Course Offerings
As always, check BUonline for the latest updates and the Harpur Bulletin for course descriptions and details.
SPRING 2020
JUDAIC STUDIES
Survey of American Jewish Literature - JUST 140 - Gen Ed: C, H
Cross listed: COLI 180R / ENG 280I
Time: W 4:40-7:40
Instructor: C. Beth Burch
Through the Golden Door: Survey of American Jewish Literature: This course traces
through literature the realities and challenges of being Jewish in America from after
the Civil War to the present. We will read in all genres, exploring topics such as
the immigrant experience, acculturation and assimilation, anti-Semitism, generational
conflicts and differences, gender issues, and continuing themes in the body of work.
Quizzes, short pieces of writing, mid-term examination, and final examination.
Jewish History 1500 to Modern - JUST 202 - Gen Ed: G
Cross listed: RELG 280C / HIST 285E
Time: T/R 10:05-11:30
Instructor: Dina Danon
The second half of the survey course on Jewish history can be taken independently
and requires no previous background. It covers the tumultuous period from the 1492
expulsion of the Jews from Spain to the creation of the modern State of Israel. Topics
covered include Jewish messianic movements, emancipation, the rise of American Jewry,
and the Holocaust.
Jewish American Novel - JUST 310 - Gen Ed: C, H
Cross listed: COLI 381N / ENG 300Z
Time: M 4:40-7:40
Instructor: C. Beth Burch
In 1977, critic of Jewish culture Irving Howe lamented what he feared was the end
of American Jewish literature: “What,” he worried, “is the likely future of American
Jewish writing? Can we expect a new generation of writers to appear who will contribute
to American literature a distinctive sensibility and style derived from the Jewish
experience in this country?” We address that question by reading Jewish American novels
from early immigration through the golden era of Jewish American literature (1960s
and 1970s) to present day. Reading- and writing-intensive: ten novels, in-class close
readings/writings, two papers.
Faith and Reason - JUST 311 - Gen Ed: C, H
Cross listed: PHIL 311 / RELG 380B
Time: T/R 1:15-2:40
Instructor: Randy Friedman
This reading-intensive seminar will explore the roles of reason and experience in
theology and philosophy of religion. What is the relationship between religious belief
and rationality? Is faith based in experience or reason? Topics will include the
nature of religious subjectivity, divinity, prophecy, the supernatural, creation,
revelation, and religious experience. We will work through a number of central figures
and texts in the various traditions of philosophy of religion, focusing on Maimonides,
Spinoza, and Kant as well as Leo Strauss.
The Holocaust - JUST 345 - Gen Ed: N, W
Cross listed: GERM 380G / GMAP 381A / HIST 345A
Time: T/R 11:40-1:05
Instructor: Gina Glasman
The Holocaust: A Victims’ History - How did the Jews of Europe respond to German occupation and its machinery of death
during the Second World War? Our class will explore an answer to this question by
seeking to reconstruct a history of the Holocaust through the voices of its victims.
We will examine various forms of contemporary testimony including diaries and the
spoken word. Works of history, as well as documentary cinema, will also frame our
conversation about chronicling the effects of Nazi genocide through the surviving
record of the murdered and the dead.
Religious Harmony in Islamic Spain - JUST 380G - Gen Ed: G, H, W
Cross listed: AFST 370, MDVL 382H, WGSS 383B
Time: T/R | 10:05-11:30
Instructor: Moulay Ali Bouanani
This course acquaints students with the contribution of Muslims, Christians and Jews
to Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain & Portugal), from the eighth century to the 1400's. In
the Islamic far west, Andalusian society was different from what existed in the Arabic-Islamic
East and far more developed and sophisticated than any civilization Europe had known.
During this time period, Al-Andalus was the most materially advanced area of Europe.
Ethnic (Arabs, Iberians, North Africans) and religious minorities such as Christian
Muwallads and Mozarabs enjoyed a high degree of tolerance and, like the Jews, formed
prosperous and erudite communities. Women were, with the exception of those of Baghdad,
the envy of even other Arabic-Muslim women. Cordoba was the most splendid city on
the European continent with magnificent buildings, gardens, libraries, baths. There
was a stable political system that facilitated opulence, education, beautiful homes,
well-designed cities and towns, art and scholarship. This course will examine the
civilization and culture of Islamic Spain and the contribution of each of the religious
groups to its greatness.
