Course Descriptions
Because the Program in Jewish Studies is interdisciplinary in nature, we offer many cross-listed classes with other departments to provide students with a dynamic, diverse curriculum. Many of these courses also count for core credit.Below is a complete list of courses with descriptions offered by Jewish Studies.
Because of our multiple cross-listed courses, many students are able to fulfill Majors or Minors within both Jewish Studies and another department.
Full List:
This interdisciplinary course introduces the diversity of refugee migration in German culture through artistic and cultural "texts," including those created by or in collaboration with refugees (film, comic journalism, literature, blogs, hashtag campaigns, music, etc). These texts are discussed in relation to theories of racism, precarity, and biopolitics together and contextualized by work from other disciplines. This interdisciplinary course is methodologically informed by the theory and practice of cultural studies.
Explusions and Diasporas: The Jews of Spain and Portugal
JWST 4524 / HIST 4524
This course considers the experience of Jews and converses during the Spanish Inquisition and the Iberian expulsions of the 1490s. Sephardic refugees faced social, economic, and political upheavals in the decades after their exile, leading to new communities in settings as diverse as North Africa, India, Turkey, the Caribbean, and the Americas. The study of texts and traditions from the Sephardic diaspora will explore themes including forced conversion, rabbinic authority, colonialism, and mercantile networks. Previously offered as a special topics course.
Working with a faculty member in Jewish Studies on an independent study research project provides graduate students with an opportunity to learn outside the formal classroom structure with individual direction from Jewish Studies faculty on a topic of mutual interest not offered in regularly scheduled classes. Independent study may not be used to substitute for a regular courses not being offered in a given term.Please visit our contact page to get in touch withtheDirector of Graduate Studies for the Program in Jewish Studiesfor more information.
MODERN HEBREW
*Formerly named "Jewish Intellectual History"
Explores the experience of Jews in the United States from the 1880's when the great migration of Jews from Eastern Europe began, through the twentieth century. Students will explore the changing ways in which Jews adapted to life in the U.S., constructed American Jewish identities, and helped to participate in the construction of the United States as a nation.
INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS
MUSIC
Women, Gender & Sexuality in Jewish Texts & Traditions
JWST 3202/WGST 3201
WRITING
Interested in auditing a Jewish Studies course?
Visit the website to learn more about the community and senior auditors programs.