State and Society in the Middle East (2024-25) Sample Essay Questions

State and Society in the Middle East (2024-25) Sample Essay Questions

1. Discuss the ways in which class politics has shaped state formation and forms of political contestation over time in countries such as Lebanon, Iraq and Egypt.
2. Discuss fields and spaces of action that develop in the interaction between youth and authoritarian states in two countries of the Middle East. Assess the extent to which youth politics contributes to forging new forms of political engagement.
3. What factors account for the emergence of “sectarian politics” in the region? Looking at specific case studies from the Middle East, examine the role that “sectarian politics” plays in shaping state-society relations and interaction.
4. In what way, if at all, does the concept of “sectarianism” help explain the circumstances of conflict that followed the 2011 Uprising in Syria?”
5. In what way does “informal politics” open up avenues of political participation for ordinary citizens in the Middle East? Are there necessary limits to the transformative potential of this form of participation? Discuss with reference to at least one country of the region.
6. In what ways do the events associated with the Arab Uprisings challenge and/or reinforce the analytical concepts and theories conventionally used to explain the politics of the region?
7. Do concepts such as “quiet encroachment” and “everyday life politics” contribute to recovering the agency of subaltern forces in the study of state-society relations in the Middle East? Discuss with reference to at least once case study.
8. Discuss, with reference to case studies from the Middle East, the role that the production of knowledge and expertise play in the development of state practices of control and management of population.
9. Examine, with reference to specific case studies, the interplay between processes of state formation and the emergence of Islamist movements in the modern Middle East.