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History 75:

Introduction to the Contemporary Middle East

Instructor: James Seaman / Spring 2015
Email: / online course
Voice Mail: (949) 582-4900, x3605 / Dates: 2/9/2015 – 5/17/2015
Webpage: http://socccd.blackboard.com / Ticket: 15495

Course Description

History 75 is a survey of the major political, economic, religious and social institutions and movements of the Middle East from 1800 to the present, with special emphasis on the problems of developing Middle Eastern nations, the Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the political and economic implications of Middle Eastern oil. The course also includes a brief introduction to Islamic religious institutions, and terrorism and militarism, with special emphasis on the importance of these institutions to the contemporary scene.

Course Structure and Requirements

This is an online course. In lieu of traditional classroom activities, you will be spending the majority of your time listening to recorded lectures, watching PowerPoint presentations, reading from your textbook and reader, watching videos, and participating in our discussion forums. In the forums you will be analyzing weekly discussion questions which will integrate the information from the recorded lectures, presentations, textbook, reader, and videos. If you are unfamiliar with Saddleback College’s Blackboard content management system, please consult the Saddleback College Blackboard Online Support Center at http://bbcrm.edusupportcenter.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=8154. If you have general technical support needs, please consult http://www.saddleback.edu/de/student-technical-support/. I am a history instructor; I don’t have training in technical support and am therefore unable to troubleshoot any technical problems.

Formal evaluation will be determined as follows:

Participation: 22.5% (45 pts)

Weekly Quizzes: 27.5% (55 pts)

Paper: 25% (50 pts)

Final Exam: 25% (50 pts)

Total: 200 pts

·  Participation: Every week there will be one discussion question found in the “Discussion Forums” link in the main menu of our course Blackboard site. Students are required to respond to the discussion question by Thursday night at 11:59 pm (this is an “initial response”). Your initial response must be at least 150 words, and must directly address each component of the discussion question. Students are also required to respond at least once a week to a fellow student’s initial response by Sunday (this is a “participation post”). Each participation post must be at least 100 words in length, and must directly engage your fellow students’ initial response. Simply saying “I agree” is not engaging. Additionally, your response must help move the conversation forward by perhaps adding additional information, elaborating upon a point, asking thoughtful questions, or even respectfully disagreeing with the original post. To be perfectly clear, you are required to submit 2 posts a week: 1 initial response and 1 participation response.

·  Weekly Quizzes: Most weeks (except Weeks 1, 11 and 13) there will be a small quiz which will cover content from the audio lectures, presentations, readings (both textbook and reader), and videos of that week. You can take the quiz any time during the week, but it must be completed by Sunday night at 11:59pm. You get one chance to take the quiz, and each quiz is timed, so be sure to read the quiz instructions carefully before starting the timer. Technical difficulties are not sufficient excuses to retake an exam. I have carefully and intentionally calculated the time necessary to take each quiz, so please don’t ask for an extension.

·  Paper: The paper will be an exercise in primary source evaluation. It is not a research paper, and the use of any sources outside of the assigned reader will result in an F for the assignment. A detailed “Paper Topic Handout” will be posted in the “Course Materials” link of the main menu early in the class. It will include the prompt selection, as well as various instructions, tips, and information pertaining to where, when and how to submit the paper online.

·  Final Exam: The final exam (Week 13) will be similar to the weekly quizzes, only cumulative and longer (2 hrs).

Late Policy

No late work will be accepted. All discussion posts, quizzes, and papers will be time stamped upon submission. This timestamp will be the only factor used in determining whether or not an assignment, quiz or paper was submitted on time. There are no exceptions to this rule. Since you have plenty of time to submit your posts and paper, and to take your quizzes and exams, there is no excuse for turning work in late. Plan ahead and turn your work in early in to avoid any unforeseen problems that may arise during the week. Saddleback College’s Pacific time will be the only time I recognize.

Participation

Participation is 22.5% of your course grade, so it is in your best interest to be active and do well in the “Discussion Forums” from the very first week in class. If you do not post in any forum during Week 1 nor contact me and tell me why you haven’t, you may be dropped from the course. If you want to drop the course, you must do so yourself, and not rely upon my doing so for you.

Plagiarism

In short, using someone else’s words and passing them off as your own by not properly quoting and citing them is plagiarism. This is a serious academic violation, and one that is all too common in online classes. If you find yourself copying and pasting anything from a book or a webpage, you are doing something wrong. This course requires you to think critically, to read and discuss historical topics using your own analysis. If you choose to support your ideas with someone else’s, you must put those words in quotes and properly cite where you received that information. Please note that should I discover someone is copying and pasting their responses in the discussion forums on in their paper, I will file an academic dishonesty report with the Dean’s office which could lead to your expulsion from the institution. Please carefully read Saddleback College’s “Code of Conduct” at http://saddleback.edu/uploads/vpss/CodeofConduct.pdf.

