List of Courses for M.S. Program in Eurasian Studies

(Thesis and Non-Thesis Options)

Required Courses

2005-2006 Fall Semester

EAS        500 Prothesis Seminar (Thesis) (Non-Credit)

EAS        501 Society and Culture in Eurasia (3-0)3 (Ayşegül Baydar Aydıngün)

EAS        505 Russian I (Non-Credit) (Leyla Tağızade)

EAS        506 Russian II (Non-Credit) (Leyla Tağızade)

EAS        509 Introduction to Post-Soviet Studies (3-0)3 (Ceylan Tokluoğlu)

EAS        589 Term Project (Non-Thesis) (Non-Credit)

EAS        599 Master’s Thesis (Non-Credit)

2005-2006 Spring Semester

EAS        500 Prothesis Seminar (Thesis) (Non-Credit)

EAS        502 The Politics of State-Building in Eurasia (3-0)3 (Ayça Ergun)

EAS        505 Russian I (Non-Credit) (Leyla Tağızade)
EAS        506 Russian II (Non-Credit) (Leyla Tağızade)

EAS        589 Term Project (Non-Thesis) (Non-Credit)

EAS        599 Master’s Thesis (Non-Credit)

Elective Courses (recommended by the Eurasian Studies Program – lecturer’s approval is required)

2005-2006 Fall Semester

EAS 511 Imperial Cities of Eurasia (3-0)3 (Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir)

ADM 673 Readings on Central Asian Perspectives (3-0)3 (Pınar Akçalı)

HIST 511 Historical and Contemporary Affairs in the Indian Subcontinent (3-0)3 (Mustafa Soykut)

IR 463 Russian Foreign Policy (3-0)3 (Oktay F. Tanrısever)

IR 544 Politics in East Central Europe (3-0)3 (Mustafa Türkeş)

SOC 427 Social Analysis of Race Ethnicity and Society (3-0)3 (Ceylan Tokluoğlu)

SOC 515 State and Civil Society in Eurasia (3-0)3 (Ayça Ergun)

SOC 530 Kinship, Trine, Confederation and State in Central Asia and the Middle East (3-0)3 (Erdoğan Yıldırım)

IR 682 Issues in Eurasian Security and Politics (3-0) 3 (Oktay F. Tanrısever)

2005-2006 Spring Semester

ADM     482 Current Issues in Central Asian Politics (3-0)3 (Pınar Akçalı)

ADM 484 International Politics of Oil (3-0)3 (Atilla Altınordu)

HIST      510 Women’s Experience with Hierarchy and State (3-0)3 (İsenbike Togan)

HIST 511 Hist. of Contmp. Affairs in Indian Sub-Continent (3-0)3 (Mustafa Soykut)

IR           486 Russian Politics (3-0)3 (Oktay F. Tanrısever)

IR           534 Political Economy of International Oil (3-0)3 (Meliha Altunışık)

IR           538 Trancaucasia and Central Asia in World Affairs (3-0)3 (Süha Bölükbaşıoğlu)

IR           564 Russia and the Eurpopean State-System (3-0)3 (Oktay F. Tanrısever)

SOC       529 Migration and Ethnicity in Eurasian Societies (3-0)3 (Ayşegül Baydar Aydıngün)

Non-Departmental Elective Courses

Thesis students can take 2, non-thesis students 4 non-departmental elective courses from other departments with the approval of the lecturer and advisor.
Offered courses by all departments are announced on http://oibs.metu.edu.tr/View_Program_Course_Details_64/

DESCRIPTION OF COURSES

REQUIRED COURSES

EAS 500 Prothesis Seminar

The objective of this seminar is to familiarize students with the basic concepts, theories and approaches within the field of Eurasian Studies. The seminar attempts to assist students in discovering their specific areas of interest and to enrich their knowledge about Eurasia. In weekly seminars, conducted by scholars from different disciplines students will be familiarized with different approaches on Eurasia. It is hoped that this will allow the students to meet the professors and learn about their areas of research. Students are expected to attend the seminars and read the assigned article for each seminar in advance. Students ill write a term paper of approximately 3500-5000 words in length, word processed, and correctly reference. Paper topics will be arranged on an individual basis with one of the professors of the programme.

EAS 501 Society and Culture in Eurasia (Ayşegül Baydar Aydıngün-Mustafa Şen)

This course aims at a comprehensive study of contemporary Eurasia with a special emphasis on historical and world context. Focusing upon the great transformation Eurasian societies have experienced, the course will cover the following issues: social, cultural and political effects of transition to free market economy; the rise of nationalism and ethnic cleavages; religious entities, demography, family, migration patterns and etc.

EAS 502 The Politics of State-Building in Eurasia (Pınar Akçalı-Ayça Ergun)

The focus of this course will be on the some theoretical concerns related to nations, nationalism, democracy, governmental mechanisms, institution building and ethnicity in relation to the dynamics of state-building and nationality problems and policies in the context of post-Soviet period states. The course is divided by issue and not by geographical area or republic. These issues include state-building, history, elite structures and electoral behavior where applicable.

EAS 505 (Ayşe Pamir Dietrich)

An introduction to the Russian Alphabet and the basic grammar of Russian.

EAS 506 (Ayşe Pamir Dietrich)

A continuation of EAS 505 and reading of simple texts in Russian

EAS 509 (Ceylan Tokluoğlu)

The principal aim of this course is to provide the students of the Eurasian Master’s Program with the necessary tools and methods (main theoretical models and debates in area studies) when studying the region which will be helpful also in the context of the other courses offered by the same Program. It also aims to offer to the students of the region not only a comprehensive conceptualization of the concept of Eurasia but also some essential and basic knowledge about each country both in a historical context and in the light of current developments and transformations.

