Hope Against Experience

I have applied for a promotion on the basis that I have had six scholarly pieces including two peer reviewed journal articles published since I started working at AUCA. I have also taught thirteen different courses since 2007. On my last student evaluations I got perfect scores for two classes, Russian Politics and Political Violence and Terrorism in Central Asia. Of course I have never seen any indication that research and teaching are in any way related to academic hiring and promotion. But, with a huge amount of luck and divine intervention I might possibly get the promotion.

Link on "German" Woman Deported to Tajikistan by Stalin

Here is a link to a very interesting article on a woman deported from Lithuania to Tajikistan by the Stalin regime because it viewed her as an ethnic German. Her mother was German and German is her native language. However, her father was a Lithuanian Jew and her mother formally converted to Judaism to marry him. She was born in Lithuania in 1938 and deported to Tajikistan in 1944. At any rate the story is a very good example of the proliferation of multiple identities in Central Europe during the 20th century. The woman in the story considers herself to be in various ways German, Jewish and Lithuanian.

Academic Journal Article Cites My Blog

The International Black Sea University in Tbilisi Georgia publishes a journal called IBSU Scientific Journal. Recently this journal published an article by Valeri Modebadze with the title, "Historical Background of Meskhetian Turks' Problem and Major Obstacles to the Repatriation Process." One of the citations in the article is to this blog. I have reproduced the bibliographic information for the blog post below.

Pohl, J. Otto, More Thoughts on Meskhetian Turks, (accessed 24 November 2008). Available from World Wide Web: http://jpohl.blogspot.com/2005/10/more-thoughts-on-meskhetian-turks.html.

Blogger Available Again

After nearly two weeks of being blocked I can again access blogger. There seems to be no rhyme or reason as to when blogger is available here. So there will be a few posts today, but then it may be a couple of weeks before I can post again.

Things I am Currently Teaching

This last two weeks I have been teaching Reconstruction in American History, the Mandate Period in Politics of the Middle East, the relationship between ethnicity and nationalism in Ethnicity, Race and Nationalism and the relationship between social class structure and democracy in Democratization.

Important Advice for Future Ph.D. Candidates

These instructions on how to write a Ph.D. dissertation are very funny. They also contain a lot of actual good advice like not spending extra years of your life trying to make the dissertation perfect. I did my Ph.D. in two years, but a lot of people seem to waste close to a decade completing the degree.

hat tip: Frogs and Ravens

How do I get Students to do the reading?

It is the second week of the semester and already I am having trouble getting students to do the reading. I do not want to assign weekly quizes because I feel that infantilizes the students. I would much rather treat them as adults. I also do not want to require them to write weekly summaries or responses to the reading because frankly with over 80 students it would be a lot of work to grade. On the other hand verbal cajoling to do the reading has so far been ineffective. Does anybody have any suggestions?

Snow

Saturday it was really warm here. But, yesterday and this morning we got quite a bit of snow. So it looks like winter has returned.

January has been really warm here

The weather this winter has been quite warm. In contrast two years ago I thought I was going to get frostbite most mornings. I much prefer the mild winter to the freezing one.

First Week Done

I just finished teaching my first week of classes of the semester. I also sent off to the publisher my first journal article of the semester. If teaching and research were the only things I had to do it would be a pretty easy life. Unfortunately, I have a bunch of stuff that is neither I have to do next week.

Mid-Week

I have now made it half way through the first work week of the year. Things have not been too hectic. I expect to be better into the flow of everything next week. Too many new things tend to pop up in the first week of the semester.

First Day of Classes

Monday Askarbek had his first day of pre-school. He brought home a picture of a snowman and a water color of a chicken. He also evidently received some English language instruction. He said he liked the class. That seemed to make his mother happy. If Askarbek is happy and his mother is happy then I am happy.

American History

It looks like I will be teaching American History from 1865 to Present as well this semester. I just finished revising the syllabus. Other than the fact that it is at eight in the morning it will be a pretty easy course to teach.

My Longest Student Evaluation Comment

Most of my student evaluation comments are pretty short. Like "GTO - Great Teacher Otto!" But, the one below goes into quite a bit of helpful detail.

"Otto Pohl is one of my favorite instructors!!!His classes are always interesting and I take out a lot of new things. He always ready to answer any question and his answers are clear. He is very polite and tries to invlove all students into class discussions. I would strongly suggest to other students to take his classes!"

GTO

I got this comment on a couple of my recent class evaluations.

"GTO - Great Teacher Otto!"

