• Research
• BRANDEIS HOME

Academic Courses

Faculty at Brandeis teach a range of courses on Israel studies across several Brandeis departments. In Spring 2012, the following courses focus on Israel, backed up by multiple Brandeis courses that include an Israel studies element.

* All Israel Studies courses are offered via Brandeis departments and programs, as the Schusterman Center for Israel Studies is not a degree-granting program.

Fall 2012

Israel Studies

ANTH 118b:  Peoples and Societies of Israel and the Middle East
  Emily McKee - Anthropology
Examines the peoples and societies of the Middle East from an anthropological perspective. Explores problems of cross-cultural examination, the notion of the Middle East as an area of study, and the role of anthropology in the formation of the idea of the “Middle East.” To this end, the course is divided into sections devoted to understanding and problematizing key concepts and themes central to our understanding of the region, including tribe and state, family and kinship, gender and sexuality, honor and shame, tradition and modernity, and religion and secularism. Course materials will include critical ethnographies based on fieldwork in the region as well as locally produced materials such as literature, music, film and other visual arts.

FA 76A: Palestinian and Israeli Art and Visual Culture: Intersecting Visions
  Gannit Ankori - Fine Arts
In a region subsumed by turmoil and conflict, Israeli and Palestinian artists have been tenaciously engaged in the creation of vibrant and innovative works of art. Characterized by diversity and boldness, these paintings, sculptures, installations, photographs, films, performances and videos both reflect and transcend the violent contexts in which they are being produced.
 
NEJS 145a: History of the State of Israel
  Ilan Troen - NEJS
Examines the development of the State of Israel from its foundation to the present time. Israel's politics, society, and culture will be thematically analyzed.

NEJS 154b Israel: Religion, State and Society
  Yehuda Mirsky - NEJS
Understanding the nexus of religion, state and society is indispensable and fascinating when it comes to Israel, and valuable for grappling with questions of pluralism, secularism, religious resurgence, democracy and other pressing global issues.

POL: Understanding the ‘Special Relationship’ The Role of Interests, Values and Lobbies in U.S.-Israel Relations
  Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch
 - Politics, Heller School
This seminar provides a historical and analytical overview of U.S.-Israel relations. The main goal of this seminar is to develop a theoretically informed and historically grounded critical evaluation and assessment of U.S.-Israel relations.

POL 164a: Conflict and Peace Making in the Middle East
  Shai Feldman - Politics
Evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the efforts to resolve it. Focuses on key documents and developments with particular emphasis on the Palestinian-Israeli dimension, and the different narratives adopted by the parties on the conflict.

Near Eastern and Judaic Studies

Middle East Studies

NEJS 196B: The Middle Eastern City - Intersections of Art, Literature and History
Begins with the pre-modern Middle Eastern city, old constructs that are constitutive of identity, and concludes by examining the culture and forms of Jerusalem, Mecca, Cairo, Tehran, Beirut and Baghdad.

IMES 105A: War and Revolution in the Middle East
   Kanan Mohamed Makiya - Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Considers the impact of war and revolution in the shaping of the modern Middle East starting with the Arab-Israeli war of 1967. Focuses on the violent turning points that have changed the lives of millions of people.

Language-based studies

HBRW 44B: Advanced Intermediate Hebrew: Israeli Culture and Media
   Bonit Porath - Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
Reinforces the acquired skills of speaking, listening comprehension, reading, and writing at the intermediate to mid/high level. Contemporary cultural aspects are stressed; conversational Hebrew and reading of selections from modern literature, political essays, and newspaper articles. Required for NEJS majors and Hebrew majors and recommended for others who would like to continue studying Hebrew beyond the foreign language requirement.

HBRW 161B: What's Up? Hebrew through Israeli News Media
   Bonit Porath - Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
For advanced students who wish to enhance proficiency and accuracy in writing and speaking. Israeli newspapers, films, clips from Israeli TV series and shows, and on-line resources will be used to promote language and cultural competency.

HBRW 146B: Israeli Theater
   Sara Hascal - NEJS
An advanced course that enhances advanced language skills through reading and analysis of plays. The student's creativity is developed through participation in acting and creative writing lab.

