POL2418H1S L5101
Undergraduate Course Code: POL479H1S L5101
Topics in Middle East Politics
Comparative Urbanisms in the Middle East & North Africa
Themes
This seminar explores what it means to generate theory from place and conduct comparative urban research. Bringing together readings from geography, anthropology, sociology, and political science, which take the city as their object of analysis, we will discuss the role of planning, speculation, technology, and nostalgia in shaping cities to pluralize the terrains from which we think not of one urbanism or urbanization process, but of multiple urbanisms that characterize the Middle East and North Africa region.
Texts
Gökçe Günel, Spaceship in the Desert; Begüm Adalet, Hotels and Highways; Yael Navaro, The Make-Believe Space; Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins, Waste Siege; and others.
Format and Requirements
Students will be expected to write and share a weekly response piece, actively participate in class, write a paper proposal mid-semester and present it in class, and submit a research paper.