Interdisciplinarity at SOSH

​​​​​​The School of Social Sciences and Humanities (SOSH) aims to instill in its students an interdisciplinary approach to the study of its subjects, fostering the diverse and all-encompassing perspectives necessary to understand the world in which we live. Through its programs, SOSH seeks to embolden students to view the issues in their societies critically and holistically, both in diagnosing problems and finding solutions.

In fulfilling this mission, SOSH students will not be confined to studying courses related only to their program of study. Rather, they will be required to register for a set of courses offered by the School and designed by specialists in the field of social sciences and humanities on the basis of interdisciplinarity. Faculty in the School, as well as visiting faculty will collaborate in the delivery of these courses. Additionally, SOSH students will be required to take at two courses from another program to further their exposure to other disciplines in the school. Please visit the "Programs of Study​" page for further information.

As a result, students in SOSH will not only be taught by faculty from different disciplines, but will also be involved with their colleagues from different programs, fostering the interdisciplinary environment sought after in the School.

The following categories of courses are incorporated in every program in the school as a means of achieving the above:

 

​1.       Interdisciplinary Courses

All students in SOSH must choose two interdisciplinary courses. These courses are normally offered by two or more programs in SOSH and faculty from different programs collaborate in delivering the lectures and seminars. The list of courses offered will normally include the following or a selection thereof:

​​​​SOSH 670 Experiences of Modernity in the Arab World: This courses deals with two axes; the first addresses concepts of modernity in relation to its inherent and corresponding concepts and it provides a theoretical introduction to key trends related to modernity. The second axis revolves around the issues raised by the application of modernity in the Arab world and reviews the various Arab modernist and modernizing experiments. It also aims to view modernism from historical standpoints and traces the evolution of the way Islamic thought dealt with forms of modernity and modernization.​

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SOSH 671 Colonialism and Arab National Liberation Movements: This course will study Western colonialism and its various forms, including the phenomenon of imperialism and the way Arab liberation movements emerged in light of these various aspects of control. The course will also introduce a number of concepts and theories that attempted to explain the phenomenon of colonialism, study the reasons behind the emergence of national liberation movements, and reexamine the concepts of patriotism and nationalism. This course will consist of two sections: theoretical and historical. The first section identifies the phenomenon of colonialism in its different stages. The historical section will address specific cases in the context of the Arab world.

 

SOSH 672 Civil Society in Comparative Perspective: This course seeks to develop the skills necessary for a deeper understanding of, and positive interaction with political theories and philosophical arguments, through examining the way concepts were formed and how they transitioned and developed across time and across cultural and political intervals. A deeper understanding of the development of these concepts and interpreting them will help students develop a critical view of these concepts and theories, and develop an original understanding in this field.

 

SOSH 673 Gender, Identity and Modernity in the Middle East: This course introduces students to the interrelationships between gender, identity and modernity in contemporary Middle Eastern societies. It provides an overview of the various debates, tensions and transformations that underpin changing gender relations, power dynamics, and social structures in the region.

 

SOSH 674 Critical Readings in Modern and Contemporary Aesthetics: Sound, Image, Text: This course aims to acquaint students with the theoretical and methodological trends in the field of modern and contemporary aesthetics. The course consists of two main sections. The first section, will address the history of the development of aesthetics and the key issues that formed its cognitive axes. The second part will address the three media components, sound, image and text, in terms of the main theoretical trends that addressed them and the critical approaches that have emerged from them.​

 

SOSH 675 Sociolinguistics: This course is an introduction to social linguistics, and focuses in general on the study of the different functions and purposes of language utilization in society. It deals with many topics in sociolinguistics whilst focusing on the linguistic situation in the Arab world. The course also aims to introduce students to the fundamental concepts of sociolinguistics and how to use them as research tools in studying the social reality in which we live.

 

SOSH 676 Political Economy of the Arab World: The Arab Uprisings have brought into relief the old debate on the material- economic and ideational-political origins of revolutions. Yet direct dialogue between economists and political science has been sparse.  This course attempts to remedy these lacunae by fusing insights from both disciplines as regards the recent convulsions in the Arab world. The course introduces historical inquiry of the origins and major themes of the political economy of the Middle East and studies contemporary social change and its attendant challenges.

 

SOSH 677 Comparative Cultural Studies: Theory and Application: This course starts with the argument that understanding culture is key to understanding political, social, historical aspects of human civilizations. Comparative Cultural Studies course will give insight into cultural experiences and perspectives in media, art and literature as well as other popular forms of expression.

 

SOSH 678 History of Ideas (description coming soon).

 

​ 2.       School Core Compulsory Courses

All students studying in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities must complete the two non-credit compulsory core courses. These courses are offered at the School level as a cross-disciplinary introduction to the study of fields of social sciences and humanities and are delivered as a series of lectures on selected topics by School professors and visitors. These topics address the origins, philosophical foundations, and development of the social sciences and humanities, their interaction with the natural sciences, the theoretical tools and research methodologies associated with these areas of study, and their impact on the development and evolution of various civilizations and societies.

Students will be expected to attend all the lectures delivered as part of these courses, and must successfully complete the course assignments as one of the conditions of graduation. These courses will appear in the transcript but will not contribute to the student's cumulative GPA. ​​

​SOSH 601 Issues in the Study of Humanities: ​ The primary mission of this course​ is twofold:  (1) to introduce the students at Doha Institute to a wide ranging spectrum of subjects, themes, and scholarly disciplines within the humanities—including literature, poetry, drama, and the varieties of visual and performing arts, and (2) to interrogate the historical hold of western self-imaginings on the formation of humanistic knowledge and disciplines, which, knowledge-wise has led to the postulates of a posthumanism, while disciplinarily they have opened up to the culturally and historically informed acts of critical humanism. ​SEE FULL COURSE DESCRIPTION HERE.