HIST188 CM - Travel and Encounter in the Islamic World

How does travel shape self-definitions and regional stereotypes? What can studying the history of travel and tourism tell us about the shift from early modern empires to colonial worlds and to the contemporary processes of globalization? This class is designed to help you explore and formulate answers to these questions by looking at how the region, which we commonly refer to as the “Middle East” and the “Islamic World,” came to be constructed historically through circuits of travel and cross-cultural encounters. We will investigate tensions inherent in the history of travel itself: between travel as pleasure, leisure, and a means for spiritual fulfillment vs. travel as a mode of conquest, a strategy for economic and political survival and an experience of alienation. Our over-arching goal will be to analyze how travel functions simultaneously as a means of identification with another culture and as a re-affirmation of cultural difference. Previously HIST159I CM.

Offered: Occasionally

Credit: 1

Course Number: HIST188 CM