IDS 4930: Environment and Politics in the Middle East (POS 4931/ASH3931) will be offered in Spring 2024. This award-winning course analyzes the Middle East through the lens of political ecology and politicizes the conflicts, conditions, and outcomes that pertain to environmental phenomena in the region. Students learn to question the place, representations, and socio-political functions of “nature,” its conservation, and its degradation in the Middle East. Situating the Middle East in the world of carbon/post-carbon politics, students will debate the potentials and limitations of environmental activism in the region. Students will develop sophisticated understandings of the various relationships of power embedded in environmental disasters, conflicts, and infrastructure projects. This course helps students establish cultural literacy and a critical outlook on multi-species experiences in the Middle East. The course is cross-listed with the Department of Political Science and the Department of History.