• Offered by Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies
  • ANU College ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences
  • Course subject Middle Eastern & Central Asian Studies
  • Areas of interest Cultural Studies, Gender Studies, History, Middle East Studies, Arts
  • Academic career UGRD
  • Course convener
    • Dr Zahra Taheri
  • Mode of delivery In Person
  • Co-taught Course
  • Offered in Second Semester 2019
    See Future Offerings

This course broadly examines the roles played by women in the cultural sphere in modern Iran and the Middle East, where literature, cinema, music, visual and performing arts are inspired by a growing female presence. This is a topical subject that has acquired additional salience in light of the recent changes in the region. As never before, women in the region have to deal with the multiple issues of patriarchy, contested notions of modernity, identity, and authenticity, religion, political and economic participation and artistic expression. 
The course will focus on the role of women, as novelists, movie directors, and musicians. To introduce students to the region, it also provides background on women’s movements as well as analysis of the socio-political aspects that came to create the modern Middle East. 
The course is made up of 12 weeks of lectures which comprises of two distinct sections: Five sessions will be dedicated to explore women’s cultural contributions to modern Iran, and seven sessions will be dedicated to the other Middle East countries including: Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Saudi Arabia & The Persian Gulf Arab States, Egypt, and Turkey. 

Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion, students will have the knowledge and skills to:

  1. identify women’s role in the making of the culture of the Middle East through the works of writers, directors, and musicians, and the complexities of the relationship between women and the arts;
  2. recognize and analyse women’s roles and achievements in the Culture of the Middle East in the last three decades;
  3. know how to select and combine materials from a topic relevant to the role of women in Middle Eastern contemporary culture and present them in a coherent matter in a team environment; and
  4. identify the elements shaping modern Middle Eastern culture through the prism of gender relations.

Indicative Assessment

  1. Essay, 3,000 words (50%) (50) [LO 1,2,3,4]
  2. End of semester examination, 2 hours approximately 2,000 words (40%) (40) [LO 1,2,3,4]
  3. Discussion contributions about readings, and in-class feedback (10%) (10) [LO 1,2,4]

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Workload

130 hours of total student learning time made up from

a) 36 hours of contact over 12 weeks: 24 hours of lectures and 12 hours of tutorials; and

b) 94 hours of independent student research, reading and writing          

Inherent Requirements

Not applicable

Requisite and Incompatibility

You are not able to enrol in this course if you have previously completed MEAS2107

Prescribed Texts

All Reading Material are listed in the course guide and also posted on Wattle in the reading list.

Preliminary Reading

The reading list is in the course guide and posted on wattle for each week.

Majors

Minors

Fees

Tuition fees are for the academic year indicated at the top of the page.  

If you are a domestic graduate coursework or international student you will be required to pay tuition fees. Tuition fees are indexed annually. Further information for domestic and international students about tuition and other fees can be found at Fees.

Student Contribution Band:
1
Unit value:
6 units

If you are an undergraduate student and have been offered a Commonwealth supported place, your fees are set by the Australian Government for each course. At ANU 1 EFTSL is 48 units (normally 8 x 6-unit courses). You can find your student contribution amount for each course at Fees.  Where there is a unit range displayed for this course, not all unit options below may be available.

Units EFTSL
6.00 0.12500
Domestic fee paying students
Year Fee
2019 $3000
International fee paying students
Year Fee
2019 $4560
Note: Please note that fee information is for current year only.

Offerings, Dates and Class Summary Links

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The list of offerings for future years is indicative only.
Class summaries, if available, can be accessed by clicking on the View link for the relevant class number.

Second Semester

Class number Class start date Last day to enrol Census date Class end date Mode Of Delivery Class Summary
10000 22 Jul 2019 29 Jul 2019 31 Aug 2019 25 Oct 2019 In Person N/A

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