http://ocw.nd.edu Notre Dame OpenCourseware (OCW) offers free online educational resources for courses in the Program in Arabic and Middle East Studies. The Program offers instruction in the Arabic language and a full selection of courses in the history and culture of the Middle East. 2011-11-14T04:32:42-07:00 en Copyright 2012, by the Contributing Authors daily 1 2011-10-24T05:04:26Z http://ocw.nd.edu/arabic-and-middle-east-studies/islamic-societies-of-the-middle-east-and-north-africa-religion-history-and-culture Notre Dame OpenCourseware (OCW) offers free educational resources for the course "Islamic Societies of the Middle East and North Africa" in the Program in Arabic and Middle East Studies.This course offers a panoramic survey of the Islamic societies of the Middle East and North Africa from their origins to the present day. It will deal with the history and expansion of Islam, both as a world religion and civilization, from its birth in the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century to its subsequent spread to other parts of western Asia and North Africa. Issues of religious practices, political governance and movements, gender, social relations and cultural norms will be explored in relation to a number of Islamic societies in the region. The course foregrounds the complexities and diversity present in a critical geographic area of what we call the Islamic world today. Asma Afsaruddin David Poell Copyright 2012, by the Contributing Authors en Societies Africana Studies Asian Studies Religion Culture Gender Studies Middle East Arabic Islam Arabic and Middle East Studies North Africa History 2011-11-02T17:11:13Z Course text/html MELC 20040 Fall 2005 Undergraduate http://ocw.nd.edu/arabic-and-middle-east-studies/women-in-islamic-societies Notre Dame OpenCourseware (OCW) offers free educational resources for the course "Women in Islamic Societies" in the Program in Arabic and Middle East Studies. This course serves as a broad survey of women's and gender issues within the contexts of multiple societies in the Islamic world. The first half of the semester will concentrate on the historical position of women in Islamic societies, defined by the normative values of Islam and by cultural traditions and norms that were sometimes at odds with religious prescriptions. We will discuss how the interpretations of these values in diverse circumstances and who gets to do the interpreting have had important repercussions for women's societal roles. The second half of the course will privilege women's voices in articulating their gendered identities and roles in a number of pre-modern and modern Islamic societies in different historical circumstances as expressed in memoirs, fiction, magazine articles, and public speeches. As part of the historical contextualization of such works, we will focus on how modern phenomena like Western colonialism, nationalist liberation movements, civil and other forms of war have fostered women's organized movements, and their socio-political empowerment in some cases and marginalization in others, with lasting implications for these developing societies. admin Copyright 2012, by the Contributing Authors en empowerment gender issues open courseware religious tradition culture Gender Studies nationalist liberation movements Islamic societies history marginalization Notre Dame OCW Islam 2011-11-02T17:45:27Z Course text/html MELC 20080 Spring 2005 Undergraduate http://ocw.nd.edu/arabic-and-middle-east-studies/cairo_4247 Photo by flickr user cactusbones (Sue Ann Harkey). Accessed from http://www.flickr.com/photos/cactusbones/23238947/ on 7/27/10. Image cropped. Sue Ann Harkey Copyright 2012, by the Contributing Authors Arabic Arabic and Middle East Studies Middle East 2011-10-24T06:03:48Z Image image/gif