CWL 283 Jewish Sacred Literature

Credit Hours: 3

Instructor: Dov Weiss

This course introduces students to the great literary works of the Jewish tradition from the time of Jesus until the Early Modern Period. The class will read and reflect upon a rich array of Jewish texts from a number of genres including philosophy, mysticism (Kabbalah), prayer, poetry, history and law. Attention will be given not only to content and form, but also to the historical and social context that gave rise to these important masterpieces. No prior knowledge of the Jewish tradition is necessary.

CWL 501 Theory of Literature

Credit: 4 hours

Instructor: Brett Kaplan

Unit for Criticism and Interpretative Theory lecture series Tuesdays from 5:15-6:45, room TBA. This seminar introduces graduate students to theory, broadly construed. We will move through diverse texts to offer a range of contemporary theories about race, gender, literature, environment, indigeneity, and other matters. Throughout the semester we will ask ourselves “what is theory?” and, no doubt, come up with multiple answers.

CWL 581 Seminar Lit Themes

Credit: 4 hours

Instructor: Brett Kaplan

Reading World Literatures is open to graduate students in all fields who want to expand their close reading practices. It's primarily a chance to read together, engage in close reading, and explore literature from some (alas not all) parts of the world. Throughout the semester we'll read a variety of texts and use diverse critical and theoretical skills to approach literary analysis. Polyglots can read in the original languages, but all books will be available in English and students will propose some of the readings. Everyone writes short essays throughout the semester that examine the "universe in a grain of sand." Each student chooses three books and writes three seven-page papers each based on one passage from the chosen book. In addition, everyone will present one of the books of your choosing. This will be excellent preparation for the explication de texte section of Comparative and World Literature MA and Prelim exams. The course contributes to the Unit for Criticism requirement and the Holocaust, Genocide, Memory Studies certification.

GER 261 The Holocaust in Context

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Anna Hunt, Anke Pinkert

Examines cultural representations of the Holocaust in literature, film, and critical essays. Same as CWL 273 and ENGL 269. Credit is not given for both GER 261 and GER 260.

HEBR 201 Elementary Modern Hebrew I

Credit: 5 hours

Instructor: Ilit Morchaym

HEBR 403 Intermediate Modern Hebrew I

Credit: 4 or 5 hours

Instructor: Ilit Morchaym

HEBR 405 Advanced Modern Hebrew I

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Ilit Morchaym

History 281 Constructing Race in America

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Multiple

Topic: This introductory survey course on the social construction of race in the United States examines how various conceptions and interpretations of racial difference have changed over time in U.S. history and the ways these differences meshed with social inequalities. Specifically, we explore the ways the color line had a profound impact on everyday life. Through readings, lectures, discussion, and writing assignments, we will engage the construction of race through the realm of the law, culture, and immigration policy. We will interrogate how race was made real (and continues to be) in immigration policy, determining who was/is permitted to enter the United States as an immigrant at various historical moments, whether they were permitted to naturalize as “free white persons,” and their treatment once in U.S. society. Indeed, although it is socially constructed, race remains a very real lived experience then as now

HIST 335 Middle East 1566-1914

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Laura Goffman

Did the Middle East really "decline," and how did it become "modern"? During the four centuries before the First World War the Middle East witnessed the transformation of the classical Ottoman order, the re-ordering of government and society, and, after 1800, the steady growth of European influence in the economic, political, and cultural spheres, culminating in the establishment of colonial rule over much of the area. Toward the end of this era, a debate arose among Middle Eastern intellectuals over the causes of their "backwardness" and its possible remedies, contributing to the rise of new religious, social, and political movements, which have continued to the present. We will be examining these developments in the context of ongoing social and economic changes, in the region consisting of Egypt, Arabia, the Fertile Crescent, Iran, and Turkey.

HIST 433 History of Jews in Diaspora

Credit: 3 or 4 hours

Instructor: Marc Abou Abdallah

Title: History of Jews in Diaspora Topic: Drawing on a wide variety of primary and secondary textual and archeological sources - ranging from letters, scriptures, ceramics, to official documents – we study the ways in which the people of Israel, the Jewish people defined themselves in the end of the second millennium BC. We analyze the Babylonian Exile, which was a period when the people of Israel refashioned its collective and individual identities. We examine the revolution of Bar-Kokhba in AD 132-135, and the dispersion of Jews in the Roman Empire, and in Arabia as well. We study the interaction between the exiled Jewish diaspora communities and their non-Jewish neighbors since antiquity until1948, as well as on changes internal to the Jewish communities. We analyze the ways in which Jewish communities refashioned their collective and individual identities between WWI and 1948, and which led to the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.