Università Roma Tre

The course examines the historical and political trajectory of the Middle East and North Africa from the Colonial Era until today. The students will be introduced to the debate on Orientalism, its role in the colonial era, and its relevance until today. A particular focus will be on the post-colonial era. Among the topics covered there will be: State formation, the role of ideologies (both secular and religious) in the shaping of the region, the intra-regional and international relations of the Region and the so-called ‘Arab Spring’. Students are expected to actively participate to the course.

All the available teaching materials, the announcements and all that is related to this course will be circulated to the registered students via e-mail, and posted on the lecturer’s departmental webpage (bit.ly/dsu-gervasio)

This course is taught in English.

1. R. Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, Routledge: London & New York: 2004.
2. J. Chalcraft, The Arab Uprisings of 2011 in Historical Perspective in The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Middle-Eastern and North African History, 2016 (available as a pdf file on the course website).

3. Two of the following:


a. G. Achcar, The People Want. A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising, London: Saqi, 2013.
b. L. Anceschi, G. Gervasio & A. Teti (eds), Informal Power in the Greater Middle East. Hidden Geographies, London: Routledge, 2014 & 2016.
c. A. Bayat, Revolution without Revolutionaries: Making Sense of the Arab Spring, Stanford: Stanford UP, 2017.
d. F. Cavatorta & L. Storm (eds), Political Parties in the Arab World: Continuity and Change, Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2018.
e. S. Cook, False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East, Oxford: Oxford UP, 2017.
f. F. A. Gerges, ISIS: A History, Princeton: Princeton UP, 2017.
g. A. Khalil (ed), Gender, Women and the Arab Spring, London & NY: Routledge, 2015.
h. H. Kraetzschmar & P. Rivetti (eds), Islamists and the Politics of the Arab Uprisings: Governance, Pluralisation and Contention, Edinburgh: Edinburgh UP, 2018.
i. R. Owen, The Rise and Fall of Arab Presidents for Life, Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2014.
j. Ch. Tripp, The Power and the People: Paths of Resistance in the Middle East, Cambridge, Cambridge UP, 2013.

Student may propose one book of their own choice, provided it is agreed with the Professor.

IMPORTANT! Students without any prior knowledge of the History of the MENA, must read one of the following textbooks:

a. W. Cleveland & M. Bunton, A History of the Modern Middle East, Boulder: Westview Press, 2016,
b. Betty Anderson, A History of the Modern Middle East, Stanford: Stanford UP, 2016.