Courses Offered in Jewish Studies
Approaches to Jewish Studies (Hochman)
Designed for advanced students concentrating in Jewish studies, this course focuses on the nature, development, and enactment of the field of Jewish studies. We will look at the process of creating, critiquing, and debating Jewish studies as a way of determining the methodological foundations of the field. Together we read about the history of Jewish studies as an academic enterprise to ask several critical questions: what is Jewish studies, what are its political and/or ideological underpinnings, how has it evolved, and what constitutes the field as a major field concentration?
Bridge of Understanding: Jews and non-Jews in Contemporary Germany (Hochman)
This course explores the long, complex and often painful history shared by Germans, both Jews and non-Jews. By looking at diverse literary, philosophical, historical and religious sources, we will explore the changing terrain of identity politics in national, cultural and religious realms. Several days of close study on campus in Gainesville will be followed by an intense study tour of Germany. An application process is required in order to participate in this class.
Israeli Cinema (Saposnik)
Films and nations are both relatively recent innovations in human experience (and this is, of course, particularly true of the Israeli nation), and both have, in their relatively brief existence, become omnipresent in our lives, shaping the ways in which we understand, view, and represent reality. Film has a unique ability to act both as a reflection of a given (national) culture, and at the same time acts as a catalyst stimulating further development of that culture. Throughout the semester, we will view Israeli cinema as a means for understanding Israeli society, its changing culture, and its image of itself from a range of perspectives.
Courses Offered in Other Departments:
African & Asian Languages and Literature, Anthropology, English, Geography, German and Slavic Studies, History, Linguistics, Music, Political Science, Religion