From: Emad Mekay <[email protected]> Dear All,****
**** Please excuse the group email, but I just wanted to share with you information about my new class this fall at Stanford University. Please feel free to share it with students, faculty, researchers and anyone with interest in the Middle East.**** After a year as a Knight Fellow at Stanford, I will be teaching a new class this year about the Arab Spring. The course will serve as an introduction to the events of the Arab Spring. One of the reasons many Western institutions, including the media, may have failed to predict the Arab Spring in time is that they are hampered by many stereotypes and clichés about the Middle East generated in part by -well yes - my fellow media professionals.**** In this class, students will draw lessons on how not to approach international relations with pre-conceived ideas and find their own sources to understand the events that are re-shaping the Middle East. I will draw on my extensive coverage of those events. We'll talk about issues such as how the Arab media is resisting revolutions, the future of Islamist movements, street protest tactics against police states, the role played by women in the wave of revolutions, business and economy under Islamist government and the myth of the Arab Spring being invented by Facebook among other issues.**** Students will learn to take more advanced investigations into the Arab region and U.S. institutions working there.**** The lectures will be both a place for student to get some exposure to first-hand information on what really happened before and after the wave of revolutions that swept new political players to power in the Middle East. Students will be introduced to major political players in countries of the Arab Spring through guest speaker events, conversations with people who took part in the events as well as class discussions and research. The goal is to instill confidence in students in their ability to find their own sources and information about the region to prepare them to offer authoritative explanation and understanding of the future of the Arab Spring countries.**** We’ll be meeting Mondays and Wednesdays. 10:00AM-11:50AM. Encina West Rm 106. Course starts Sept. 24-Dec. 7, 2012**** I am also attaching a flyer.* Let me know if you have any questions.**** Best,**** Emad**** * Flyer below: International Relations, Fall 2012 course, Stanford University. Mon, Wed 10:00AM-11:50AM at Encina West 106 (Sept. 24--Dec. 7, 2012) DECODING THE ARAB SPRING AND THE FUTURE OF THE MIDDLE EAST INTNLREL151 (with Emad Mekay) The course will explore themes such as: the issues that forged the identity of the Arab Spring; common features among the Arab Spring countries; mechanisms of street protests against police states, history and current relationship between the military and new political powers; secularists Vs. Islamists; why the Islamists are winning in public polls and scenarios for the Middle East. All students at all levels are welcome.
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