Popular Cultures of the Middle East

ID : 3160

« back to classes page

This course surveys popular cultures in the Arabic-speaking Middle East. We will explore the Southwest Asia and North Africa region through its audio, visual, and literary production in relation to colonialism, nation-building, and globalization. We will examine cinema, literary arts, oral traditions, and music to understand how different communities seek to express their cultural, political, and social identities. We will cover the anti-colonial and national liberation movements of the early twentieth century, the global sixties and long seventies, the neoliberal nineties, the digital age, and the Arab Spring. Beyond state-sponsored national identities and cultural formations, we will consider how youth, women, and minorities seek to express themselves in contention and negotiation with dominant social and political forces.

Nour Hodeib's scholarship focuses on sonic countercultures of the Global South, exploring popular culture and musical dissent during the "global sixties." A doctoral candidate in history at the Graduate Center, CUNY, Hodeib is writing a dissertation on leftist sonic cultures during the Lebanese Civil War. He holds an M.Phil. and M.A. in history, and an M.A. in Middle East studies from the Graduate Center, CUNY, and a B.A. in political science and international affairs from the Lebanese American University.
Video Preview

Call 910-962-3195 to register Send to Friend »