HBRW 164B: Voices of Jerusalem
   Sara Hascal - NEJS
Aims to develop students' language proficiency through analysis of selected materials that depict the unique tradition, literature and poetry, history, politics, art, and other features related to Jerusalem.

 Past Courses

Topics in Israel studies across campus departments

Gannit Ankori, Chair of Israeli Art in the Department of Fine Arts
    •        Israeli Art and Visual Culture: Forging Identities Between East and West
    •        Art and Trauma: Israeli, Palestinian, Latin American
 and United States Art

Maoz Azaryahu, Visiting Faculty Anthropology/Schusterman Center
    •       Mythic Tel-Aviv

Uri Bialer, Visiting Faculty History/NEJS/Schusterman Center
    •       Israel's Foreign Policy
    •       Ideology and Society in Contemporary Israel: Major Controversies

Yoram Bilu, Visiting Faculty Anthropology/Schusterman Center
    •       The Sanctification of Space in Contemporary Israel

Esther Carmel-Hakim, Lecturer in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
    •        Jewish Women in Pre-State Israel, 1882-1948

Michael Feige, Visiting Faculty Anthropology/NEJS/Schusterman Center
    •        Digging for National Roots: The Politics of Israeli Archaeology

Benjamin Gidron, Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Hornstein Professional Jewish Leadership Program
    •        Topics in Sustainable Development
    •        The Third Sector in Society & Non Profit Organization
 and Society

Michal Ben-Josef Hirsch, Schusterman Center and Politics Post-Doctoral Fellow
    •        U.S- Israeli Relations: Interests, Values, Lobbies, and the "Special Relationship"
    •        Transitional Justice and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

Motti Inbari, Schusterman Center and NEJS Post-Doctoral Fellow
    •        Fundamentalism in a Comparative Perspective
    •        Messianism and the State of Israel

Yuval Jobani, Schusterman Center and NEJS Post-Doctoral Fellow
    •        Jewish Political Thought

Hanna Naveh, Visiting Professor, Near Eastern and Judaic Studies
    •        Family Myths: Imagining the Family in Modern Hebrew
 Literature
    •        Heroes and Anti-Heroes in Modern Hebrew Literature

Ambassador Dennis Ross, Fred and Rita Richman Distinguished 
Visiting Professor
    •        The Arab-Israeli Conflict

Eugene Sheppard, Associate Professor of Modern Jewish History and Thought; Associate Director of the Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry
    •        Major Trends in Modern Jewish Philosophy
    •        Trials of Truth, Power, and Justice
    •        Zionism and Its Critics: Contested Visions of Jewish
    Nationalism
    •        Seminar on Modern Jewish History and Historiography
    •        Secularization and its Discontents

Sammy Smooha, Schusterman Visiting Professor in Sociology
    •       Israeli Society
    •       Ethnic Relations

Asher Susser, Senior Fellow on the Myra and Robert Kraft Chair in Arab Politics
    •        Contemporary Politics in the Middle East
    •        Jordan, Israel, and the Palestinians: Between War and
 Peace

Ilana Szobel, Assistant Professor on the Joseph H. and Belle R. Braun Chair
in Hebrew Literature
    •        (Re)Imagining Israel: Narrative, Identity, and Zionism
 in Hebrew Literature
    •        Representing the Holocaust in Hebrew Literature
    •        When a Man Loves a Woman: Love, Power, and Gender in
    Modern Hebrew Literature
    •        Promises and Fulfillment: Israeli Life in Hebrew
    Literature
    •        Line of Resistance: Israeli Women Writers on War
 and Peace
    •        Trauma and Violence in Israeli Literature and Film

Ilan Troen, Director, Schusterman Center for Israel Studies; Karl, Harry, and Helen Stoll Family Chair in Israel Studies
    •        Conflict and Controversies in Israeli History: graduate
 seminar
    •        Divergent Jewish Cultures: Israel and America
    •        History of the State of Israel, Zionism to the Present
    •        Topics in Israeli Social and Political History
    •        War and Peace in Israeli Thought and Praxis