ABSTRACT
Subsumed first under “area studies” in the post-World War II era, the study of Middle East politics has long been reflective of Orientalism and international economic, political, and military power asymmetries that have spilled into knowledge-making of the region. This chapter begins with a brief but critical review of some of the key themes and research “moments” of Middle East politics over the past several decades: from a fixation on the state, a binarism between Western modernity and (Middle) Eastern tradition/religion, a propensity toward authoritarianism, to confoundment at the 2011 popular uprisings of the Arab Spring. The chapter then offers its own knowledge map as a multivocal, interdisciplinary, dialogic text in which a group of over forty scholars, seasoned academics and younger students of Middle East politics, reflect on their personal research journeys and offer pedagogical insights to a new crop of aspiring scholars. In so doing, the Handbook seeks to reorient study of the region that may face the most difficult stage since postcolonial independence, as fragmented states, entrenched violence, and resurgent authoritarianism are all challenged by the new politics of popular mobilization.