Vienna 1900: Modernism & End - JUST 384D - Gen Ed: A, H
Cross listed: COLI 381Q, GERM 380V
Time: M/W | 4:40-6:05
Instructor: Neil Pages
Course explores the ideas, impulses and implosions that accompanied the rise of Modernism
in Vienna around 1900. Like the multicultural, multi-ethnic empire of which it was
the capital, the culture of Habsburg Vienna at the fin de siècle was marked by fragmentation,
experimentation and contestation. Struggles with politics, identities and aesthetics
generated new ways of thinking (Freudian psychoanalysis), political movements (Zionism;
Marxism; fascism), radical experiments with art and architecture (Klimt, Schiele,
Loos, Bauer, Schönberg) and a lasting literary legacy (Schnitzler, Musil, von Hofmannsthal,
Trakl, Roth, Kraus, Zweig). By engaging specific works (buildings, paintings, texts)
across disciplines, students will develop skills in reading and interpretation and
gain an understanding of the cultural history of “Vienna 1900” specifically and theories
of Modernism generally. We will also question how eras and cultural legacies are constructed
and how cultures of memory are reflected in works of art, in historiography and in
literary works.
Jews, Family & Sex in Early Modern World – JUST 384E
Cross listed: HIST 385L / MDLV 380O
Time: T/R 1:15-2:40
Instructor: Jonathan Karp
This course surveys the entirety of the early modern Jewish world, particularly Christian
Europe and the Ottoman Mediterranean and Middle East, discussing the family as an
institution within Jewish law, the promulgation of sexual norms and deviations from
them, and the institutions of marriage and child rearing, as viewed within the framework
of gender and patriarchy. We will consider the perception of continuity in Jewish
family structures over long periods of time as measured against the palpable influence
of the institutions and practices of the non-Jewish communities among which Jews lived.
We will also look at the impact of kabbalah, aestheticism, and messianic movements
on sexual practices. The course will utilize rabbinic legal literature, including
responsa, ethical musar texts, mystical writings, and the handful of surviving memoirs,
among other sources. No previous knowledge of Jewish history is assumed or required.
Reading 2nd and 3rd Generation Holocaust Literature - JUST 385B
Cross listed: COLI 381S /ENG 450U
Time: T 4:25-7:25
Instructor: PW Burch
As the Shoah survivor generation disappears, two major impulses in Holocaust representation
have manifested themselves. First was the emergence of the Second Generation, those
whom Alan Berger terms “The Children of Job.” Second-Generation literature of the
Holocaust concerns itself largely with inter-generational issues, theological questions,
and bearing witness for the witnesses. We are now in the midst of a second major reorientation,
writings by the Third generation. While resisting a complete self-definition, the
works of the “Grandchildren of Job” reflect an inheritance of trauma which leaves
them, in the words of Henri Raczymow, with a “memory shot through with holes.” Unlike
the daughters and sons of survivors, the grandchildren typically have no direct experience
of the survivors. Rather they have heard stories or seen photos. Raczymow articulates
the dilemma: “I was rich in keepsakes, he writes,” but had no memories to go with
them.”
Third-Generation writings embrace a variety of genres, each of which portrays a distinctive
angle of vision as respective authors work through their traumatic legacy. Unlike
the Second Generation writing, the works of the grandchildren of survivors are more
culturally diffuse and tend to be suffused with postmodernist concerns. Nevertheless,
the shape-shifting shadows of the Holocaust continue to impact the identity of this
generation. We will be reading works written by Second and Third Generation writers
including Alain Finkielkraut, Barbara Finkelstein, Henri Raczymow, Art Spiegelman,
Thane Rosenbaum, Joseph Skibell, Melvin Jules Bukiet , Daniel Mendelsohn, Aryeh Lev
Stollman, and others.
