M.S. PROGRAM IN MIDDLE EAST STUDIES (THESIS & NON-THESIS)

MES       501   History of the Modern Middle East    (3-0)3

The course is designed to provide a review of the historical, political and social settings in the Middle East in the 19^th 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.

MES       502   Contemporary Affairs in the Middle East                       (3-0)3

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 20^th century.

SOC      522   Sociology of the Middle East                                                                (3-0)3                       

The Middle East in historical and world context. Islam and development of secularization in Turkey and other countries in the Middle East. Social, cultural and educational transformations in selected countries of the Middle East. Modernity post-modernity, globalization, orientalism, fundamentalism,  authenticity, identity, and religion. Sociological and anthropological depictions of cultural transitions in the Middle East and Islamic world.

IR          578   Globalization and the Middle East                       (3-0)3

The aim of this course is to analyse the interaction of the Middle East with the processes of globalization. The course will cover how the region is affected by the economic, political and cultural aspects of globalization as well as its own role to play in this process. By placing the region’s experience of globalization into a wider perspective and looking at globalization as a dialectical process in which the Middle East plays an active role as well as being affected by it, the course will complement the theoretical debates with case studies.

HIST      107   Ottoman Turkish I        (3-0)3

A brief introduction to the Ottoman language and the teaching of Arabic letters in the form of book-print with selected material from the historical and literary texts of the 20th century.

(This course is given in Turkish)

HIST      108   Ottoman Turkish II       (3-0)3

Teaching how to use the old Ottoman dictionaries with particular emphasis on the Arabic and Persian phrases in the Ottoman language. Drills on the selected texts varying from the 13th to the 19th centuries. (This course is given in Turkish.)

HIST      261   Historical Readings in  Persian I                         (3-0)3

This course attempts at teaching history students to read history texts in Persian alphabets and language.

HIST      262   Historical Readings in

                        Persian II                        (3-0)3

This course attempts at developing the history students’ ability to read history texts in Persian alphabets and language, and teaching them about Persian culture.

HIST      305   Advanced Ottoman Paleography and  Diplomatics I                  (4-0)4

i. Studies on critical additions of manuscripts and their transcriptions. ii. Information concerning Ottoman archives iii. Studies on newspapers and journals for the period between 1860-1928.  iv. The grammar and spelling of the old Anatolian Turkish v. Historical development of Turkish written in Arabic script with particular emphasis to its last phase. vi. An overview of Hat (manuscript) art.

HIST      306   Advanced Ottoman Paleography and Diplomatics II                (4-0)4

Continuation of HIST 305.

HIST      507   Ottoman Advanced Writing Techniques I                   (3-0)3

The students will have to work advanced Ottoman paleography, and writing and reading Sülüs (decorative writing) and rik'a (normal hand writing) from selected Ottoman chronicles. The course also offers a methodical introduction to the special terminology encountered in Ottoman studies.

HIST      508   Ottoman Advanced Writing  Techniques II                  (3-0)3

Continuation of HIST 507.

HIST      546   Nationalism in the Balkans  (3-0)3

This course aims to analyse, at the advanced level, the emergence of nationalism and nationalist movements in the Balkans, their external and domestic roots, and establishment of national states in the peninsula during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

IR 407 Middle East in World Affairs (3-0)3

This course covers largely the nations of the Eastern Mediterranean or the Arab-Israel zone of the Middle East. There are six states in the region, including Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan and Egypt. Although it is considered to be a Persian Gulf nation, Saudi Arabia will also be examined due to its role in the Arab-Israel disputes. Actually the problems of the state of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf region are intimately interconnected as are the issues in their domestic politics and foreign policy. Therefore, the course will avoid artificial compartmentalization of issues and problems whether in terms of domestic and foreign policy fields or the Eastern Mediterranean and Gulf subregions.

IR 454 Ottoman Diplomacy and the European States System (3-0)3

The basic purpose of this course is to give the students a general understanding of Ottoman diplomacy through the relations between Ottoman Empire and the European states. It takes the concepts of "diplomacy" and "states-system" as basic tools an d first dwells on the beginnings of Ottoman diplomacy and the European states-systems. Secondly, it deals with the ad hoc diplomacy period and the establishment of permanent diplomacy. Thirdly, the practice of Ottoman diplomacy in foreign capitals is studies. The course will conclude with a discussion of the legacy of Ottoman diplomacy.

