Topics explore themes and problems in the various fields of Near Eastern studies. They often reflect the research interests of the instructor and supplement regular curricular offerings. Specific descriptions of current offerings in this series are available through the department.

This advanced undergraduate seminar will explore the experience of North Africa under colonialism through literature, scholarship, and visual media, covering the areas of modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya over the time period of roughly the 1830s to the 1960s. Students will engage deeply with voices from the region in order to understand the complexities of colonialism and the social changes it wrought. We will read both literary and scholarly works alongside works of postcolonial theory, from and on North Africa, in addition to some writings on other colonial contexts. This course neither surveys all of North African history nor the most recent events in the region—however, understanding colonialism is essential to understanding everything that is now happening, and so after completing this course you will be well-placed to move on to other aspects and periods in the study of North Africa. There are no prerequisites, but students may want to have taken some coursework on the modern Middle East or on colonialism in other contexts. Students with abilities in relevant languages will be encouraged to read original sources.

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