Archaeology of The Middle East - JUST 386B
Cross listed: ANTH 374
Time: T/R 11:40-1:05
Instructor: Lubna Omar
We will explore the cultures of Israel, Palestine, and neighboring regions, from
the earliest human presence in the area through the rise of Islam. We will study the
first people, the earliest villagers, and the urban societies of the Bronze Age and
Iron Age (the “Biblical period”). We will also investigate the incorporation of the
region into a series of empires: Assyrian, Babylonian, Persian, Greek, Roman, and
Islamic. We will also discuss the history of archaeological research in Israel and
Palestine during the 19th and 20th-centuries, and the politics of archaeology in the
region today.
Holocaust Fiction - JUST 441 - Gen Ed: C, H
Cross listed: COLI 480T / ENG 450J
Time: W 4:40-7:40
Instructor: PW Burch
Issues of memory, representation, and voice are addressed in the reading of Holocaust
fiction. The class reads through the prism of the literature of witness novels and
short stories—most by Holocaust survivors—including works by Appelfeld, Fink, Borowski,
Grynberg, Lustig, Nomberg- Przytyk, Rawicz, Kosinski, and Wiesel. Several short papers,
mid-term examination, and final examination are required. Accompanied by a speaker/lecture
series. Notes: prerequisite, sophomore standing; not appropriate for first-year students.
Required texts may include: Lawrence Langer, Art from the Ashes (Anthology), Piotr
Rawicz, Blood from the Sky, Jerzy Kosiński, The Painted Bird, Elie Wiesel, Gates of
the Forest, Hans Keilson, The Death of the Adversary, David Grossman, See Under: Love,
André Schwarz-Bart, The Last of the Just.
Philosophy of History: Past To Present - JUST 482B - Gen Ed: W (Mini 2cr-course)
Time: 2nd half of semester, W 6-9
Instructor: Michael Kelly
We have seen a host of recent books by historians and philosophers declaring this
or that about History, from celebrations of its end to proclamations about its rebirth,
and everything else in between. Such contemporary interest in History has not only
been academic. In the media it is easy to find regular claims that readers/viewers
are “witnessing” history, and the U.S. Congress has even passed a bill stating its
official definition of History. Despite all of this activity, what we have not witnessed
are many serious, critical attempts to reconsider and re-engage the fundamental question:
“what is History?” This is what we will do in this course.
Religion and the Enlightenment – JUST 484C - Gen Ed: C, N
Cross listed: HIST 484Q
Time: M 3:30-6:30
Instructor: Jonathan Karp
Seminar explores the work and reception of Franz Kafka (1883-1924), arguably the most
famous writer of German Modernism and the inspiration for the troublesome idiom “Kafkaesque.”
We will examine the Kafkan text with and against some of the cultural productions
that have emerged from it, from the illustrations of R. Crumb, to the installation
art of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller, the musical compositions of Carsten
Nicolai, the films of Steven Soderbergh and Michael Haneke, the literary texts of
authors like Jonathan Franzen, Haruki Murakami and J.M. Coetzee and the criticism
of thinkers like Adorno, Derrida and Blanchot. While considering Kafka’s literary
legacy, his academic function, his impact on thinking about representation, and the
debates about the translation of his work, we will also reflect on the process of
reading and interpretation generally as well as on what literature does and the ways
in which literary criticism works.
Senior Honors – JUST 499
Instructor: Randy Friedman
RELIGIOUS STUDIES
Religions of the World - RELG 101- Gen Ed: G, H
Cross listed: JUST 100 / AFST180E / ANTH 180C
Time: T/R | 11:40-1:05
Instructor: Douglas Jones
What does it mean to study various religions from an academic perspective? How do
we, as outsiders at a public university, discuss different traditions responsibly?
Answering questions like these and developing our skills as scholars of religion is
of no small importance in an increasingly global society. This class will take a thematic
approach to a number of traditions, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity,
and Islam. Prominent themes include the history of Religious Studies as a discipline,
religion and popular culture, religion and violence, the history of utopian thought,
and the status of new and controversial movements across the globe.