IR 508 Issues in Turkish Foreign Policy (3-0)3

The aim of this graduate seminar is to give the student an awareness of the various foreign policy issues that confront Turkey. An attempt will be made to discuss the causes and consequences of the various crises and regional problems between Turkey and neighbors. The Turco-Greek problems, the Cyprus dispute, Turkey's relations with the Middle Eastern states, and with the Turkish republics of the former Soviet Union, as well as the Turco-American and Turco-European ties will be examined.

IR 534 Political Economy of International Oil (3-0)3

This seminar consist of two parts: The first part examines the regional and international aspects of oil, focusing on the primacy of oil in the Middle East, oil discovery and concessions, the emergence of OPEC and the structural changes in the oil market. The second part addresses the socioeconomic and political effects of oil on oil-exporting states and discusses the rentier state/rentier economy model, employing extensive case studies.

IR 536 Radical Politics in the Middle East (3-0)3

The aim of the course is to analyze the roots and forms of radicalism in Middle Eastern Politics. Beginning with discussions of Arab nationalism and Arab Baath Socialism the course focuses on the historical roots and the ideological outlook of radi cal Islam, with particular emphasis on the following issues: Radical Islam and the West, Iran as a revolutionary state, Islamic movements in Lebanon, Egypt, and the Gulf, radical Islam and North Africa.

IR 556 Politics, Economics and Foreign Policy in Greece (3-0)3

During the lectures and seminars, the political, economic and foreign policy establishments in Greece in different international environments will be discussed. The institutional structures and the power positions and orientations of main individual actors and groups and their respective roles in the economic and political developments are analyzed with a special emphasis on the democratization and Europeanization processes. The relations with major European powers, Turkey, the US, and the EU are analyzed with reference to the domestic political and economic structures and actors.

SOC      430   Sociology of Mediterranean                       Societies                (3-0)3

The Mediterranean in historical and cultural perspective. Economy and ecology. The role of the state in Mediterranean societies. Kinship systems and the importance of the family. Patron-client relationships. The 'honor-and shame' complex. Gender roles in the Mediterranean area. Religion and folk beliefs.

SOC      457   Culture, Identity and Post-                        Colonial Theory   (3-0)3

This course will focus on the strategies by which demarcations between self and other and corollary distinctions between First World-Third World, West-East and masculine-feminine are deployed in various cultural and political discourses. The emergent and contested dimensions of modern, gendered, national and cultural identities will be examined through  post-colonial theorists such as Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Homi Bhabha, Edward Said, Frantz Fanon.

SOC      485   Third World Politics      (3-0)3

This course  adopts a comparative approach in discussing political issues of the Third World. Key elements of the political process will be examined within the context of three main regions: Latin America, Africa and the Middle East. Special attention will be given to the different ways in which these regions were integrated into the global system.

SOC 503 Problems of Studying Women in Muslim Societies (3-0)3
This course aims to stimulate debate about the problem of considering "Muslim Women" as a distinct category to study the status, image and role of women in Muslim societies. It discusses the impact of Islam in the formation of patriarchal structures, practices, and discourses of Middle Eastern societies in their cultural and historical specificities while focusing on the literature which examines the predicaments of women in Turkish society.

SOC      527   Society and Culture in Iran(3-0)3

This course offers a general overview of the contemporary Iranian society and culture through a critical discussion of the anthropological and sociological works on Iran. The principal aim is to provide students with the necessary theoretical and methodological tools to explore and appreciate the diversity of individual and collective experiences in Iran from a culturally relativistic point pf view. Students will be encouraged to contextualize the course material within a comparative and historical framework while also keeping in touch with current developments.

SOC 540 Class and Ethnic Relations in the Middle East (3-0)3
This course focuses on patterns of collective identity, solidarity and conflict based on such ascriptive factors as descent, language, customs and belief systems and examines how communal fragmentations coexist with the emerging class formations in the Middle East. Comparative analysis will be used to identify political cleavages within as well as among communal groups in this particular region.

 

SOC 550 Middle East Women, Feminism and Orientalism (3-0)3
Feminist debates concerning the problems that pertain to the cross-cultural representation of Middle Eastern women. Studies which call into question the assumptions of a singular, unitary and homogeneous category of the Middle East women. The epistemological, and theoretical of Orientalist and evolutionary paradigms. The traditional geopolitics such as colonialism, modernization and nationalism.

