Course content - Learning outcome - Admission - Prerequisites - Teaching - Examination - Evaluation

Course content

In the Arab world as elsewhere, the internet is an increasingly important medium for negotiating and influencing politics, social relations, cultural expressions, and the economy. This course surveys various aspects of internet use in the Arab world. Precise focus of the course may shift over time to reflect current dynamics and both teachers’ research and students’ interests. Possible areas covered include: majority use (“what is most popular?”), democratization, political activism, participatory culture, cultural production, individual expression, private life, economic development, e-government, etc.). Internet use is contexualized and historicized, and tools to analyze the background of sites will be introduced. On the one hand, the course will investigate features the Arabic online sphere shares with other regions of the world and on the other hand it will deal with specifics of Arabic internet use.

Learning outcome

• Based on current research accessible through secondary literature and on the analysis of select cases, students will be able to assess the use and impact of select aspects of the internet in the Arab world.
• They will be acquainted with using basic tools for analyzing online activity.
• They will have trained their ability to critically read and discuss the work of others.
• They will have learned to formulate their own research interests, develop hypotheses, select a specific case for closer study to investigate these hypotheses, decide on a method to investigate this case, and present results of their analysis in oral and written form in an academic style.
• Master students of Arabic will be able to interact on the internet in Arabic (incl. read and write access), and they will have improved their reading and listening proficiency in Modern Standard Arabic and/or written as well as oral forms of colloquial Arabic.

Admission

Students at UiO must apply for courses in StudentWeb.

International applicants, if you are not already enrolled as a student at UiO, please see our information about admission requirements and procedures for international applicants.

Admission as a Master student to the Program for Asian and African Studies.

The examination in this course is not available for external candidates. Only students admitted to the course may sit for the examination.

Prerequisites

Formal prerequisite knowledge

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For master students in Arabic: ARA2110 - Arabisk språk 3+4 or equivalent.
The course is also open to master students from other programs who do not have knowledge of Arabic.

Recommended previous knowledge

Master students in Arabic should to be able to read modern Arabic newspaper texts at reasonable speed, and have general computer and internet literacy. Most secondary sources are in English, but reading ability in French, German and Scandinavian languages may be advantageous, depending on students’ specific research interests. In coordination with the teacher, the course may be opened to Master students who are not focussing on Arabic language; they will be given assignments in accordance with their research focus.

Teaching

10 weekly 2-hour seminars with introductory presentations (by teacher and students) and reading of Arabic (and where appropriate, other language) texts taken from relevant Internet sites. Selection of primary reading material will reflect the breadth of sites analyzed, but also take into account participants' particular topical interests. In addition to reading ca. 30 pp. of secondary literature per week, students must be ready to spend ca. 3 hours per week exploring relevant Internet sites.

Every student will adopt one Arab subject/blog/website to follow in closer detail throughout the semester, and compose an oral presentation as well as a semester assignment reflecting on specific phenomena according to the topic of choice. A first draft of the planned assignment should be submitted within the first three weeks of the course.

Access to teaching

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Examination

Term paper (semesteroppgave) (8-10 pp. à 2300 characters) on a topic to be agreed upon. Before the final version can be submitted, it must be presented and discussed orally in class, accompanied by a 1-p. pointed “thesis paper” handout. This presentation, and where relevant, the weekly Fronter assignments, must be approved in order for the term paper to be considered.

Examination support material

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Language of examination

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Grading scale

Grades are awarded on a scale from A to F, where A is the best grade and F is a fail. Read more about the grading system.

Explanations and appeals

You may request an explanation of your grades, and you may also appeal against your grades or make a complaint about formal examination errors. Read more about explanations and appeals.

Resit an examination

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Withdrawal from an examination

A student may sit this exam up to 3 times. If a student wishes to withdraw from the exam, s/he must do so in StudentWeb at least two weeks prior to the first day of the exam. Failure to do so will be counted as one of the three opportunities to sit the exam.

Special examination arrangements

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Evaluation

Feedback from our students is essential to us in our efforts to ensure and further improve the high quality of our programmes and courses. All courses are subject to continuous evaluation. At regular intervals we also ask students on a particular course to participate in a more comprehensive, periodic evaluation of this course.

Mid-term evaluation

Periodic evaluation