Intro to African Religion - RELG 180D - Gen Ed: H, W
Cross listed: AFST171, ANTH 280L, SOC 180C
Time: T/R | 10:05-11:30
Instructor: Anthony S Ephirim-Donkor
E. A. Wallis Budge defined African religion as “the worship of the souls of the dead,
commonly called Ancestor Worship.” Also, Diodorus, a Greek historian, wrote over 2,000
years ago that blacks were “the first to be taught to honor the gods and to hold sacrifices
and processions and festivals and other rites by which men honor the deity; and …
sacrifices practiced among the Ethiopians [black peoples] ... are those which are
the most pleasing to heaven.” Following these statements, students are introduced
to the nature and phenomenon of African religion, and why contemporary generations
still adhere to the religious beliefs of their ancestors. Specifically, the course
offers an overview of the history of religion as a discipline, then explores African
conceptions of God and gods, eldership, death and ancestors, sacrifices, and rituals
and symbolic meanings of African religion.
ISRAEL STUDIES
Israeli Culture Through Film - ISRL 125 - Gen Ed: N
Cross listed: JUST 125, CINE 180A
Time: T/R 10:05-11:30
Instructor: Assaf Harel
This course will use film as a primary means of exploring and experiencing the rich,
complex and sometimes contradictory dynamics of Israeli culture. Through critical
use of films and texts, we will examine major issues of Israeli cultural life such
as migration, ethnic diversity, war and conflict, religion, gender and nationalism.
This course will therefore enable students to expand their knowledge and deepen their
understandings of both film and Israeli culture.
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in Literature - ISRL 327 - Gen Ed: H, O
Cross listed: JUST 380A / COLI 331V
Time: W 4:40 - 7:40
Instructor: Lior Libman
The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been represented in a wide body of Israeli
and Palestinian literary works of varied genres. In this course, we will read, analyze
and discuss, side by side, poems, short stories and novels by both Israeli and Palestinian
writers exploring questions of homeland, exile and return, longing and belonging,
Self and Other. We will examine the relationships between historical, political and
literary narratives, and the ways in which images and metaphors both reflect and shape
national affinities. We will also juxtapose the geo-political conflict with other
core issues such as religion, ethnicity, gender and sexuality.
Israeli Literature and the Shoah - ISRL 380A
Cross listed: JUST 380C / COLI 380P /ENG 450D
Time: M 4:40 - 7:40
Instructor: PW Burch
Israeli Literature and the Shoah surveys Israeli literature written by survivors and
the children and grandchildren of survivors of the Holocaust living and writing in
Israel. By reading and discussing selected fiction, non-fiction, and poetry not only
of those writers who experienced the Shoah first hand and later settled in Israel,
but also of those writers in Israel who are the children and grandchildren of survivors,
we will begin to see how the Shoah has affected Israeli culture and the Israeli literary
canon, and we will explore the complex attitude of Israeli society towards the disaster.
Reading list includes works by Aharon Appelfeld, Ida Fink, Dan Pagis, Abba Kovner,
Savyon Liebrecht, Lea Aini, Amir Gutfreund, David Grossman, Abraham Sutzkever, Nava
Semel, Etgar Keret and others.
Israeli Social Movements - ISRL 385A – Gen Ed: N
Cross listed: SOC 380D
Time: T/R 11:40-1:05
Instructor: Benita Roth
In this course, we will be look at social movements in and around Israel in comparative
fashion. We have three goals in this class: 1) to learn more what social movements
are, and how they dovetail with institutionally based political processes, that is,
how social movements are a kind of politics by other means; 2) to understand more
about how social movements have operated in pre-state Israel, post-state Israel and
in the current moment; and 3) to understand Israeli social movements in comparative
perspective by looking at other regions, and across time, in order to compare movements
with similar goals.
Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - ISRL 385Z – Gen Eds G, N
Cross listed: JUST 380P /ARAB 385C / HIST 385J
Time: M/W/F 1:10-2:10
Instructor: Shay Rabineau
The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: Israel-Palestine comprises the territory that lies
between the Mediterranean Sea (on the west), Lebanon (in the north), the Gulf of Aqaba
and the Sinai Peninsula (on the south) and the Jordan River (on the east). Although
it covers a small geographic area and includes a relatively small population (compare
present-day Israel's 8 million citizens with Egypt's 90 million), the dispute between
the two rival sets of nationalisms which claim the sole right to control this territory
has remained at the forefront of international attention for more than half a century.