Spring 2010 Syllabi Are Now Up

As can be seen below my syllabi for next semester are now posted. Democratization remains basically unchanged from it previous incarnations. Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity is a 300 level rather than a 400 level class this semester. To reflect this change  I have  reduced the amount of reading and altered the writing assignments for the class. Politics of the Middle East has been upgraded from a 200 level to a 300 level class. I have thus added a significant amount of reading for the class.

Syllabus for Democratization

Democratization
ICP 329.5

3 credits

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

Spring Semester 2010

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Meeting Time: Monday 2:10 room 309 and Thursday 2:10 room 229

Course Description: This course will cover the process of democratization in an historical and comparative manner. It will start by examining the history and social origins of democratic rule. After reviewing the general history and theory of democracy the course will cover the transition from authoritarian to more representative political systems in various countries during the last couple of decades. In particular the course will deal with the process of democratization in Eurasia and the Middle East. The course will analyze both those factors that facilitate greater democratization and those which impede it.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. For each of the three thematic sections students will have to write a reflection paper of between 800 and 1000 words. The first reflection paper should be on the general problems of developing and maintaining democracy. The second one should on unique problems faced in the former Soviet Union to democratizing. Finally, the third one should be on the problems faced in developing democratic systems in the Middle East. Students will also have to complete a 2500 to 3000 word research paper comparing and contrasting the process of democratization in two different countries. The paper is due the last week of class. In the three weeks prior to this deadline each student will be required to give a short oral presentation on the subject of their paper followed by a short question and answer session. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All of the required readings are included in the course packet.

Plagiarism Policy:  I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than five words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, endnote or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, endnote or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:


Three short papers – 45% (15% each)
Written research paper – 20% (Due last week of class
Oral report on research – 10%
Class participation – 25%

Grading Scale:


100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule:


Week One: Introduction to the course and review of the syllabus.

General History and Theory of Democracy

Week Two: Read “Where and How Did Democracy Develop?: A Brief History” (chapter one), pp. 7-25 and Read “Democracy and Social Classes” (chapter one) in Tom Bottomore, pp. 12-27.

Week Three: Read “The Twisted Path” (chapter two) in Fareed Zakaria, pp. 59-87.

Week Four: Read “The Democratic Route to Modern Society” (chapter seven) in Barrington Moore, Jr., 413-432.

Week Five: Read “Globalization and Ethnic Hatred” (introduction) in Amy Chua, pp. 1-17. The first reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week.

Eurasia


Week Six: Read “Unintended Consequences: Economic Crisis and Social Awakening” (chapter four) in Robert Strayer, pp. 132-171.

Week Seven: Read “Strategies for Ethnic Accord in Post-Soviet States” (chapter thirteen) in Valery Tishkov, pp. 272-293.

Week Eight: Read “Epilogue: Memory” in Anne Applebaum, pp. 505-514 and conclusion of Lynne Viola, pp. 183-193. The second reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week.

The Middle East


Week Nine: Read Marina Ottaway “The Missing Constituency for Democratic Reform” (chapter eight), pp. 151-169.

Week Ten: Read “The Third Republic: Turkey since 1980” (chapter fifteen) in Erik J. Zurcher, pp. 292-342.

Week Eleven: Read “Iran: Revolutionary Islam in Power” (chapter three) in John L. Esposito and John O. Voll, pp. 52-77. The third reflection paper is due on Thursday of this week

Student Research


Week Twelve: Student oral presentations.

Week Thirteen: Student oral presentations continued.

Week Fourteen: Student oral presentations continued.

Week Fifteen: Written version of the research paper due and concluding remarks.

Update on Askarbek's Schooling

It turns out Friday was just registration for pre-school. The actual classes start Monday. In the mean time I have been trying to teach Askarbek some English.

Syllabus for Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity

Nationalism, Race and Ethnicity
ICP 385

3 Credits

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

Spring Semester 2010

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D

Meeting Time: Monday at 3:35 room 309 and Thursday 3:35 room 229

Course Description: This course will cover the relationship between the overlapping and interrelated concepts of ethnicity, nationalism and race. It will focus on the dynamics involved in transforming ethnic categories into national or racial ones. Throughout the course we will examine the cultural basis of ethnicity, the political claims upon territory by nationalists, and the essential and primordial definitions of racial groups created and enforced by the state. Among the topics that will be covered in this examination are the creation and survival of national diasporas, ethnic cleansing and genocide, and the construction of modern nation-states.

Requirements: This course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussions, three short reflection papers, a research paper and an oral report. The reflection papers should be between 600 and 800 words. The research paper should be between 1500 and 2000 words. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All of the required readings can be found on JSTOR. Finding these articles using the bibliographic information provided below is part of the assigned work for this class.

