Course Offerings

This course will introduce students to the rise and proliferation of Arab and Arab-American literatures in English. In an attempt to historicize and theorize this rise, we will focus on the cultural politics of the Arab novel in English, the ways in which it brings into intimate collision the intensities of the British and American imperial and interventionist presence in the Arab world and the diasporic and migrant experiences of Arab subjectivities in Europe and North America. Of particular interest will be our close examination of the narrative, rhetorical and formal devices and techniques whereby Arab writers tread the fine line between cultural translation and transculturation.

This course will introduce students to the Arab Middle East at the turn of the 20th century and traces the main contours of early Arab lives in the US across the Mediterranean and Atlantic until recent times. The course examines the origins of Arab awakening (nahda)-the roots of Arab national consciousness, in order to understand the immigrants' journey to citizenship in the US. Events marking this awakening correspond with the beginning of emigration to the US from the region known as Ottoman Syria. Ultimately, the course examines various issues which filtered into the lives of immigrants from their early life ending with representations of political awareness under server stress caused by political upheavals.

Examines the literary and cultural productions of Arab & Arab American writers and artists in relation to the major historical and political events that have taken place in the Arab world and the United States since 1967. Explores the ways in which literature and culture become alternative spaces for political action. Stresses the crucial role that representation plays in fostering understanding and bridging the Middle East/West divide.

• Explains the roots of recent events, including the latest Palestinian elections and Israel’s bombing of Lebanon and Gaza.
• Examines the Palestinian experience in an historical and a comparative perspective.
• Uses social movement theory to understand the conditions under which conquered people launch anti-colonial resistance movements for social and political liberation.
• Explores the processes of national imaginings, nation-building and state formation as they apply to the Palestinian development.

• Chronicles the history and development of Arab experiences in the U.S. generally and southeastern Michigan in particular over a century (1880's- present).
• Utilizes range of studies and writings to assess the economic, cultural, political and social space Arab immigrants come to occupy.
• Employs an interdisciplinary approach to examine the immigrants' self-view and society's views of them.
• Discusses the Arabic speaking immigrants' contributions and the challenges they face such as discrimination, racism, and biases in the media and political system

• Examines how social movements arise and evolve, and how they can empower individuals & disadvantaged social groups, in particular women and people of color.

• Pays special attention to the women's, civil rights, and labor movements and examines the role of religion, environmental struggles, human rights and peace movements in the US and Arab world social movements.

• Team-taught by scholars in the field who have also been personally engaged over many years in some aspects of the movements under study.

• Introduces students to the rise and proliferation of Arab and Arab American literatures in English.

• Historicizes and theorizes this rise, focusing on the cultural politics of the Arab novel in English, the ways in which it brings into intimate collision the intensities of the British and American imperial and interventionist presence in the Arab world and the diasporic and migrant experiences of Arab subjectivities in Europe and North America.

• Closely examines the narrative, rhetorical and formal devices and techniques whereby Arab writers tread the fine line between cultural translation and transculturation.