Race, Racism, Racialization (a view from the MENA)

Module title	Race, Racism, Racialization (a view from the MENA)
Module code	ARA3050
Academic year	2024/5
Credits	15
Module staff	Dr Sabiha Allouche (Lecturer)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks	11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	15

Module description

Issues related to race, including the colonial enterprise, slavery, hostility to immigration, anti-racism work, and South-to-North ‘speaking back’ initiatives, are often addressed in cultural productions and in the English-speaking literature from a Euro-American perspective. Little, however, do we know about South-to-South racialized dynamics, and this module fills this gap. Although it is situated in a MENA/SWANA context, the module equips you with the necessary tools to address racialization in further Global South contexts.

No proor knowledge skills or experience, pre-requisite and co-requisite modules are needed to be able to take this module. Students, however, are expected to be genuinely interested in anti-racist work. The module is highly recommended for students who are broadly interested in the question of difference, including gender, sexuality, class, and ableism, to name a few.

Module aims - intentions of the module

The module fleshes out the specificity of the notions of race, racism, slavery, and blackness, to name a few, in the context of the Middle East, by situating them in their respective history and context. In addition to drawing heavily on visuals and cultural productions, the module combines comparative, anthropological, archival, and empirical approaches to showcase how the intersection of ethnicity, race, sect, and gender – to name a few – contribute to hierarchical citizenships that are often understood in relation to ‘Arabness-as-whiteness’. It is a highly interdisciplinary module in this sense.

The module is not interested in whether certain racialization processes are ‘less violent’ than others. Rather, it wishes to equip you with the necessary knowledge to address race without falling into the trap of ‘whataboutism’ when addressing slavery and race outside of and in relation to the Euro-American experience. The module explores notions such as Arabness, anti-blackness, and colourism, whilst situating them in conversation with major historical milestones, including Islamic rule, Ottoman rule, independence, and nation-making, and historical and contemporary anti-racism work.

Ultimately, the module, despite the difficult conversations and triggering topics it covers, brings forth the importance of transnational anti-racist work and solidarity.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Historicise and contextualize racialisation processes through the valuation of South-to-South power dynamics
2. Appreciate the reach and scope of transnational analysis for anti-racist work
3. Understand the role of gender, ethnicity, caste, and class in shaping localized racist (and anti-racist) practices

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

4. Appreciate the utility of interdisciplinary analysis by bringing together a range of methodological approaches and scholarly genres, including, postcolonial and decolonial approaches, historical and anthropological texts, visual analysis, and fiction and non-fiction sources
5. Analyse academic and non-academic texts critically

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

6. Engage effectively in their immediate communities and in transnational initiatives
7. Digest, select and organise material to produce, to a deadline, a coherent and cogent argument, developed through the mode of assessment
8. Work individually and in group when completing formative and/or summative assessments

Syllabus plan

The following syllabus plan is subject to change. Its purpose is to illustrate some of the topics and larger interrogations that could be covered. Different years will cover different topics, depending on the larger events taking place. The topics and relative case studies below are NOT exhaustive.

Defining Race and Whiteness outside the US
‘Fractal Orientalism’ and ‘Black Orientalism’: Orientalism within Orientalism
Arabness as Whiteness (The Kurdish Question)
Sectarianization: IR (International Relations) and the Geopolitics of Othering
The Arab Slave Trade: Avoiding ‘Whataboutism’ in the Discussion of Slavery
Slavery in Islamic History
Slavery during Ottoman Rule
Anti-Blackness in Contemporary SWANA Cultural Productions
Exclusionary Citizenship: A Political Economy Approach to the Kafala system
Forced Displacement and Anti-Refugee Violence: De-centring Europe in the ‘Refugee Crisis’
Arab Ideation in Diasporic Muslim South Asian Communities
Austerity, Immigration, and Inter-Communal Organizing (Case studies from the UK)
The Modern Origins of Arab ‘Anti-Semitism’
Recent Explorations in the Narration of the Holocaust and the Nakba
Fetishization and Sexualisation of Amazigh Women in Moroccan Society
Kurdish Female Militancy between Fetishization and Transformative Politics
‘Occupation is Occupation’: Transnational Solidarity from Harlem to Gaza
Contentions in Transnational Anti-Racist Activism: The Case of Israel’s Ethiopian Jews
Anti-Racist Islamic Texts: From Al-Jahez to Ibrahim Niasse

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
27.5	122.5	0

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching	16.5	11 x1.5-hour lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	11	11 x 1hr seminars
Guided independent study	44	Weekly Reading (4 hours per week)
Guided independent study	11	Class/Tutorial prep (1 hour per week)
Guided independent Study	38	Project (23 hours researching/coordinating, 15 hours writing/preparing presentation)
Guided independent study	29.5	Critical Review (16.5 hours reading, 13 hours writing)

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Project Pitch (Individually or in pair)	5 minute pitch / 500 words in writing	1-8	Verbal and written

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
100	0	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Critical Review be written in a Blog format on modules ELE page	30	750 words	1-8	Written Feedback (Verbal Feedback if Needed)
Summative Project (Individually or in pair)	70	Written submission of 2500 words OR 15-minute pre-recorded project. Submissions will be in a DIGITAL format [e.g., film review, exhibition review, op-ed article, short film, podcast, video or photo essay, poetry, play script, Instagram page, blog, etc.]. This list is not exhaustive.	1-8	Written Feedback (Verbal Feedback if Needed)

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Critical Review be written in a Blog format on modules ELE page (750 words)	Critical Review be written in a Blog format on modules ELE page (750 words)	1-8	Referral/Deferral Period
Summative project	Essay (2500 Words); Students to construct their own question.	1-8	Referral/Deferral Period

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Selected Academic Sources (Monographs, Edited Volumes, and Journal Articles)

· Cleaveland, Timothy. “Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti and his Islamic critique of racial slavery in the Maghrib,” The Journal of North African Studies 20, n.1 (2015): 42-64.

· Delatolla, Andrew, Joanne Yao, Racializing Religion: Constructing Colonial Identities in the Syrian Provinces in the Nineteenth Century, International Studies Review, Volume 21, Issue 4, December 2019, Pages 640–661.

· Glassman, Jonathan. War of Words, War of Stones: Racial Thought and Violence in Colonial Zanzibar (Indiana University Press, 2011), Selections.

· Hall, Bruce. Introduction and Part One: Race Along the Desert Edge, c. 1600-1900, A History of Race in Muslim West Africa, 1600–1960 (Cambridge University Press, 2011): 1-104.

· Hashemi, Nader & Danny Postel (2017) Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East, The Review of Faith & International Affairs, 15:3, 1-13.

· Hoffman, Katherine E. and Susan Gilson Miller, Berbers and Others: Beyond Tribe and Nation in the Maghrib (Indiana University Press, 2010).

· Hopper, Matthew S. “Diasporic Routes: African Passages to the Gulf” in Africa and the Gulf Region: Blurred Boundaries and Shifting Ties, eds. Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf and Dale Eickelman (Gerlach Press, 2015), 41-54.

· Khoury, N. (2020). Postnational memory: Narrating the Holocaust and the Nakba. Philosophy & Social Criticism, 46(1), 91–110.

· Atshan, Sa’ed and Katharina Galor (2020). The Moral Triangle: Germans, Israelis, Palestinians. Duke University Press.