Plagiarism Policy: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than five words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, endnote or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, endnote or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:

Class participation – 20%
Three reflection papers – 45% (15% each)
Oral report on research paper – 10%
Written version of research paper – 25%

Grading Scale:
 100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to Course and Review of Syllabus

Weeks Two and Three: Ethnicity and Nationalism

Calhoun, Craig, “Nationalism and Ethnicity,” Annual Review of Sociology, Vol. 19 (1993), pp. 211-239.

Connor, Walker, “Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?,” World Politics, Vol. 24, No. 3 (April 1972), pp. 319-355.

Eriksen, Thomas Hylland, “Ethnicity Versus Nationalism,” Journal of Peace Research, Vol. 28, No. 2 (August 1991), pp. 263-278.

Smith, Anthony D., “Culture, Community and Territory: The Politics of Ethnicity and Nationalism,” International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 1996), pp. 445-458.

Weeks Four and Five: Diasporas

Armstrong, John, “Mobilized and Proletarian Diasporas,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 70, No. 2 (June 1976), pp. 393-408.

Clifford, James, “Diasporas,” Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 9, No. 3, (August 1994), pp. 302-338.

Cohen, Robin, “Diasporas and the Nation-State: From Victims to Challengers,” International Affairs, Vol. 72, No. 3 (July 1996), pp. 507-520.

Van Den Berghe, Pierre, L. “The African Diaspora in Mexico, Brazil and the United States,” Social Forces, Vol. 54, No. 3 (March 1976), pp. 530-545. The first reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Weeks Six and Seven: Ethnic Cleansing and Genocide

Bryant, Chad, “Either German or Czech: Fixing Nationality in Bohemia and Moravia, 1939-1946,” Slavic Review, Vol. 16, No. 4 (Winter 2002), pp. 683-70.

Hayden, Robert M., “Schindler’s Fate: Genocide, Ethnic Cleansing, and Population Transfers,” Slavic Review, Vol. 55, No. 4 (Winter 1996), pp. 727-748.

Mirkovic, Damir, “Ethnic Conflict and Genocide: Reflections on Ethnic Cleansing in the Former Yugoslavia,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 548 (November 1996), pp. 191-199.

Wood, William, “Geographic Aspects of Genocide: A Comparison of Bosnia and Rwanda,” Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, Vol. 26, No. 1 (2001), pp. 57-75

Weeks Eight: Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR

Martin, Terry, “The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 70, No. 4 (December 1998), pp. 813-861.

Morris, James, “The Polish Terror: Spy Mania and Ethnic Cleansing in the Great Terror,” Europe-Asia Studies, Vol. 56, No. 5 (July 2004), pp. 751-766.

Williams, Brian Glyn, “The Hidden Ethnic Cleansing of Muslims in the Soviet Union: The Exile and Repatriation of the Crimean Tatars,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 37, No. 3 (July 2002), pp. 323-347.

Week Nine: Ethnicity and Race in the USSR

Hirsch, Francine, “Race without the Practice of Racial Politics,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 30-43.

Lemon, Alaina, “Without a ‘Concept?’ Race as Discurvsive Practice,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 54-61.

Weiner, Amir, “Nothing but Certainty,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 44-53.

Weitz, Eric D., “Racial Politics without the Concept of Race: Reevaluating Soviet Ethnic and National Purges,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 1-29.

Weitz, Eric D., “On Certainties and Ambivalencies: Reply to my Critics,” Slavic Review, Vol. 61, No. 1 (Spring 2001), pp. 62-65. The second reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Week Ten and Eleven: Soviet and Post-Soviet Nation Building

Blitstein, Peter, “Cultural Diversity and the Interwar Conjuncture: Soviet Nationality Policy in Its Comparative Context,” Slavic Review, Vol. 65, No. 2 (Summer 2006), pp. 273-293.

Handrahan, L.M., “Gendering Ethnicity in Kyrgyzstan: Forgotten Elements in Promoting Peace and Democracy,” Gender and Development, Vol. 9, No. 3 (November 2001), pp. 70-78.

Slezkine, Yuri, “The USSR as a Communal Apartment, or How a Socialist State Promoted Ethnic Particularism,” Slavic Review, Vol. 53, No. 2 (Summer 1994), pp. 414-452.

Suny, Ronald Grigor, “Constructing Primordialism: Old Histories for New Nations,” The Journal of Modern History, Vol. 73, No. 4 (December 2001), pp. 862-896. The third reflection paper is due in class on Thursday.

