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Culture and Language: Middle East

Vak
2022-2023

Admission requirements

This course is only available for students in the BA International Studies programme.
Limited places are also open for exchange students.
Please note: this course takes place in The Hague. Traveling between University buildings from Leiden to The Hague may take about 45 minutes.

Description

Culture is constituted by a set of practices, such as conversation, habits and rituals, and a set of objects, such as narratives and images, and is the primary vehicle through which people give meaning to their selves, their lives and their societies. This course introduces students to the cultural diversity of the contemporary Middle East through two disciplinary angles. On the one hand, the course looks critically at the intersection of language, culture, politics and ideology. On the other, it critically engages with the ways in which power is articulated through cultural processes of meaning-making by analysing an eclectic selection of objects, texts and practices. Rather than an historical or geographical overview, this provides an orientation for the pursuit of the students’ own interests in Middle Eastern cultures. The course offers insight into the complex cultural power relations at stake in the use and control of various languages and linguistic registers in the region and teaches students to closely analyse cultural objects, by considering aspects of their form and content in relation to their social, political and economic context.

Course objectives

The student:

  • has a thorough understanding of the cultural context of a particular geographical area in the world from a global perspective;

  • is familiar with cross-cultural communication aspects of international relations within the context of a specific area;

  • is able to critically reflect on the cultural developments in the chosen geographical area from a global perspective;

  • has in-depth knowledge of cultural production and identity formation in a geographical area in its global context;

  • has the ability to analyse an artefact of the chosen area using the concepts and theories introduced in Cultural Studies, Sociolinguistics and Introduction to International Studies;

  • has the ability to reflect on the meaning of the main concepts in cultural-, sociolinguistic-, and intercultural communication studies as applied in different cultural contexts;

  • has the ability to use the theories discussed in the course to identify and compare communicative, narrative, and visual productions from regions of their choice;

  • is able to situate a cultural artefact within the context of the cultural production and cultural policies of the region of their choice;

  • has the ability to collect and analyse specialised literature using traditional and electronic methods and techniques;

  • has the ability to formulate a well-defined research problem based on specialised literature; set up, under supervision, a study of a limited size and formulate a reasoned conclusion;

  • has the ability to explain research findings in a clear and well-argued way in the form of a short essay;

  • is able to present his findings and arguments in a coherent and clear way in the form of a short presentation and during in-class debates;

  • is able to give and receive feedback to and from peers in a constructive fashion and use reasoned criticism to revise one’s own point of view or own argumentation;

  • is able to take on board the instructions and criticism of supervisors, and take previous instructions and criticism into account in new situations.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

Lectures

Lectures are held every week, with the exception of the midterm exam week. Weekly lectures will cover issues both inside and outside the readings.

Tutorials

Tutorials are held once every two weeks, with the exception of the midterm exam week. Attending all tutorial sessions is compulsory. If you are unable to attend a session, please inform your tutor in advance. Being absent at more than two of the tutorial sessions will result in a lowering of your tutorial grade (40% of the end grade) with 1 point for each session missed after the first two sessions. Please note that being absent at any tutorial session may have a negative impact on the grade of the assignment due for that particular tutorial session. This is at the discretion of the tutor.

Assessment method

Assessment

  • Midterm Exam:
    Written examination with short open questions and (up to) 50% multiple choice questions.

  • Final Exam:
    Written examination with short open questions and (up to) 50% multiple choice questions.

Weighing

Partial grade Weighing
Tutorials 40%
Midterm Exam 30%
Final Exam 30%

End Grade

To successfully complete the course, please take note of the following:

  • The end grade of the course is established by determining the weighted average of Tutorial grade, Midterm Exam grade, and Final Exam grade.

  • The weighted average of the Midterm Exam grade and the Final Exam grade needs to be 5.5 or higher.

  • This means that failing Exam grades cannot be compensated with a high Tutorial grade.

Resit

If the end grade is insufficient (lower than a 6.0), or the weighted average of Midterm- and Final Exams is lower than 5.5, there is a possibility of retaking the full 60% of the exam material, replacing both the earlier Midterm- and Final Exam grades. No resit for the tutorial is possible.
Please note that if the Resit Exam grade is lower than 5.5, you will not pass the course, regardless of the tutorial grade.

Retaking a passing grade

Please consult the Course and Examination Regulations 2022 – 2023.

Exam review and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will have to be organised.

Reading list

To be announced.

Registration

Contact

Remarks

All other information.