Course Information
ARST 4478 + 4479
3+1 Credit
Eligibility:
Sophomores, Juniors, Seniors
Basic knowledge of the region; previous experience with subject matter and language.
Dates:
March 1, 2025 to March 9, 2025
Description:
This course is about cultural heritage (architecture, art, manuscripts, libraries, monuments, art, poetry, dance, natural environment, etc.) and the role of non-governmental organizations, governments, the UN, and diplomatic missions in promoting and protecting cultural heritage. We will focus on the Arab world which is located in Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA, aka the Middle East and North Africa), while also studying cultural heritage more generally, in all its variations. The C-Lab component of this class will travel to Egypt, and thus many of our examples will focus on Egypt’s long history of cultural heritage, preservation efforts, tourism, and museums.
Throughout the course, we will address the roles of wars, political and religious ideologies, technology, and the environment, and their dialectical relationships with tourism, museums, heritage practices, spoken/written languages, and so on. We will focus on how people advocate for (or against) the protection of cultural heritage (or of certain cultural heritages). We will engage with and discuss systemic racism and settler colonialism that threaten and have threatened cultural production and cultural heritage globally and in SWANA.
Students taking the course will develop an understanding of the issues around cultural heritage in the Arab world, the circulation of objects, museums, production of cultural heritage, colonial and post-colonial government systems, global power structures, and indigenous and environmental activism, among others. The reading and writing assignments are structured to develop both theoretical as well as practical knowledge of cultural heritage, in the work of political, military, economic, development, sociological, and community-based bodies. The rationale behind the reading material and assignments is to equip learners with knowledge and skills to work in the fields of tourism, cultural and economic development, community-based projects, foreign service, military, international bodies, museums, funding agencies, and so on.
Learning Outcomes
Students will complete the course having developed the following skills and knowledge:
- Knowledge of cultural heritage and major themes and issues in the field;
- Knowledge of cultural heritage in Egypt and the Arab world;
- Deeper knowledge and practice in summarizing arguments, creating short presentations, synthesizing material, and developing arguments;
- How to work with varieties of source material (primary, secondary, written, visual, auditory, video) to develop knowledge about a topic and how to discuss and write using those different sources, in ways appropriate to analytical work;
- Practice in project development (4-part semester-long project culminating in a grant proposal and presentation for $250k to develop a cultural heritage project).
Itinerary Highlights
The Pyramids and Sphinx; Grand Egyptian Museum; Wissa Wassif Weaving Center; Adam Henein Museum; Ibn Tulun Mosque; Sultan Hasan Mosque; al-Rifa’i Mosque; Dar al-Kutub Archive; Islamic Art Museum; Ben Ezra Synagogue; Hanging Church; Church of the Holy Family; Coptic Museum.
Professor Information
Professor Rochelle Davis’s teaching interests include Arab society and culture; cultural heritage and conflict; refugees, migrants and immigrants in and out of the Arab World; and war and conflict. She uses different genres of texts and other forms of media in her classroom to expose students to the wide range of material – both primary and secondary – about the Arab World. Her syllabi include ethnographies, autobiographies, scholarly books and articles from different disciplines, blogs, cartoons, films, novels, poetry, and media.
Travel Details
The Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service (SFS) will cover the costs of travel and accommodation including airfare, lodging (double occupancy hotel), transportation in Egypt, some meals, site visit entry fees, and tips for all undergraduate students accepted to this C-Lab.
Students are responsible for covering tuition and fees, books/materials for the classes, any visa-related costs, any mandatory immunizations, Covid-19 or other testing (if required), GU international health insurance ($65), some miscellaneous meals, laundry, phone and data charges, transportation to/from the airport to campus, and any out-of-pocket personal expenses. Past students shared to estimate a cost of $100-300.
Visas, if required, cost $25-$125 on average for application and processing fees. It is students’ responsibility to research requirements and secure visas if needed. Please reference relevant visa information here. Travel information will be covered further in info sessions for accepted students.
If you do not have a valid passport or a passport that will be unexpired for 6 months following return from the program, please apply for a passport now.
Note: March 2025 will be Ramadan in Egypt, the Muslim month of fasting from sunup to sundown. Thus, opening times change and so the itinerary will likely be different than in years past, in addition to some different eating times.