Winter 2025 Jewish Studies Courses
Course Description: SOC 157 – Social Conflict
Instructor: Dr. Yael Teff-Seker
Why do we have conflicts? Do they happen because of destabilizing forces in our society? or because we compete over resources? Or perhaps because of social constructions that privilege the powerful at the expense of the weak? Are they a natural part of social life, or are they an evil that must be prevented or stopped? And how can we stop conflict, especially violent conflict, from erupting?
The course will discuss all of these questions and more by introducing theories of inter-group and social conflict and applies them to cases in the United States and around the world, including an emphasis on the Middle East. Lectures will focus on theories from the fields of sociology, social psychology, and political sciences, and sub-fields such as game theory, alternative dispute resolution, and sustainability.
In discussions, students will examine topics such as group identity, group relations, inter-and group conflict, and apply these theories and models to real-life cases. The course will end with a focus on practical solutions relating to inter-group contact, conflict resolution, reduction, and prevention, as well as inter-group collaboration.
Students will engage in open and critical, respectful, and evidence-based discussion and analysis of inter-group tensions, culminating in an independent (yet guided) study of a specific initiative of their choosing for their final project. In addition to lectures, classes will include peet discussions, short videos, active learning, simulations, and short academic writing workshops.
Course Description: GER 116: Readings in Jewish Writing & Thought in German Culture
Instructor: Sven-Erik Rose
CRN: 41473
TR 1:40-3:00 | WELLMAN 203
The most widespread association people have with German-Jewish culture is undoubtedly the Holocaust, the cataclysm that brought this culture to an end. But if we remember only the Holocaust, we forget what this extraordinarily creative tradition contributed to Jewish, German, and world culture. For 150 years—between the late 1700s and the National Socialists’ rise to power in 1933—Jews in Germany and German-speaking lands produced a body of works and ideas that have left an indelible mark on our modernity. In this course, we will explore works by important German-Jewish authors, artists and intellectuals including Walter Benjamin, Martin Buber, Sigmund Freud, Heinrich Heine, Theodor Herzl, Franz Kafka, Moses Mendelssohn, Charlotte Salomon, Else Lasker-Schüler, Arthur Schnitzler, and Stefan Zweig.
The course will conclude with an exploration of recent writings by Jewish authors in
contemporary Germany. Course readings will include prose literature, poetry, philosophy, political theory, theology, psychoanalysis, and painting.
All readings and discussion in English. No prerequisites.
Course description: HMR 131 Genocide
Instructor: Keith Watenpaugh
Winter 2025 Hebrew Language Courses