Palestine, History, Culture, Politics

Key information

Start date: 23 September 2024
End date: 13 December 2024
Duration: Term 1
Module code: 15PNMH006
FHEQ Level: 7
Credits: 15

Module overview

Prerequisites

Must be taken together with the course:Critical Perspectives on Palestine Studies II – Culture and Society 15PNMC007 as a compulsory course on the MA Palestine Studies programme.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

The aim of the course is to provide an overview of the ways in which varying bodies of scholarship across and intra various disciplines engage and study Palestine, and also an examination of how the study of Palestine cuts across and informs scholarly, theoretical, political and disciplinary approaches.

The course addresses issues relating to the questions of conflict and political economy, development, cultural politics, social and economic relations, identity, and other major concerns of humanities and social sciences.

By the end of the course, the students should be able to demonstrate a critical understanding of the history of Palestine and the development of Palestine-Israel Conflict and familiarity with different disciplinary approaches, models, and scholarship frameworks in the study of Palestine. They will have been introduced to the key works in the subject and become familiar with the terminology and language in discourses about Palestine, and with the methods of analysis and argumentation as embodied in selected texts by leading authors. They will also acquire the critical tools to comprehend, analyse and write critically on topics relevant to the study of Palestine.

Workload

This course will be co-taught over 20 weeks, with a 1 hour lecture followed by a 1 hour seminar.

Scope and syllabus

The course shall examine Palestinian history and politics with specific emphasis on the post-1948 period. In so doing, it will aim to provide an overview of the different approaches –sociological, historical, political, economic etc.– to the trajectory of Palestinian politics, as well as the political movements, conflicts, strategies of struggle, processes of state formation, economic development and ideologies that have shaped Palestinian politics.

The course not only provides some concrete knowledge of the themes presented here, but also suggests specific theoretical approaches that help illuminate, and are in turn illuminated by, the study of Palestinian culture and society.

Course readings and discussions are guided by, but not exhaustive of, or exclusive to, the following major topics:

What is Palestine?
History until 1919
Zionism and Mandate Palestine 1919-1948
Palestine after the Nakba
State and authority
Political Economy
Political ideologies and movements
Palestinian nationalism
Tactics of struggle
Human rights and law
Palestine in the region
Global Palestine and solidarity

The various sessions will reflect

The geographic diffusion of Palestinians in the diaspora, the Occupied Territories, and inside
The ways in which gender is inflected through all the above (so that the discussion of gender and sexuality are not “ghettoised”)
Attentiveness to the debates under the heading of each theme, and the way these debates have broader significance and bearing on theoretical concerns of our time.
The politics of the day-to-day

Method of assessment

an essay of 2,500 - 3,000 words to be submitted in the week after reading week, term 1 (50%)
an essay of 2,500 - 3,000 words to be submitted in term 2 (50%)
The exact assessment deadline dates are published on the relevant module Moodle/BLE page

Disclaimer

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules

Key staff

Lecturer in Middle Eastern and Iranian Studies

Dr Seyed Ali Alavi

MA Iranian Studies, Critical Perspective on Palestine Studies, Re-mapping Area Studies, Decolonising Otherness.

Cultural, economic and political dynamics underpinning China's relations with the Middle East, with a special emphasis on nations such as Iran and the Arab States in West Asia.