This course explores special topics, based on current research and interests and is focused on at least one global region. Using a social science perspective, students will engage in critical thinking about the way in which a particular region, or subset of a region, interacts with other states and societies.

This course will explore the Maghrib (modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) both as a coherent region and as a facet of larger Islamic, Mediterranean, and African “civilizations.” We will cover the period from the rise of Islam to today, through themes such as Amazigh (“Berber”) identity and activism, North African “Islams,” trans-Saharan connectivity, encounters with Europe, French, Spanish, and Italian colonialism, the Algerian War of Independence, migration and tourism, and post-independence state/society relations, including the transformative effects of the “Arab Spring.” Differences and similarities between the Maghrib and the mashriq (Middle East) will be stressed throughout the course, promoting a detailed and nuanced understanding of the history of the MENA as a whole while at the same time challenging the division of the African continent into two.

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