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The course is designed to provide a review of the historical, political and social settings in the Middle East in the 19th century from an interdisciplinary perspective. The course is a survey for the understanding of the modern Middle East through an in-depth analysis of historical processes as the bases of modernity in the foundation of modern political and social structures. A review of contemporary approaches to understand the Ottoman settings of the Middle East will be followed by the analysis of ethnic, religious and political organization of the region, and the study of changes in these formations throughout the nineteenth century.

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The course will analyze the contemporary Middle Eastern affairs through the study of processes of state and nation formation, social and economic changes in region, the impact of religion and the role of the military, and political and economic crises, regional and international conflicts and their domestic effects in the Middle East in the 20th century.

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The Middle East with its strategic and economic significance as well as incessant volatility and instability has been a major preoccupation for US foreign policy and its hegemonic aspirations. This course aims to offer a comprehensive examination of actors, motives, instruments and the major issues shaping US foreign policy vis-à-vis the Middle East during Cold War and post 9/11 eras. It also aims to discuss changes and continuities in American involvement and diplomacy in the Middle East in the context of the Arab Spring. The course intends to bring issues of security, political economy and democratization into extended focus, while grasping the foreign policy making and implementation processes inside the United States towards Arab and non-Arab states, as well as non-state actors in the region.

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The course will cover analysis of Middle East through the lenses of geopolitical approaches and will focus on basic texts on the Middle East and try to reach an understanding of the Middle East based on `geopolitical discourses`. It seeks to expose how alternative readings of the Middle East and its `security problem` might be possible.

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This course provides students a critical approach to the understanding of the culture and history of the Middle East and North Africa through cinema films and cultural readings. Contemporary Middle Eastern cinema reflects the social, political and cultural issues in the area as well as showing the filmic language of its filmmakers. Students will also explore the relationships between cinema and other forms of popular culture including music, literature, and visual arts.

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The course will cover briefly the main theoretical approaches to the study of failed and successful revolutions, revolutions from above and below, passive revolution and coups, the major revolutions in the Middle East region, covering both the Arab countries and Turkey and Iran, lastly a discussion of the contemporary affairs in the region with the perspective of the region`s history and the theoretical debates on revolutions.

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The course will provide students and understanding of modern Iranian politics,focusing on the emergence and development of the modern Iranıan nation-state in Pahlavi period and the transformation of this state in revolutionary and post-revolutionary era.The course will centre on political history while encompassing the key aspects of foreign relations as well. The course will also discuss the main axes of debate in Iranıan studies.

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The course will cover development in the beliefs, practices and seets of religious communities in the Middle East in Late Antiquity.The emphasis will be on the developments in judaism ,Zoroastrianism,Christianity, Gnosticism, and Manichacism in this period and how they shaped the world in which Islamic thought and culture later developed. In addition, the relevance of these historical developments and contemporary events will also be examined.

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This course is dedicated to understand how war and conflict has shaped Middle Eastern regional politics in general and how it has affected the parties to the conflicts in particular. Discussing the origins of wars and conflicts as well as their consequences enhance not only the understanding of regional dynamics, but also the dynamics that shape the internal and external politics of particular states in the region. In addition, analyzing what has been achieved so far in the name of peace helps in grasping the likelihood of regional peace in the region.

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This course offers students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the historical, political and societal developments and debates in Israel. The course is organized into two parts. The first part will analyse the historical and political background of Israel, looking at Jewish History; emergence of Zionism; society and state formation, political and state institutions, security issues; and foreign policy. The second part will examine the divisions and debates within the society along ethnic, religious and national identity lines. Israeli democracy and militarism will also be analysed in the second part. The course is not designed to scrutinize the ARab-Israeli and Palestinian-Israeli conflicts, yet the influence of these conflicts upon Israeli politics and society will be discussed throughout the course.

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In this course, the experiences of transformations in village, city, class, gender, ethnicity, economy, society, polity and culture structures and practices in the Middle East will be depicted. This will be done from the vantage points of the following concepts and underlying theories : globalization vs localization, universalism vs particularism, transformation vs reproduction, agency/actor vs structure, modernity vs post modernity, development vs underdevelopment, world system vs regional systems, third world vs fourth world, network society vs hierarchical structures, timeless time vs history, resistance vs procejt communities/identites. One of the main foci of the course will consist of the development of secularization and revival of Islam in many countries of the region, including Turkey.

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The course is designed to enable students to learn the Persian alphabet, phonology, morphology, the basic syntax, basic vocabulary and grammatical structures of written and oral Persian. The four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) as well as pronunciation and translation skills are incorporated into the course. The course also introduces students to Persian culture to accentuate understanding of the language through the study of authentic aural, written, and visual texts and through in-class communicative activities; gives the students the opportunity to explore historical, literary, and artistic manifestations of Iranian culture.

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Persian language is the ancient and modern language of Persia, Iran, Tajikestan, and Afghanistan. It is an Indo-European language, related to English, French, German, and Russian, and written in an Arabic script. Persian language has been in interaction with Turkish, Central Asian, and the Middle Eastern cultures.
The course is designed to enable students to improve their skills in the Persian phonology, morphology, syntax, intermediate vocabulary and grammatical structures of written and oral Persian. The four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) as well as pronunciation and translation skills are incorporated into the course. The course also enhances students knowledge of Persian culture to develop better understanding of the language through the study of authentic aural, written, and visual texts and through in-class communicative activities; gives the students the opportunity to explore historical, literary, and artistic manifestations of Iranian culture.

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The construction and experience of gender and sexuality in the Middle East. The transformation of gender roles as a result of the encounter with modernity. The impacts of the modernisation upon femininty and masculinity within the framework of politics, economy-nation-state, religion and cultural studies.Islamist mobilisation, family, sexuality, neoliberalism and womens labour.

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The background of Turkish-American relations in the 20th century, with a particular emphasis on the Cold War Period and Post-Cold Period, an analysis of the changes and continuities of these relations in the 21st century, locating Turkish-American relations within the borader context of Middle East politics.

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While providing an overview of the history of the Levant since the Ottoman Empire till today, the course intends to touch upon the formation of the modern political system in the region, state structures in the Levant, workings of the government, major political-economic-social developments, state-society relations, nature and working of society and confessional system, role of different alliances at domestic and regional level and the impacts of regional and global developments in the region.

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This course is aiming at dealing with: a general view of fresh water in global, regional and national scales, theoretical views on human and environmental relations, an analytical capability of political economy of Middle East, concepts such as: virtual water, hydro hegemony, trans-boundary water course, geographical and environmental facts of MENA, the role and impact of fresh water on social, political and economic development, the role and impact of scarcity of fresh water and necessity of structural changes to improve region s position in global political economy.

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This course is a seminar on the identity politics as observed though the spoken and written languages of the Middle East. The aim of the course is to familiarize the students with the ancient and modern languages of the area, and to present specific discussions on how linguistic continuity and discontinuities in the area play a role in identity politics. The scope of the course includes a summary of the linguistic past of the Middle East, focused discussions on the current identity debates on various languages, and on the language reforms in Turkey, Iran and Israel.

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Course Content

Course Content

Course Content

Course Content

The course is designed to enable students to improve their skills in the Persian phonology, intermediate vocabulary and grammatical structures of written and oral Persian. The four language skills (listening, speaking, reading, and writing) as well as pronunciation and translation skills are incorporated into the course. The course enhances students knowledge of Persian culture to develop better understanding of the language through the study of authentic aural, written, and visual texts and gives students the opportunity to explore historical, manifestations of Iranian culture.