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Oral presentation

Reaction papers

AIS 4100

capstone seminar

classes

Dr. Silvia Nagy-Zekmi 

Spring 2010

TTH 4:00 - 5:15 pm

Date

Topic and readings

Readings and resources

Jan 12

Introduction.  

Discourse and representation 

 Resources: Center for Arab and Islamic  Studies Middle East Culture

14

Modernity / Postmodernity

 Introduction to the Postmodern

 Resource: Postmodern terms

19

Foucault: Power / knowledge discourse

 More of power "Epistemology"

21

 Globalization: World Culture Theory.

 F. Jameson: "Postmodernism and   Consumer Society

 Summary of Jameson's ideas

26

Mahbod Seraji: Rooftops of Tehran

 Author talk:

 Connelly Center Villanova Room      8:00pm

28

Alterity. Edward Said: Orientalism

Video: Said: Orientalism, (1-4 parts)

Video: Stuart Hall: Race, the Floating Signifier

 Reading: Orientalism: "Introduction,"   "Knowing the Oriental"

 Seraji Report 1 due

Feb 2

Discussion of Rooftops of Teheran

 Discussion questions

4

"The Iranian Revolution and the Iran Hostage Crisis After 30 Years"

 Lecture: Mark Bowden, author of  Guests of the Ayatollah and Blackhawk  Down. Connelly Ctr.   Villanova Room 7:00pm


8 Monday!

Marjane Satrapi: Persepolis

(film screening)

 Lecture by Prof. Nasser Chour

 Connelly Center Cinema 7:00 PM

9

no class

 

16

Discussion of Persepolis (the film and the books) Marjane Satrapi   Iran: history timeline

Discussion questions

 Satrapi Report 2 due

18

Conflict in the Middle East: Palestine-Israel

Maps Timeline  Peace

 Susan Abulhawa: The Scar of David

 Shohat: "Reflections of an Arab Jew"

 Bowden Report 3 due

23

Postcolonial theory  

Postcolonial resources: literature, bibliography" Identity Jam and the Postcolonial Predicament"

 Barbara Harlow: Resistance Literature   Harlow: After Lives.  

  "Handala"

25

Terrorism

 Eqbal Ahmad: Terrorism, Theirs and  Ours

March

2-4

 Spring break, no class

2

Talk by author, The Forty Rules of Love: A Novel of Rumi

 Elif Shafak

 Free Library at 7:30 pm

 Buy tickets online $7 for students

4

Roundtable discussion:

Hidden Light: Understanding the Women of Iran

Faeze Woodville of Drexel U,  Firoozeh Kashani-Sabet, UPenn,  Laura Levitt, Temple U.  Free Library   6:15 pm

4

Talk by author:My Dream of Stars: From Daughter of Iran to Space Pioneer

 Anousheh Ansari

 Free Library   7:30 pm FREE

Mar. 3- Apr. 4

Play: Language Rooms by

Yussef El Guindi

 Wilma Theater schedule

 Discount tickets for students

March 9

"The Resistance Movement in Iran and the Future of US-Iran Relations"

 Trudy Rubin, Worldview Columnist,  Philadelphia Inquirer      4:00 pm  

 Driscoll Hall 132

11

Representations of Ethnicity and Race

Video: Stuart Hall: Race, the Floating Signifier

11

Discussion: "Beyond Al-Qaeda: Yemen's Crises in Context"

 Dana Moss, Villanova M.A., and

 William Pickard U. Penn

 Connelly Cinema at 6:00 pm

14

"Good Vibrations and Stress Positions: The Legacy of 'Enhanced Interrogation'" discussion by Lustic, Moghhaddam, Moreno

 Wilma Theater at 4:30 pm

 Free with Tickets to Language Rooms

 If not, call for tickets: 215.546.7824

16

Gender and Representation

 Malek Alloula: Colonial Harem

 Betts: "Wanted Women..."

Rubin Report 4 due 

18

Documentary Screening:

Slingshot Hiphop

 Lecture: Sa'ed Atshan, Harvard U.

 Driscoll Hall  6:00 pm

18

Women in the Middle East/North Africa

Irshad Manji: Faith Without Fear

 "The Postcolonial Female Subject"

 "Politics of the Veil"

23

Writing by Women

 L. Abouzeid: Year of the Elephant

 Hall: "Year of the Elephant, a  Postcolonial Reading"

25

Islam and fundamentalism

Irshad Manji Faith Without Fear, Confessions of a Muslim Dissident

 Aijaz Ahmad: "Islam, Islamism and the  West" Tahir ul-Qadri: Fatwa

Paper # 1 is due

28

Panel discussion: "A Land of Sour Milk and Honey: The (Arab)American Dream Today"  Toufic El Rassi, Mustapha Tili

 Wilma Theater 4:30 pm

 Free with Tickets to Language Rooms

 If not, call for tickets: 215.546.7824

30

"Clash of Civilizations" 

E. Said: The Myth of the Clash...  (video)

 Huntington: The Clash of Civilization

 E. Said: "The Clash of Ignorance

April 1

Easter break, no class

6

Muslim World

 Bernard Lewis: What Went Wrong  (introduction)

 Juan Cole: "Informed Comment"

 Said: "Impossible Histories"

6

Book talk: Law in Service of Legitimacy

 Prof. Catherine Warrick (Poli.Sci)

 Falvey Library 5:00 pm

8

Clash of civilization  - Muslim world

continued discussion  

Aijaz Ahmad: "Islam, Islamism and the  West"

 13

Questions of censorship

M. Parenti: Contrary Notions 

 Middle East,

 M. Parenti: "Media moments"

Paper # 2 is due

13

Lecture: "Im/possible Histories: Islams De/Re/Constructed"

 Prof. Mustapha Marrouchi, U. of  Nevada

 SAC 300. at 6:00 pm

15

Questions of censorship

M. Parenti: Contrary Notions 

 Middle East,  M. Parenti: "Media moments"

20

Migration

The beurs, the second generation

White: "Geography, literature and  migration"

 Yaghmaian: Embracing the Infidel

 "French Figs"

22 Post/modernism revisited  Appiagnesi: Postmodernism

22

Re-Framing the Arab as Political Project:
Mediated Memory in Arab American Autobiographies

Lecture: Silke Schmidt, Marburg University

6:00 pm Tolentine 217

27

Friday classes, no class

29

Review

 Bring questions