POLT 312 - Mastering Nature: The Politics of Science and Technology in the Middle East

Semester Offered: First Semester
Full Course
Credits: 4 credits
Attribute: 4SS, CD

This seminar course examines the relationship between political projects and science and technology. It investigates how the struggle over power transforms and is itself transformed by science as modern and contemporary regimes worked to ‘master’ non-human and human nature (and bodies) in the Middle East. The course explores relationships between for example: imperial control and environmental management; religious authority and advancement in medical and evolutionary biology; psychology and colonialism; nationalism and the sciences of archeology and genetics; astronomical innovation and controlling ‘time’ in the Muslim world; and climate change sciences and oil interests.
Enrollment Limit: 12
Instructor: S. El-Kazaz
Prerequisites & Notes
Consent of instructor required.