Art has had a fascinating and often contested relationship with politics in the Muslim world. At least as far back as the work of Mansūr Hallāj, Rumi, and Hafez, poets and others have used art to challenge and rethink the relationship between the state and the people in various Islamic societies. In this course, we explore historical and contemporary manifestations of art as resistance in select Muslim-majority countries, from Iran and Turkey to Egypt and Tunisia. Our explorations, framed by political readings, range from literature and film to music and visual arts, focusing on art as a medium for social transformation and dissidence against political regimes.
Dr. NOJANG KHATAMI, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Fordham University. Before his appointment at Fordham University, Dr. Khatami was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Justitia Centre for Advanced Studies in Goethe-Universität Frankfurt and a lecturer in the Department of Political Science at UBC.