Course Goals and Student Learning Outcomes

By the end of the semester:

  1. Students will have learned about some of the basic movements, events, philosophies, dynasties and people in the early history of the Middle East since 1800.
  2. Students will have learned about the various types of historical inquiry, focusing on the differences between political, economic, social, cultural, intellectual, and religious history.
  3. Students will have learned how to evaluate primary sources in history.
  4. Students will have learned to study history objectively, by setting aside their own political, religious, or social beliefs in the pursuit of historical understanding.
  5. Student will have learned some basic Middle Eastern physical and political geography.

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities

This course meets the requirements set forth in the accessibility checklist and universal design grid provided by Special Services. The Web pages, video presentations, textbooks and class materials used in this course are accessible to students with disabilities.

Required Readings

Textbook: Cleveland, William L. A History of the Modern Middle East. 5th ed. Boulder: Westview, 2013 (ISBN: 9780813348339).

Reader: Khater, Akram Fouad. Sources in the History of the Modern Middle East. 2nd ed. Boston: Cenage Learning, 2011 (ISBN: 9780618958535).

Recommend Reading:

Atlas: National Geographic. Atlas of the Middle East. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: National Geographic Society, 2008 (ISBN: 9781426202216).

The Saddleback campus bookstore has all of the above titles in stock for purchase (and sometimes for rent). They also provide shipping options for students who are not local. The books can also be purchased or rented from other locations using the exact ISBNs listed above. I strongly suggest you do not use editions of the required readings other than the ones listed above. I will, in part, be testing out of readings from the books above, and if you have different editions, the page numbers listed on the syllabus for your weekly readings will not correspond to your books. Also, when you write your paper, I will check your quotes using the page numbers from the reader listed above. If the citations in your paper do not correspond to the proper page numbers of the reader, I will have to assume you are fabricating them.

Schedule

Week / Topic / Readings
1
(2/9) / A. An Introduction to the Middle East / A. Textbook: 1-52
Reader: 1-6
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 1 lectures and presentations that correspond to the topics above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 1 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. No quiz in Week 1.
2
(2/16) / A. The Prophet of Mecca
B. What Is Islam? / A. Textbook: 1-52
Reader: 1-6
B. Textbook: 1-52
Reader: 1-6
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 2 lectures and presentations that correspond to the topics above.
2. Watch the videos listed under the Week 2 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (6 pts)
3. Take Week 2 Quiz. (10 pts)
3
(2/23) / A. Westernizing Reform in the 19th c. / A. Textbook: 53-108
Reader: 7-39; 45-73
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 3 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 3 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 3 Quiz. (5 pts)
Week / Topic / Readings
4
(3/2) / A. The Rise of Nationalism / A. Textbook: 109-136
Reader: 7-39; 45-73
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 4 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 4 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 4 Quiz. (5 pts)
5
(3/9) / A. The Roots of Arab Bitterness / A. Textbook: 137-158
Reader: 85-111
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 5 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topics above.
2. Watch the video listed under Week 5 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 5 Quiz. (5 pts)
6
(3/16) / A. Modernizing Rulers in the Independent States / A. Textbook: 159-178
Reader: 112-141
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 6 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 6 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 6 Quiz. (5 pts)

3/23-3/29: Spring Break

7
(3/30) / A. Egypt’s Struggle for Independence / A. Textbook: 179-220; 280-300
Reader: 40-43; 74-84
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 7 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 7 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 7 Quiz. (5 pts)
Week / Topic / Readings
8
(4/6) / A. The Contest for Palestine / A. Textbook: 221-252
Reader: 85-111
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 8 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 8 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 8 Quiz. (5 pts)
9
(4/13) / A. Israel’s Rebirth and the Rise of Arab Nationalism / A. Textbook: 301-344
Reader: 142-194
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 9 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 9 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 9 Quiz. (5 pts)
10
(4/20) / A. War and the Quest for Peace / A. Textbook: 253-279
Reader: 195-211; 218-248
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 10 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topics above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 10 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (6 pts)
4. Take Week 10 Quiz. (5 pts)
11
(4/27) / A. The Reassertion of Islamic Power / A. Textbook: 345-413
Reader: 261-292
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 11 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 11 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Paper due in “View/Complete” link in the Week 11 tab by the Sunday of Week 11 (see “Paper Topic” document in our “Course Materials” section for details). (50 pts)
Week / Topic / Readings
12
(5/4) / A. The Gulf War and the Peace Process / A. Textbook: 439-486
Reader: 293-299; 307-330
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 12 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 12 link.
3. Participate in the Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Week 12 Quiz. (5 pts)
13
(5/11) / A. The War on Terrorism / A. Textbook: 487-540
Reader: 300-306; 331-380
Assignments:
1. Listen to and watch the Week 13 lecture and presentation that correspond to the topic above.
2. Watch the video listed under the Week 13 link.
3. Participate in both Discussion Forums. (3 pts)
4. Take Final Exam (Parts 1 and 2). (50 pts)