This course is an introduction to the modern history of the region commonly known as the Middle East, from the early-19th-century until the present. The course is designed to be an in-depth "overview" of central questions of geography itself: What is the region? How might we rethink its history through a focus on forms of sociality, economy, culture, and violence that extend well-beyond the limits of the "Middle East"?

The course begins in the 19th-century, a period of state-building, intellectual revival, and global imperialism. We will focus on the Arab, Ottoman and Persian worlds to follow the processes of social and institutional reforms, militarization, capital expansion, and the refashioning of divine authority. Each week, we will focus on a particular theme such as imperial reform, sectarianism, colonialism, expert practices, resistance, the making of citizens, publics, subjects and cultural politics.

The questions that frame the course, which proceeds chronologically, include: How did global forces and local dynamics coalesce to shape the politics of the modern Middle East? How might we understand the region’s history from the 19th-century onward while integrating institutional, political, social, and cultural currents? How were global ideological trends woven together with local ideas about authority, identity, community and the state?