With a focus on the Arab Middle East, Turkey, and Iran during the late Ottoman and colonial eras, this course asks questions about belonging. In particular, it looks at the relationships between national, ethnic, religious, racial, gender and/or socio-economic affiliations in creating and concretizing "foreignness" and minorities. This course considers what categorized a community or persons as "foreign", when and how these categories changed, and how "foreign" communities and individuals influenced the changing political, economic, and cultural landscape of the Middle East.