Course: Everything You Wanted to Know About the Middle East But Were Afraid to Ask! (OSH-MIDEAST)

The Middle East and North Africa (MENA), a region that is daily in the news and sadly with bad news! This three-part course will attempt to illuminate the history, politics, economics, and social aspects of MENA. There will be three sessions, each covering one sub-region of MENA. The three sub-regions are: The Maghreb (North Africa yet minus Egypt); The Mashreq (starting with Egypt and go East); and The Khaleej (i.e. the Gulf States). The teacher will weave in personal stories and experiences in the Middle East to complement historical and political events. Plus, she will recommend literature (novels) to better understand the people in the region. Here are some helpful books to refer to for this course: 1) Ellen Lust's 'The Middle East, 16th edition,' 'The Arabs: A History' (2017) by Eugene Rogan, and this list from the Middle East Institute is very good: https://www.mei.edu/blog/10-great-new-books-about-middle-east

Session: OSH226.MIDEAST

Schedule:

Tuesdays; Feb 24, Mar 3, 10

Times:

10:00am - 11:30am

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Instructors

Name

Additional Resources

Heba F. El-Shazli

Biography: Heba F. El-Shazli was an Associate Professor of Political Science (retired June 2025) at George Mason University?s Schar School of Policy and Government, and she was an adjunct faculty (for 4 years) at Georgetown University?s Master?s Degree Program at the Center for Democracy and Civil Society. She was also an affiliate faculty at the Center for Global Islamic Studies at George Mason University. She taught courses on governments and politics of the Middle East and North Africa, Islam and politics, international relations theory, Israeli Palestinian politics/history/society, civil society and social movements, and the role of civil society in democratization. Professor El-Shazli earned a Ph.D. in political science from Virginia Tech (VT) School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA).She was the Regional Program Director for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) programs at the Solidarity Center (SC), AFL-CIO from September 2004 until June 2011. El-Shazli was also the Deputy Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa at the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs (NDI) from 2001 until 2004. Before joining NDI, El-Shazli worked at the American Center for International Labor Solidarity working in Central and Eastern Europe from 1987 to 1994.Dr. El-Shazli has 28 years of experience in civic and union organizing, institution building, leadership skills training, labor education and training methodologies, political advocacy, and development, implementation and management of international programs. She is fluent in Arabic and English; and speaks French very well; plus, she can manage a basic conversation in Spanish and Romanian. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and DACOR, "an organization of foreign affairs professionals dating back to 1952, fosters frank dialog about current foreign policy matters".

Facility Detail

TBD - UR Campus

490 Westhampton Way

Richmond, VA 23173