HIST 268 - Special Topics

SECTION 1

THE CAUCASUS - LAND OF MANY PEOPLE: ETHNO-NATIONALISM, RELIGION AND MIGRATION

The Caucasus is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse regions in the world and presents a unique opportunity to study issues of ethnicity and ethnic relations, nationalism, religion, and migration. This area has been an important bridge between continents, cultures and civilizations: between Russian and the Middle East as well as between Central Asia and Europe (through the black sea. We will discuss the Russian colonization of the area in Tsarist era; the imposition of the Soviet Communist regime in the Caucasus; and current, Post-Communist developments including the partial de-colonization in Trans-Caucasus. We will discuss the nature of Soviet nationalism policy in the Caucasus; relations between the Caucasus and the Middle East; the struggle between traditional Islam and Revivalism; the place of myth and historical memory in current politics and society; and the immigration and re-immigration of various groups (Jews, Circassians, Azeri).   Special attention will be given to issues of mass violence in the Caucasus: the Circassian Genocide and forced population transfer in the 19^th century; the Holocaust in the Caucasus and the ‘Stalin deportations’.  We will also discuss violence and conflicts in last decades, such as the wars in Chechnya and between Armenia and Azerbaijan. 

SECTION 2

JEWISH-MUSLIM RELATIONS VIEWED FROM THE MARGINS

This course examines inter-group relations between Jews and Muslims in various social and geographical settings in the Muslim world from the 19^th century to the present.

We will discuss the experience of Jewish communities in several Muslim societies along the Middle-East, North Africa and Central Asia from Morocco and Libya to Kurdistan. Special focus will be given to less known setting in the margins of the Muslim World: relations between Jews and Muslim in the Caucasus and in Central Asia, especially under Soviet rule, in Kurdistan, Among Arabs and Berbers in the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, and other settings.  These different settings raise important questions for the study of intergroup relations: the perceptions of the “other”; the meaning of ethnic boundaries and their maintenance; multi-ethnic networks and cooperation between groups; patron-clients and other modes of relations; the meaning of shared cultural worlds, etc. Attention will be given also to Jewish-Muslim relations in areas with Muslim majority during Nazi- German Occupation in WWII. Finally, we will examine the meaning of past experience in the Muslim world to social and cultural encounters between Jewish and Muslims citizens in present day Israel and in the west.

 

Anticipated Terms Offered: N/A