EAS 511 (Tuğba Tanyeri-Erdemir)

This course offers a comparative study of imperial cities in Eurasia. The principle aim is to provide students with the necessary theoretical and methodological tools to explore possible ways of studying imperial systems through an investigation of cities and urban life. Students will be exposed to a number of imperial systems in a geography covering the modern day countries of Afghanistan, Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Mongolia, Russia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan. They will be encouraged to explore the historical, archeological, architectural and sociological data for a better understanding of economic, social, political, and religious structures of empires.

ELECTIVE COURSES

ADM 482 Current Issues in Central Asian Politics (Pınar Akçalı)

This course aims to provide a basic understanding of five Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. These countries are analyzed both on an individual basis and from an historical perspective with specific emphasis on some of their common features. In the final part of the course, these republics are examined within a regional and global perspective.

ADM 673 Readings on Central Asian Perspectives (Pınar Akçalı)

This course is to be offered to those students who have an interest in the newly emerged Central Asian republics of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. It aims to provide an in-depth analysis on an advanced level about the history of the area, and the socio-economic, political, cultural and religion factors shaping these countries.

HIST 510 Women’s Experiences with Hierarchy and the State (İsenbike Togan)

Focusing on two empires, the Ottoman and Chinese, the course will explore the changing role and status of women over time. Taking cultural factors into consideration women’s role will be examined within changing patterns of state traditions of these two “sedentary” empires, counter examples will be drawn from Inner Asian nomadic empires, as well as from the tribal peoples of the border areas.

HIST 511 History and Contemporary Affairs of the Indian Sub-Continent (Mustafa Soykut)

This course has been designed to give the graduate students a general perspective on history of the Indian sub-continent in a thematical way in order to understand the profound historical dynamics shaping the minds of the contemporary policy-makers of the sub-continent. It will try to explain the political and cultural dynamics of the Indian sub-continent making use of cultural and political history.

IR 444 Issues and Politics in Central Asia (Süha Bölükbaşıoğlu)

This course is designed for students interested in the contemporary problems of Central Asia and Azerbaijan. Although there is no prerequisite, it is expected that the students have had some exposure to the 20th century developments in the region.

IR 463. Russian Foreign Policy (Oktay F. Tanrısever)

This undergraduate course intends to explore the dynamics of Russian foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. Emphasizing the ambivalent position of Russia between the Eastern and the Western Worlds, the course evaluates the impact of the post-Soviet transition process on the foreign policy orientation of Russia. The first part of the course deals mainly with the Soviet foreign policy, forming the historical background of the contemporary Russian foreign policy. This is followed by a discussion of the basic principles of the contemporary Russian foreign policy with reference to the major issue-areas.

IR 534 Political Economy of International Oil (Meliha Altunışık)

This seminar consists of two parts: The first part examines the regional and international aspects of oil, focusing on the primacy of oil in the Middle East, oil discovery and concessions, the emergence of OPEC and the structural changes in the oil market. The second part addresses the socioeconomic and political effects of oil on oil-exporting states and discusses the rentier state/ rentier economy model, employing extensive case studies.

IR 564 Russia and the European State System (Oktay F. Tanrısever)

This post-graduate course seeks to explore and analyze the evolution of Russia’s place in the European state system, especially in the Post-Cold War era.

SOC 427 Social Analysis of Race, Ethnicity and Society (Ceylan Tokluoğlu)

This course reviews the literature on theories of nationalism, nation-building, state-formation, and ethnicity mapping out the major debates and approaches within the literature. The central concepts and the current trends in the literature which imply a necessary link between the process of modernization / industrialization and nation-state building and nationalism are critically reviewed. It also examines social and ethnic relations as part of larger social systems by emphasizing the relationship of ethnicity to nations, state, class, minority groups, gender, power and politics.

SOC 515 State and Civil Society in Post-Soviet Transition (Ayça Ergun)

This course will enable students the understand state and society relations in the post-Soviet transformation. The course aims to introduce students to the main theoretical debates concerning the causes and the nature of political, social and economic transformation from communism; to provide theories of transition, democratization and theoretical approaches to state-society relations while explaining varieties of post-Soviet transition.

SOC 518 Social Movements and Civic Action (Ayça Ergun)

The course will critically examine the major theoretical approaches to the study of social movements and NGOs. The emergence and development of any social protest: recruitement and mobilization, tactics and strategies, and external opposition and control. Do contemporary forms of protest strengthen civil society and democratic development around the world? The objective of the course is to critically apply the theories we discuss to contemporary protest and political activity.

SOC 529 Migration and Ethnicity in Eurasian Societies (Ayşegül Baydar Aydıngün)

The aim of this course is to scrutinize the relationship between identity, ethnicity, migration and culture; the interaction between dominant cultures and minority groups and its impact on ethnic identity formation in Eurasian societies. Case studies for this course come from groups such as the Crimean Tatars, Meskhetian (Ahıska) Turks, Soviet Germans, Soviet Jews and the Russians. In addition to the western theories on ethnicity, the Soviet ethnos theory and the Soviet nationality policy are critically examined to analyze the groups specified above.

SOC 530 Kinship, Tribe, Confederation and State in Central Asia and the Middle East (Erdoğan Yıldırım - This course was developed and taught by Sharon Baştuğ)

The kinship-based structure of tribal organization and its relation to supra-tribal and non-tribal forms of organization in Central Asia and the Middle East. Concept of the segmentary lineage system and its critics; tribal structure as an organizational framework functioning simultaneously at various levels from local to societal; the historical conflict between tribe and state in the two regions.