"The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is a composite region of ~550 million people living in 22 countries straddling two continents, with highly diverse economies, political systems, and ethnic, racial, religious, linguistic, and class affiliations. The course will focus on this diversity across time, studying transformations of political and social organization from the late nineteenth century to our own times. The course is divided in 3 parts. We begin with a major contemporary event: the waves of pro-democracy uprisings in 2011 and 2019, popularly known as “the Arab Spring.” Intriguing in and of themselves, these uprisings/revolutions are a good entry point for studying the economic, political, and globalized characteristics of the affected countries. We then move back in time. Part 2 examines how European colonial rule shaped the region, from Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt and Palestine to the exit of British troops from the Persian Gulf in 1971. This part includes important case studies of how postcolonial governments sought to free themselves from economic imperialism and political tutelage. Part 3 circles back to contemporary uprisings and revolutions, reading three acclaimed graphic novels about Iran, Palestine, and Egypt that broke new ground in the genre of graphic narratives."