EI Global Focus: Beyond the Middle Eastern Mystique

Beyond headlines, beyond stereotypes, beyond borders.

Global Focus: Beyond the Middle Eastern Mystique is a semester-long program that will introduce students to the history, culture, and contemporary dynamics of one of the world’s most important regions. Through lectures, readings, films, and discussions, participants will explore themes such as religion, gender, empire, nationalism, and current conflicts. Designed to challenge stereotypes and highlight shared human experiences, the seminar provides students with a deeper understanding of the cultural mosaic that continues to shape global affairs.

To many people around the world, the Middle East is a place of both fascination and mystery. Crossroads of vast seas and strategic land masses, cradle of great civilizations, birthplace of three great monotheistic traditions, and home to generations of philosophers, artists, scientists, and scholars, its role in shaping modern civilization and human intellectual history is irrefutable.

Designed as an introduction to the Middle East, this seminar will examine the dynamics of a region whose culture, while inextricably interwoven with our own, is frequently perceived as antithetical: mysterious, monolithic, and static. While the peoples of the Middle East are often dismissed as the lesser, intrinsically hostile “other,” these sessions will reveal that they share much in common with other societies, embracing similar values, traditions, and aspirations while at the same time facing challenges common to others around the world.

More than serving merely as a vicarious journey to an exotic region, this seminar will explore the Middle East -- a region of vital importance for laypeople and policymakers alike -- in many of its rich dimensions. We will discuss the lens through which many view the region, including Orientalism, a discourse that triggered the “Clash of Civilizations” cult, advancing the notion of an inherent, almost existential battle between “us” and “them,” one that has influenced U.S. foreign policymakers for decades, resulting in a series of disastrous military adventures that have unleashed endless cycles of injustice, hostility, and instability.

The objective of this seminar is to lift the veil of misunderstanding of the Middle East through an interdisciplinary examination of the history and culture of that region. Through an exploration of stereotypes and perceptions, we will attempt to distinguish fact from fiction in an effort to appreciate the complex dynamics of the cultural mosaic that characterize one of the most critically important parts of the world.

Over the course of five sessions, Professor Linda Funsch, a veteran educator and career specialist in Middle East and Islamic studies, will guide students through an exploration of selected topics, including people and cultures, land and resources, the religious dimension, women and gender dynamics, the legacy of empires, colonization, and nationalism, and the historical context of current conflicts.

Through lectures, selected readings, films, and an anticipated off-campus site visit, it is expected that these sessions will enable students to understand and address, with a greater level of confidence and authority, some of the most critical global issues of our time. In the process, it is hoped that this seminar will serve as a catalyst for further exploration into the history and culture of the modern Middle East.