26112 - Gender, Cultures and Conflicts in the Mediterranean Region

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide useful knowledge and tools  for understanding the evolution and transformation of gender ideologies in the context of Middle Eastern and Muslim diaspora in Europe. At the end of the course the student: -is able to understand and critically analyze the factors which determine gender roles in the area in question -is able to discern and evaluate the importance of a gender perspective for understanding and critically analyze broader issues such as the relationship between state and Islam, development, citizenship in the MENA region.

Course contents

Readings/Bibliography

- Abu Lughod, L. (2003) “Saving Muslim Women or Standing with them? On Images, Ethics, and War in Our Times”, Insaniyaat, Spring 2003, Vol. 1 Issue 1.

- Badran, M. (1995). Feminists, Islam, and nation: gender and the making of modern Egypt. Princeton University Press. Meyda Yegenoglu, Colonial fantasies: towards a feminist reading of Orientalism, Cambridge : Cambridge university press, 1998

- Moghadam Valentine M. , Modernizing women : gender and social change in the Middle East : Lynne Rienner, 1993.

- Moha Ennaji and Fatima Sadiqi (eds.), Gender and violence in the Middle East, UCLA center for Middle East development (CMED), 4, 2011, New York, NY : Routledge

- Nikki R. Keddie, Women in the Middle East : past and present, Princeton ; Oxford : Princeton University Press, 2007

- Sadiqi, Fatima; Moha, Ennaji (eds.), Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Agents of Change, Routledge, 2010

- Salih, R., Musulmane Rivelate. Donne, Islam, Modernità, Roma: Carocci, 2008.

- Suad Joseph, Gender and citizenship in the Middle East, Syracuse : Syracuse University press, 2000

- Zakya Daoud, Feminisme et politique au Maghreb : sept decennies de lutte, Casablanca : EDDIF, 1996

Teaching methods

Lectures, seminars, workshops, students presentations, documentary projections.

Assessment methods

For the students attending classes the evaluation will be based, according to the student preference, on an oral presentation or a term paper. The topic will be agreed at the beginning of the classes and discussed during the final examination.

Students not attending classes should send by email at least 10 days before the exam a term paper on a topic agreed previously with the teacher. In addition, during the exam they are expected to discuss the following texts:

- Salih, R., Musulmane Rivelate. Donne, Islam, Modernità, Roma: Carocci, 2008.

- Fatima Sadiqi, Moha Ennaji (eds.), Women in the Middle East and North Africa. Agents of Change, Routledge, 2010 (only four chapters)

Teaching tools

Video, Power Point, DVD

Office hours

See the website of Silvia Bruzzi