rogers Brubaker & Frederick Cooper: ‘Beyond “Identity”’ in Theory and Society, Vol. 29, No. 1: pp. 1-47. Link:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/3108478?uid=3737880&uid=2&uid=4&sid=21100973463193 .
26/9: MINORITIES AND LANGUAGE
Lecture: Language Rights and Minority Politics in Israel (CRH)
Lecture: Kurds and Language Politics in Iran, Iraq and Syria (RCE)
Required reading:
1) Stephen May. 2008. ‘Language, identity and minority rights’ & ‘Language, education and minority rights’ in May,
Stephen. 2008. Language and Minority Rights. Ethnicity, Nationalism and the Politics of Language, New York:
Routledge.
2) Tove Skutnabb-Kangas & Desmond Fernandes: ‘Kurds in Turkey and in (Iraqi) Kurdistan: A Comparison of Kurdish
Educational Language Policy in Two Situations of Occupation’ in Genocide Studies and Prevention, Vol. 3, No. 1: pp.
43-73. Link: https://utpjournals.metapress.com/content/r32168ru356t3331/resource-secured/?target=fulltext.pdf.
3/10: MINORITIES AND RELIGION
Lecture: Religious Minorities in the Arab Middle East & Inter-Faith Dialogue (JSP)
Required reading:
TBA
10/10: MINORITIES AND MEDIA
Lecture: Media Representations and Exclusion in Israel (CRH)
Required reading:
TBA
24/10: FOREIGNERS, MINORITIES AND THE OIL INDUSTRY
Lecture: Oil, space and violence in 1940s Abadan (RCE).
Topics: Violence, space, social control, racism.
Required reading:
1) Rogers Brubaker & David Laitin. 1998. 'Ethnic and Nationalist Violence' in Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 24,
pp. 423-452.
2) I. J. Seccombe & R. I. Lawless. 1986. 'Foreign Worker Dependence in the Gulf, and the International Oil
Companies: 1910-50' in International Migration Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 548-574.
Recommended reading:
1) Robert Vitalis. 2004. 'Aramco World: Business and Culture on the Arabian Oil Frontier' in Madawi Al-Rasheed &
Robert Vitalis (Eds.): Counter-Narratives: History, Contemporary Society, and Politics in Saudi Arabia and Yemen,
Palgrave-Macmillan.
31/10: ONE MINORITY, THREE STATES
Lecture: The Druze in Israel (CRH)
Lecture: The Druze in Syria and Lebanon (JSP)
Required reading:
TBA
7/11: MINORITIES AND STATES
Lecture: Minorities and State in Egypt? (JSP)
Lecture: Nationalism and Minorities in Iran (RCE)
Required reading:
1) TBA
2) Rasmus Chr. Elling: ‘Matters of Authenticity: Nationalism, Islam and Ethnic Diversity in Iran’ in Nabavi, Negin
(Ed.). 2012. Iran: From Theocracy to Green Movement, New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. (Will be uploaded here).
14/11: SECTARIANISM AND BEYOND
Lecture: Sectarianism and the Case of Syria (JSP)
Lecture: Possible Solutions to the Kurdish Issue (RCE? TBA?)
Required reading:
TBA.
21/11: MINORITIES AND WOMEN
Lecture: Women’s Rights and Minority Rights (CRH)
Lecture: Double-Minorities and Triple-Minorities (RCE)
Film Screening: xxx
28/11: SPECIAL THEME: The Jews of Egypt
Program TBA.
5/12: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS I
12/12: STUDENT PRESENTATIONS II
Exam questions.