Mar 29, 2024  
2019-2020 Catalog 
    
2019-2020 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

ARB 251 - Queer Middle East Culture Studies


Instructor
Joubin

(Conducted in English.) The objective of the course is to attain an interdisciplinary approach to queer Middle East culture studies. Middle East queer studies, as poignantly argued by leading scholars in the field, is often locked into a pre-modern East and modern West binary lens whereby the East is viewed as captured by tradition while the West is seen as inherently progressive. To challenge this prevalent binary lens, we will begin with an examination of the homoerotic poetry of Abbasid poet Abu Nuwas and end with Joseph Massad’s analysis of the intersection of the Gay International, Orientalism, sexual rights, and the Arab world. Through an examination of the formative manuscripts in the field as well as a selection of literature, film, drama, and art, we will engage with the intricate sites of multifarious meanings and transformations in the growing field of Middle East queer studies.

Satisfies a major and interdisciplinary minor requirement in Arab Studies.
Satisfies a major requirement in Gender & Sexuality Studies.
Satisfies the Literary Studies, Creative Writing, and Rhetoric requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.