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Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies · ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
This course is designed to ground students in the modern and contemporary politics, society, history and culture of Syria within the Levant region, including the dynamics of interaction and influence between Syria and the surrounding countries in the Levant such as Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan. The course traces the emergence of the Syrian Postcolonial State within the realms of the pan-Arabist Baathist ideology and the social contract instigated by the long reign of Hafez Al Asad. It explores the internal dynamics of Syrian society, culture and politics and the responses to regional challenges in the Levant region. It also considers the current Civil War in the country, the refugee crisis and the power dynamics among different local, regional and global actors.
Class Participation
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Midterm Exam
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
Final Exam
Learning outcomes 1, 2, 3, 4
130 hours of total student learning time made up from: a) 24 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 2 hours of seminars per week; and b) 106 hours of independent student research, reading and writing. Other Information Middle Eastern Politics and Security Major - ANU Middle Eastern Politics and Security Minor - ANU Middle Eastern and Central Asian Studies Minor - ANU
Not applicable Preliminary Reading Makdisi, Ussama: The Culture of Sectarianism: Community, History, and Violence in Nineteenth-Century Ottoman Lebanon (University of California Press, 2000) Lisa Wedeen: Ambiguities of Domination: Politics, Rhetoric, and Symbols in Contemporary Syria (University of Chicago Press, 1999). Lisa Wedeen: Authoritarian Apprehensions: Ideology, Judgment, and Mourning in Syria (University of Chicago Press 2019) Lesch, David: Syria: A Modern History (Polity Press 2018) Beck, Martin et al (Eds.) The Levant in Turmoil: Syria, Palestine, and the Transformation of Middle Eastern Politics (Palgrave 2016) Balanche, Fabrice: Sectarianism in Syria’s Civil War (Washington Institute for Near East Policy 2018) Phillips, Christopher: The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East (Yale University Press 2018).