CAPITAL, TECHNOLOGY & UTOPIA IN THE MIDDLE EAST (NMC379)

Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations, U of T

How does the workings of capital intersect with technological change and political visions in the modern Middle East? This course approaches this question through critical reading in the histories of technology, political economy, science, war, politics, and intersections between cultural history and infrastructures using the Middle East as a starting point for the study of global phenomena. We will examine the ways in which constructions like race and ethnicity, gender, and the human/non-human divide have mediated the social and spatial circulation of capital and technological devices in the region, especially through scientific visions, engineering schemes and utopias between the late 18th and the 21st centuries. The specificity of this course is that we read broadly in various disciplines in the humanities as well as works of fiction and reports from NGOs and international organizations.