21st Century Revolution

Tahrir Square, Egypt

For the past few weeks we have been reading about and discussing the possibilities and failures of revolutions.  The video below is a TED talk by Egyptian activist Wael Ghonim, who in 2011 used social media as a way to inform and build solidarity for the Egyptian Revolution.  A tech savvy Google executive living in Dubai, Ghonim started a Facebook page called "We Are Khaled Said" in support of Khaled Said who was tortured and killed by Egyptian police.  From this page, he published invitations and locations of protest sites, which he coordinated with protest organizers in Egypt.  In January 2011 he left Google Dubai to join the protests on the ground but he disappeared on the 27th of January.  After various social media campaigns, including blog posts demanding Ghonim's whereabouts, he was finally released after 11 days of detention.

Today, Ghonim through his activism via social media, is recognized as one of the catalysts for the protests that grew into the revolution that deposed Hosni Mubarak from his 30-year reign as president.  He was named one of Time's 100 Most Influential in 2011 for his social media activism and in this Ted Talk, he discusses the power of social media as a tool for revolution.  

In your blog post, discuss your thoughts about Ghonim's talk and the effectiveness of social media in activism and inciting revolutionary movements.  Consider the following questions as you respond to the post:  Are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media outlets viable places for activism?  Why or why not?  How can social media be used effectively in activism?  Do you think social media is an effective tool for inciting change?  Why or why not? (Note: you do not need to answer all of these questions.  Pick one or two to respond to on your post.)  

This post must be 2-3 paragraphs long and must be posted by April 29th at 5:00 pm to receive credit.

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The Boxer Rebellion

View the short video outlining China's Boxer Rebellion during 1900 and read the interview of Boxers and Saints author Gene Luen Yang.  For this blog post, write about your initial thoughts on Yang's graphic novel in light of the history of the rebellion and the interview.  In your response, answer the following questions: 1) Were the Boxer Rebels justified in their fight against foreigners and foreign missionaries?  Why or why not?  2) How does Yang connect his Asian-American upbringing with these graphic novels?  3) What are some of your predictions about what the second volume, Saints, will be about?

Responses must be 2-3 paragraphs long and must be posted by Tuesday, April 29th at 5:00 pm.

Excerpt from documentary on the Boxer Rebellion:

Fore the interview of Gene Luen Yang from Newsarama, click here.

Bonus!  If you would like to view a more comprehensive history of the Boxer Rebellion, watch this.

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Oppressed Brown Girls from Tumblr

The Tumblr blog Oppressed Brown Girls Doing Things is a tongue-and-cheek exploration of images of women of color from all over the world.  Through these photos, the site attempts to offer images of women of color from South Asia, the Near (Middle) East, Africa and even the United States as they do fun, extraordinary, courageous, silly, and artistic things in their daily lives.  In this way, the site provides a counter-narrative to the images of women of color, especially women who chose to wear veils, that depict them as oppressed by their country/religion, dejected, in poverty, and lacking any sort of agency.

For this blog post, explore the website Oppressed Brown Girl Doing Things.  Look at the images, read the posts and comments, watch the videos and think about the prevailing images that are produced by the media (and your own brain) about women who live in these parts of the world. Then, once you think you have fully explored the site, answer the following questions: 1) What do you think of the site's name and what does is it trying to convey? 2) What prevailing stereotypes about women of color, veiled women specifically is the site trying to counter? 3) Do you think the site is successful in providing a counter-narrative to these stereotypes?

Your comment must be at least two paragraphs long and must be posted on Tuesday, April 15th by 5:00 pm to receive credit.

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Edward Said's Orientalism

   During our class sessions this past week, we talked about "Western" (Europe, United States) perceptions of the Iran and the Middle East.  These perceptions are shaped by the images produced by modern-day media (news, films, television shows, etc.) but in many ways these images are rooted in the long history of western European colonial domination.  To justify the colonization of large parts of the Middle East, Asia, Africa and the Americas---which included not only the appropriation of land and natural resources, but the enslavement of millions of Africans for the trans-Atlantic slave trade---the colonizers invented a hierarchy which cast the people they have colonized as less than human and therefore in need of "civilizing" and European domination.

     Among the tools that colonizers used to ensure the subjugation of their colonies, violence and forced conversion to Christianity were their best weapons.  European artists---painters and writers---however, played a substantial role in ensuring the colonial agenda.  French, British and other western European artists did so by depicting Africans, Pacific Islanders, Asians and Arabs in their poetry, novels and paintings as they imagined them to be: depraved, uncivilized, savage, sexually deviant, and violent.  Edward Said most famously coined the term Orientalism for the genre of art, produced at the height of European colonial power in the 18th and 19th centuries, depicting the colonized Other.  Said writes: 

Unlike the Americans, the French and the British—less so the Germans, Russians, Spanish, Portuguese, Italians, and Swiss—have had a long tradition of what I shall be calling Orientalism, a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in European Western experience. The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe's greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other. In addition, the Orient has helped to define Europe (or the West) as its contrasting image, idea, personality, experience. Yet none of this Orient is merely imaginative. The Orient is an integral part of European material civilization and culture. (Said, 1-2)

Here, he argues that the "West" has imagined an image of the "East" based on its interests in the region as colonizers.  In so doing, this imagination of the East not defines the identity of the colonized but that it also defines the identity of Europe as something that is opposed and indeed better than (more civilized, more educated, more enlightened) the people they have come to conquer.

     Below, are images from French painters that orientalize the Middle East.  For your blog post, look closely at these images and answer the following questions: 1) what is ideas about the "East" do these paintings convey? 2) how do the orientalized images from these paintings affect our current perception of Iran and the Middle East?

     Your response must be at least two paragraphs long and you must post your response by 5:00 pm on Sunday, April 6th to receive credit.

Eugene Delacriox's "The Women of Algiers" (1834)

Antoine-Jean Gros's "Bonaparte Visits the Plague Stricken in Jaffa" (1804) 

Jean-Leon Gerome's "The Snake Charmer" (1870)

Francois-Gabriel Lepaulle's "The Pasha and His Harem" (mid-1800s)

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