Women and Gender in the Middle East and North Africa

Provides an overview of key issues and themes in the study of women and gender relations in the Middle East and North Africa. Includes readings from a variety of disciplines, e.g., history, anthropology, sociology, literature, religious studies, and media studies. Addresses themes such as the relationship between the concepts of nation and gender; women’s citizenship; Middle Eastern women’s activism and the involvement of their Western “sisters” to this movement; gendered interpretations of the Qur’an and the example of the Prophet Muhammad; and the three H’s of Orientalism (hijab, harem, and hamam).

Related Subjects

Offered Fall 2025

Not Offered This Term

Catalog Subject Faculty Level HASS Category
21H.001

How to Stage a Revolution

Staff Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.009

World History and Its Fault Lines Since 1800

Sana Aiyar
Hiromu Nagahara
Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.090

Digital Humanities Laboratory

Not offered regularly; consult department
Catherine Clark Introductory LAB
21H.101

American History to 1865

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-H
21H.102

American History since 1865

Staff Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.106 24.912 21L.008 21W.741 CMS.150 WGS.190

Black Matters: Introduction to Black Studies

Michel DeGraff
D. Fox Harrell
Danielle Wood
Introductory HASS-H
HASS-A
CI-H
21H.107 21G.043

From Yellow Peril to Model Minority: Asian American History to 1968

Emma Teng
Introductory HASS-H
21H.108 WGS.110

Sexual and Gender Identities

Staff Introductory HASS-H
21H.109 U WGS.303 U 21H.983 G WGS.310 G

Gender: Historical Perspectives

W 2-5, 4-144
Elizabeth A. Wood Introductory
Graduate
HASS-H
21H.135

J.R.R. Tolkien: Scholar, Author, and Thinker

Eric J. Goldberg Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.141

Renaissance to Revolution: Europe, 1300-1800

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.144 21G.087

Introduction to Russian Studies

Elizabeth A. Wood
Maria Khotimsky
Introductory HASS-H
21H.145 21G.049 4.674

French Photography

Catherine Clark Introductory HASS-A CI-H
21H.156 21G.045

Global Chinese Food: A Historical Overview

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Introductory HASS-H
21H.160

Islam, the Middle East, and the West

Pouya Alimagham Introductory HASS-H
21H.161

The Modern Middle East

Pouya Alimagham Introductory HASS-H CI-H
21H.170 17.55 21A.130 21G.084

Introduction to Latin American Studies

Tanalís Padilla Introductory HASS-S CI-H
21H.172 21G.078

Latin America Through Film

Not offered regularly; consult department
Tanalís Padilla Introductory HASS-H
21H.173

Socialism in Latin America, from Che Guevara to Hugo Chavez

Tanalís Padilla Introductory HASS-H
21H.201

The American Revolution

Marjoleine Kars
Intermediate HASS-H
21H.205 STS.427

The Civil War and the Emergence of Modern America: 1861-1890

Merritt Roe Smith Intermediate HASS-H
21H.211

The United States in the Cold War Era

Not offered regularly; consult department
Caley Horan Intermediate HASS-H
21H.213 17.28

The War at Home: American Politics and Society in Wartime

Christopher Capozzola
Adam Berinsky
Intermediate HASS-S
21H.214

War and American Society

Not offered regularly; consult department
Christopher Capozzola Intermediate HASS-H
21H.217 11.013

American Urban History

Ezra Glenn Seminar HASS-H CI-H
21H.220 11.150

Metropolis: A Comparative History of New York City

Craig Steven Wilder Seminar HASS-H
21H.225

History of American Capitalism

Caley Horan Intermediate HASS-H
21H.226 11.015

Riots, Strikes, and Conspiracies in American History

Staff Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.228

American Classics

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder
Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.229

The Black Radical Tradition in America

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H
21H.241 21G.054

France and Haiti: Enlightenment, Slavery, and Revolution

Malick W. Ghachem Intermediate HASS-H
21H.242 21G.322

Frenchness in and Era of Globalization

Not offered regularly; consult department
Catherine Clark Intermediate HASS-H
21H.247

Looking East/Looking West

Catherine Clark
Hiromu Nagahara
Intermediate HASS-H
21H.253 21G.075

Global Chinese Migration, 1567- Present

Not offered regularly; consult department
Emma Teng Intermediate HASS-H
21H.260

Cities in the Middle East: History, Politics and Society

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Intermediate HASS-S
21H.261

Modern Iran: A Century of Revolution

Pouya Alimagham Intermediate HASS-H
21H.262

Palestine and the Arab-Israeli Conflict

Pouya Alimagham Intermediate HASS-H
21H.265

Humanitarianism in Africa: A Critical History

Kenda Mutongi Intermediate HASS-H
21H.266

South Africa and Apartheid

Kenda Mutongi Intermediate HASS-H
21H.267

Atlantic Slave Revolts

Marjoleine Kars Intermediate HASS-H
21H.268

Urban History in Africa

Kenda Mutongi Intermediate HASS-H
21H.281

MIT and Slavery: Research

Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.282

MIT and Slavery: Publication

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Intermediate HASS-H
21H.283

The Indigenous History of MIT

Not offered regularly; consult department
Staff Intermediate HASS-H
21H.284

South Asia, the United States, and MIT: Transformative Connections

Sana Aiyar Intermediate HASS-H
21H.285 STS.025

Making the Modern World: The Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective

Merritt Roe Smith Intermediate HASS-H
21H.289

History Near and Dear: Writing Yourself into History

Marjoleine Kars Intermediate HASS-H CI-H
21H.319

Race, Crime, and Citizenship in American Law

Malick W. Ghachem Seminar HASS-S
21H.320

Gender and the Law in US History

Not offered regularly; consult department
Christopher Capozzola Seminar HASS-H
21H.322

Christianity in America

Not offered regularly; consult department
Craig Steven Wilder Seminar HASS-H
21H.358 U 21H.958 G WGS.315 G

Colonialism in South Asia and Africa: Race, Gender, Resistance

Sana Aiyar Graduate
Seminar
HASS-H
21H.361

Echoes of Slavery: Recovering the Histories of Enslaved People

Marjoleine Kars Seminar HASS-H
21H.381 WGS.222

Women and War

Lerna Ekmekcioglu Seminar HASS-S
21H.388 U 21H.988 G

Global Commodities, American Dreams

Megan A. Black Graduate
Seminar
HASS-H
21H.984 STS.414

Risk, Fortune, and Futurity

Caley Horan
Will Deringer
Graduate
21H.990 STS.432

Narrating the Anthropocene: Understanding a Multi-Species Universe

Megan A. Black
Kate Brown
Graduate
21H.S02

Special Subject

Intermediate