 

SOC 560 Globalization and Diasporas (3-0)3
This course aims to analyze the political, economic and cultural dimensions of globalization at an advanced level. It will focus on the formation of diasporic communities; bi-national affiliations and multiple loyalties; the role and status of the nations-state; arguments of de-nationalization; new forms of racism and counter-forces of multiculturalist claims; global cities as the most intensely polarized social spaces of the activities of globalization; cosmopolitan attachments and the different ways in which borders are crossed by migrants and tourists.

 

REST 521 History of Architecture in The Middle East I (3-0)3
Introduction to the documentary sources of the history of Anatolian Turkish Architecture. Use of inscriptions, foundation charters, written and illustrated archive documents and their use in research are given in case studies in order to illustrate the interpretation of historical material in restoration projects.

REST 522 History of Architecture in The Middle East II (3-0)3
A study on the beginnings of Turkish architecture outside of Anatolia, the cultural remains of the civilizations dominating Anatolia prior to the arrival of the Turks, and Anatolian Turkish architecture from the conquest up to the end of the Ottoman Empire. Emphasis on the effects of geography, climate, and cultural demands.
Prerequisite : ARCH 521.

PHIL 541 Special Issues in Islamic Philosophy I:

Immanent issues in Islamic philosophy with solutions by important phşlosphers such as Al Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ghazzali, Sadra and Ibn Arabi.

PHIL 542 Special Issues in Islamic Philosophy II:

A continuation of PHIL 541.

PHIL 545 Graduate Readings in Turkish-Islamic Philosophy I:

Selected readings from the works of immanentist. Turkish and Islamic philosophers such as Farabi, Ibn Sina, Ibn Rushd, Mevlana, Sadr ald-Din, al Quarawi and Kemal Pashazade.

PHIL 546 Graduate Readings in Turkish-Islamic Philosophy II:

A continuation of PHIL 545.

ARCH 440 Masterworks of Medieval Architecture in East and West(3-0) 3

This course investigates masterworks of Islamic and Christian architecture in medieval age. A group of selected buildings are analyzed in terms of their structural, formal and stylistic features.

CP 535 Workshop in Comparative Urban Studies in the Middle East and North Africa (3-0)3

Historical evolution of city system in the Middle East and North Africa; cultural and environmental factors effecting similarities and variations in the region; comparative analysis of urbanization and social change in capital-rich and capital-poor countries of the region; changing physical morphology of the major cities (old and new national capitals, ports, new towns and holly cities) and transformations in city centers due to 'over urbanization'.

CP 536 Seminar in Comparative Urban Planning Approaches in the Middle East and North Africa (3-0)3

Cultural background, geographical factors and socio-economic variations effecting culturalist vs. progressist approaches in urban planning systems of the region; comparative case studies and evaluation of some large scale projects on urban conservation, low-cost housing (site and services, self-help, upgrading etc.), public transportation and urban development.

AH 539 Cosmological Thought and Architecture in the Middle East   (3-0)3
This seminar intends to construct a conceptual framework for a deeper understanding of the connotations of the forms employed in early Islamic architecture. Its main objective is to grasp the meaning in architectural forms in resuscitating through readings some of the archaic concepts which were prevalent in the mind of the man of the Middle Ages.

AH 541 Ottoman Assimilation of Western Modes in the Eighteenth Century (3-0)3
The course focuses on how the Ottomans received and incorporated concepts, forms and motifs borrowed from Western Europe in the eighteenth century. This course also contains an in depth survey of political, social, economic and cultural aspects of the century, which provides a kaleidoscopic vision of the Ottoman way of life in this initial era of Westernisation. The Occidentalising tendencies, a distinguishing characteristic of the century in the Ottoman world, are studied in reference to European Orientalism.

ADM 566  Turkish Politics                   (3-0) 3

This course aims to provide an analysis of the fundamental aspects of Turkish Politics and political parties within the Turkish political system. The course is composed of three parts. The first part deals with the factors affecting political structure in Turkey such as ideology, religion, culture, economy, development and consolidation of democracy. The second part deals with the political parties. The third part is about the analysis of various criteria of the voting behaviour such as ethnicity class and gender.