This course will examine the origins of the Arab-Israeli dispute from the mid-nineteenth
century through the founding of the state of Israel and expulsion/flight of three
quarters of a million Palestinians from their homes till the present day. Among the
topics to be examined: the social history of Palestine up to Zionist colonization,
the origins of Zionism and Palestinian nationalism, varieties of Zionism, Zionism
and colonialism, seminal events and their consequent symbolic connotations (the 1936
"Great Revolt," the 1948 "Nakba" [disaster]) and creation of the state of Israel,
the construction of a national consensus in Israel, 1967 and its aftermath, the intifada,
and the redefinition of the conflict as a result of Oslo, the second intifada, the
security fence, HAMAS, Hizbollah and the Lebanon War.
Religion and Faith in Israel - ISRL 386K - Gen Ed: C, N
Cross listed: JUST 384G / RELG 380G
Time: T/R 1:15-2:40
Instructor: Assaf Harel
This course examines religion in Israel from an ethnographic perspective. That is,
it centers on knowledge that emerges from real-life encounters and experiences. Accordingly,
we will engage with ethnographic works as a way of gaining a deeper understanding
of the diversity of Israeli religious realities. The course will cover topics such
as Religious Zionism, Ultra Orthodoxy, fundamentalism, Christian pilgrimage, Islamic
and Jewish revival, New Age and more.
Environmental History of Israel – ISRL 427- Gen Ed: G, N
Cross listed: JUST 427 / ENVI 481N
Time: M/W/F 2:20-3:20
Instructor: Shay Rabineau
This course focuses the problems and possibilities associated with settling large
numbers of people in the contested land of Israel-Palestine with its limited natural
resources, and examines the dynamics between environmental issues, politics, technology,
and military conflict in the modern Middle East.
LANGUAGE - HEBREW and YIDDISH
Hebrew II - HEBR 102 - Gen Ed: FL2
Time: M/T/W/R 8:30 – 9:30
Instructor: Orly Shoer
Second semester of the communicative introduction to the language and its culture.
Provides a thorough grounding in reading, writing, grammar, oral comprehension, and
speaking.
Prerequisites: HEBR 101 with a grade of C- or equivalent or permission of instructor.
Intermediate Hebrew - HEBR 204 - Gen Ed: FL3
Time: M/W/F 9:40 – 10:40
Instructor: Orly Shoer
Intermediate-level language and culture course with emphasis on the reading of literary
and non-literary texts, grammar and writing.
Prerequisite: HEBR 103 with a grade of C- or equivalent or permission of instructor.
Texts and Conversations II - HEBR 312 - Gen Ed: FL3
Time: M/W/F 10:50 – 11:50
Instructor: Orly Shoer
In this course students will advance their Hebrew language skills through reading,
discussing and writing about a variety of short fiction and nonfiction texts and visual
material. Writing practice and reviewing of grammar will be incorporated through the
presented materials. Taught in Hebrew. Prerequisites: HEBR 204 with a grade of C-
or equivalent or permission of instructor.
Yiddish II - YIDD 102 - Gen Ed: FL2
Cross listed: JUST 180
Time: M/W/F 10:50 – 11:50
Instructor: Gina Glasman
Follows on from Yiddish 101 as students sharpen their linguistic skills with more
complex sentence structure, a deeper knowledge of tenses and cases, and a broader
vocabulary. In addition, we explore Yiddish culture through film, stories, folk sayings
and the occasional joke! As always lyrics from Yiddish popular song provide the backbone
of the class, and individual attention is a feature of the instruction. Note: interested
students can join 102 directly without having taken 101. (Instructor permission needed.)
Yiddish III - YIDD 203 - Gen Ed: FL3
Cross listed: JUST 280
Time: M/W/F 1:10-2:10
Instructor: Gina Glasman
An intermediate level language class. Students will build upon the foundation of introductory
Yiddish (101-102) to deepen their understanding of conversational and literary Yiddish.
Idiomatic speech and Yiddish syntax will provide a particular focus of class. Song,
poetry and prose will again supplement our study, as students continue to enrich their
knowledge of Yiddish language and culture. Yiddish 102 is required or with permission
from the instructor.
