Citation

Clark JH. Geogr. Comp. 2017; 11(2): e12304.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/gec3.12304

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In this article, I draw on the work of feminist and critical political geographers to demonstrate what a feminist geopolitics can offer Middle East studies. I cite scholarship of feminist and critical geographers situated within and outside the region to address three key themes: "refuge," "belief," and "peace." In each theme, I use the "body" as a starting point to convene a justice-oriented methodology of studying and knowing the Middle East. A major objective and contribution of feminist geopolitics to geography has been to recenter political inquiry from the state to the fleshy matter of the body. A "corporeal geopolitics" understands that all bodies have geopolitical agency, that all bodies are vulnerable--albeit differentially--to politics, and that all bodies are connected within and formative of shared economic, social, and political processes across space. Here, I chart ways that a feminist geopolitical analytic focused on "bodies" can contribute to a more complex understanding of the Middle East, one that operates through specificity, accountability, and care.

Language: en