This course is designed to engage students in conversations about particular perspectives on the history of a selected nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon as specified by the respective instructor. By taking this course, students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for, some combination of: the origins and evolution of the people, cultures, and/or political, economic, and/or social institutions of a particular region(s) of the world. They may also explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the complex political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors and subject will vary.

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.

Repeat Rules

Requirements class fulfills