Weeks Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen: Student Presentations

Week Fifteen: Written Version of Research Paper due on Thursday and Concluding Remarks

Educating Askarbek

Askarbek went to his first day of pre-school today. Yesterday Oksana got him a small black back pack with a Chinese knock off of Ultraman on it. So he looked really cool getting ready for his first day of pre-school. I have been at work all afternoon so I do not yet know how it went. But, I hope it went well. I have great expectations for the boy. He is extremely intelligent. We are hoping to send him to kindergarten in September after he turns six.

Syllabus for Politics of the Middle East

Politics of the Middle East

ICP

324

3 Credits

Spring Semester 2010

International and Comparative Politics

American University of Central Asia

J. Otto Pohl, Ph.D.

Meeting Time: Tuesday 2:10 in room 216 and Friday 2:10 in room 125

Course Description: This course will cover modern political developments in the Arab states, Israel/Palestine, Turkey and Iran since the First World War. In particular the course will focus on the Arab-Israeli conflict with an emphasis on the central role played by Palestinian resistance to Zionist ethnic cleansing and colonization. It will also cover the rise of various forms of nationalism in Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. The course will then contrast the political developments in these Arab states with those in Turkey in Iran. Finally, the class will conclude with a discussion of the current war in Iraq.

Requirements: The course will consist of assigned readings, lectures, discussion, two short writing assignments, an oral report and a research paper. There will be three short reflection papers of 600 to 800 words. The first reflection paper should be on the origins of the Palestinian refugee problem in 1948 and why it still remains a salient issue in the Middle East. The second reflection paper should be on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip and Palestinian strategies of resistance. The third reflection paper should be on the ongoing war in Iraq and present an evaluation of the success of the US and British occupation strategies. Students will also have to complete a 1500 to 2000 word research paper on some aspect of Middle Eastern politics. The research paper is due the last week of class. In the three weeks prior to this deadline each student will be required to give a short oral presentation on the subject of their paper followed by a short question and answer session. Late papers will lose one letter grade for each day they are late. Students must come to class on time. Being more than fifteen minutes late will count as an absence. Students will lose one letter grade after four unexcused absences and fail the course after seven. Written proof of an emergency from a doctor or other appropriate authority is required for an absence to be excused. No mobile phones are to be visible during class. They are to be out of sight and turned off. I will eject any student from class that has a visible cell phone or whose cell phone rings during class. This will count as an unexcused absence. Finally, I have a significant hearing loss and may have to ask people to repeat their questions or statements from time to time. You can minimize this by speaking loudly and clearly. This syllabus is tentative and subject to change.

Readings: All the required readings are contained in the course packets.

Plagiarism Policy: I have a zero tolerance policy regarding plagiarism. If I catch any student plagiarizing once I will fail them for the assignment. If I catch them a second time I will fail them from the class. Plagiarism includes any verbatim copying from a source without using quotation marks or setting the text up as an indented single spaced block quotation. If I find that more than five words in a row in your paper show up in the same order in a Google search and you do not have the words in quotation marks or set up as a block quotation I will fail you. Putting a footnote, endnote or other citation after the copied words without the quotation marks or block quotation form is still plagiarism, you are claiming to have paraphrased verbatim text, and you will still receive an F. Taking text from a source without citing it and rearranging the words so that it does not show up in a verbatim Google search is also plagiarism. I will also do Google searches to see if you have taken text and merely rearranged the words. You must either paraphrase the sentence by putting it completely in your own words and citing it with the proper footnote, endnote or in text citation or quote the actual text verbatim complete with the proper citation. Completely paraphrasing sentences in your own words, but neglecting to cite the source of the information is also plagiarism. All information that would not be known to the average person on the street with no university education must be cited. When in doubt always cite a legitimate source. Wikipedia is not a legitimate source. Books published by university presses and academic journal articles found on JSTOR are legitimate sources. Other sources may or may not be legitimate. If you have questions about whether a particular source is legitimate you can ask me. Using Wikipedia or other illegitimate sources will result in a reduction of one letter grade for each citation in a paper.

Grading:

Class participation – 20%
Three reflection papers – 45% (15% each)
Oral report on research paper – 10%
Written version of research paper- 25%

Grading Scale

100-96 = A
95-91 = A-
90-86 = B+
85-81 = B
80-76 = B-
75-71 = C+
70-66 = C
65-61 = C-
60-56 = D+
55-51 = D
50-46 = D-
45 and lower = F

Class Schedule:

Week One: Introduction to Course and Review of Syllabus

Week Two: The Mandate Period

Hourani, Albert “The Climax of European Power (1914-1939)” in A History of the Arab Peoples (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 1991), pp. 315-332.

