Corsi di Studio del Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

The course  aims to:

- Introduce students to a general understanding of Islamism, its birth, its definitions, its basic theories and its transformations.

- Make students aware of the complexity and plurality of Islamism.

- Provide students with the analytical tools required to analyse critically the  theoretical and methodological approaches employed to study Islamism.

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

- Have a solid knowledge of Islamism, its birth, its definitions, its basic theories and transformations

- Analyze Islamism in its plurality

- Develop critical thinking vis-à-vis the existing literature on Islamism(s).

 

Lecture 1        26 February 2018 - Introduction to the course

Lecture 2        27 February 2018 - The formation of the Modern Middle East: state borders, between Islam and Pan-Arabism

Lecture 3        28 February 2018 -Authoritarianism and Islamism

Lecture 4        6 March 2018 - What is Political Islam: democracy in Islamic thought

Lecture 5        7 March 2018 -  Early Islamism

Lecture 6        12 March 2018 -  Sayyid Qutb and the radicalism of Political Islam

Lecture 7        13 March 2018 - The Arab Spring

Lecture 8        14 March 2018 - The Muslim Brotherhood: from violence to democracy?

Lecture 9        19 March 2018 - Sectarianism in the Middle East

Lecture 10      20 March 2018 - Islamism in the Shiia tradition

Lecture 11      21 March 2018 - The Sunni-Shia Divide ? Iraq vs Iran

Lecture 12      26 March 2018 - Lebanon: sectarianism as a State system

Lecture 13      27 March 2018  - The Salafists and the Palestinian network in Lebanon

Lecture 14      28 March 2018 - Hizbullah and the transformation of the Lebanese State 

Lecture 15      9 April 2018 - Sectarianism in the Gulf

Lecture 16      10 April 2018 - Religious and Secular Laws in the Middle East I

Lecture 17      11 April 2018 - Religious and Secular Laws in the Middle East II

Lecture 18      7 May 2018 - The Palestinian political system/The Islamic Jihad 

Lecture 19      8 May 2018 - Hamas: between religion and national liberation

Lecture 20      9 May 2018 - The Syrian civil war

Lecture 21      14 May 2018 - The complexity of contemporary Salafism

Lecture 22      15 May 2018 - Salafism and the Arab Spring: from quietism to party politics

Lecture 23      16 May 2018 - The rise of Jihadi Salafism 

Lecture 24      21 May 2018 - The IS Caliphate

Lecture 25      22 May 2018 - 'The Islamic State' Vice News documentary

Lecture 26      23 May 2018 - Final thoughts

 

The course adopts a lecture/seminar format. The lecturer will introduce the topic of the day and students are expected to contribute to class discussions. 

Students will be assessed on 1 research essay (50% of the final mark), on reading reports (25% of the final mark) and on a book report (25% of the final mark). The essay is due on Friday May 25 2018 and should be sent to me by e-mail. Students are encouraged to choose their own topic with previous agreement from the lecturer. The research essay will be no longer than 5000 words; it should be analytical and not descriptive. The essay must be the student's own work as plagiarism will not be tolerated. Plagiarism will be treated very seriously, and in order to avoid suspicion, students should reference their work correctly. The reading reports are to be hand-delivered in class (or by email before class) at every lecture. The readings marked with an asterisk are the ones you should do the report on. The report will be no longer than 500 words and it is the summary of the main points the author(s) wish to convey. The book report is due on Friday May 4 2018 and should be sent to me by e-mail. Students will have to demonstrate that they have actually read the book and identify the main arguments the author(s) puts forth. In addition, students will have to highlight the strength and weaknesses of the arguments made in the book by employing specific examples and relying on other readings. The report will be no longer than 2,000 words. A list of books is provided on the last page of the course outline, but you can choose to write the report on a book of your choice with previous agreement from me. 

 

There is no manual for this course. All the readings are journal articles. the lecturer will suggest in class a number of manuals that can be useful as a reference for students who are completely unfamiliar with the politics of the region.