ARAB250

Food is the stuff of everyday routine and rich symbolic meaning, from holiday meals to daily staples. Studying food offers new perspectives on modernization, colonialism, and nationalism, and illuminates popular experiences of major historical events. This course introduces students to the history and cultures of the modern Middle East and North Africa using secondary literature and primary source materials addressing the sources and methods used in humanistic food studies scholarship. Students will gain a nuanced understanding of the diversity and complexities of the region as well as a lens for analyzing its cultures and societies from an everyday human perspective.