Andersen, Roy R., Seibert, Robert F., and Wagner, Jon G., “The Rise of the State System: 1914-1950” in Politics and Change in the Middle East: Sources of Conflict and Accommodation (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1982), pp. 74-93.

Week Three: The 1948 War and the Lasting Legacy of the Palestinian Refugees

Esber, Rosemarie M. “Rewriting the History of 1948: The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Question Revisited,” Holy Land Studies, vol. 4, no. 1 (2005), pp. 55-72.

Alshaibi, Sama, “Memory Work in the Palestinian Diaspora,” Frontiers, Vol. 27, No. 2 (2006), pp. 30-53.

Khalidi, Rashid, “Observations on the Right of Return,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Winter 1992), pp. 29-40.

Week Four: Palestine Continued: Ethnic Cleansing in International Perspective

Falah, Ghazi, “The 1948 Israeli-Palestinian War and Its Aftermath: The Transformation and De-Signification of Palestine’s Cultural Landscape,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 86, No. 2 (June 1996), pp. 256-285.

Pohl, J. Otto, “Socialist Racism: Ethnic Cleansing and Racial Exclusion in the USSR and Israel,” Human Rights Review (April-June 2006), pp. 60-80. The first reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Week Five: Israel and its Arab and Oriental Jewish Populations

Rouhana, Nadim and Ghanem, Asad, “The Crises of Minorities in Ethnic States: The Case of Palestinian Citizens in Israel,” International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3 (August 1998), pp. 321-346.

Shohat, Ella, “Sephardim in Israel: Zionism from the Standpoint of its Jewish Victims,” Social Text, No. 19/20 (Autumn 1988), pp. 1-35.

Yiftachel, Oren, “‘Ethnocracy’ and its Discontents: Minorities, Protests, and the Israeli Polity,” Critical Inquiry, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer 2000), pp. 725-756.

Week Six: Egypt under Nasser

Cleveland, William, “The Middle East in the Age of Nasser: The Egyptian Base” (Chapter 15) in A History of the Modern Middle East, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1994), pp. 284-303.

Week Seven: Political Islam

Milton-Edwards, Beverly, “Past, Present and Future Politics: Political Islam” (Chapter 5) in Contemporary Politics in the Middle East (Malden, MA: Polity Press, 2006), pp. 134-158

Week Eight: Nationalism in the Arab East

Devlin, John, “The Baath Party: Rise and Metamorphosis,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 96, No. 5 (December 1991), pp. 1396-1407.

Salibi, Kamal, “The Lebanese Identity,” Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1971), pp. 76-86.

Week Nine: The 1967 War and the Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip

Kimmerling, Baruch and Migdal, Joel, S., “Steering a Path under Occupation” (chapter nine), The Palestinian People: A History, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2003), pp. 274-311.

Gallagher, Nancy, “Lessons from the Algerian War of Independence,” Middle East Report, No. 225 (Winter 2002), pp. 44-49.

Andoni, Lamis, “Searching for Answers: Gaza’s Suicide Bombers,” Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Summer 1997), pp. 33-45. The second reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Weeks Ten: Turkey and Iran

Cleveland, William, “Democracy and Authoritarianism: Turkey and Iran” (chapter fourteen) in A History of the Modern Middle East, Second Edition, (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000), pp. 267-292.

Keddie, Nikki, “The Revolution” (chapter 9) in Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003).

Week Eleven: The War in Iraq

International Crisis Group, “Where is Iraq Heading? Lessons from Basra,” Middle East Report No. 67 (25 June 2007), pp. 1-19. The third reflection paper is due in class on Friday.

Weeks Twelve, Thirteen, and Fourteen: Student Oral Presentations

Week Fifteen: Concluding Remarks and Final Paper Due.

Vefa Center

I live close to Vefa Center, a three story shopping mall. Since New Year's Day, the large supermarket there, Ramstor has been closed. I am not sure when or if it will reopen. Yesterday, the book store closed. It will not be reopening. The advantages of living close to Vefa Center seem to be dwindling fast.

Back to Work

I came into the office today for the first time in several days. I finished up my journal article on the Crimean Tatars. Now I have to do some revisions on my syllabi.

2010

It is now 2010. So far this year I have not done much. I did a little bit of work on a journal article I hope to finish before classes start again on the eleventh, but that is it. I only have three classes to teach this semester so I hope I can make some progress on a new book project.