Courses

HEBR B001 Elementary Hebrew

Fall 2024

This year-long course is designed to teach beginners the skills of reading, writing, and conversing in Modern Hebrew. It will provide students with knowledge of the Hebrew writing system - its alphabet (Square letters for reading, cursive for writing) and vocalization - as well as core aspects of grammar and syntax. Diverse means will be utilized: Textbook, supplementary printed material, class conversations, presentations by students of dialogues or skits that they prepare in advance, and written compositions. This course, followed by Semesters 3 and 4 taken elsewhere, lays a foundation for reading of Modern Hebrew literary works.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward MECANA Studies

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HEBR B002 Elementary Hebrew

Spring 2025

This is a continuation of HEBR B001, year-long course is designed to teach beginners the skills of reading, writing, and conversing in Modern Hebrew. It will provide students with knowledge of the Hebrew writing system - its alphabet (Square letters for reading, cursive for writing) and vocalization - as well as core aspects of grammar and syntax. Diverse means will be utilized: Textbook, supplementary printed material, class conversations, presentations by students of dialogues or skits that they prepare in advance, and written compositions. This course, followed by Semesters 3 and 4 taken elsewhere, lays a foundation for reading of Modern Hebrew literary works.

Course does not meet an Approach

Counts Toward MECANA Studies

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HEBR B403 Supervised Work

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ITAL B313 Primo Levi, the Writer

Not offered 2024-25

Today Primo Levi is one of the most widely read Italian writers of post-World War II in Italy and abroad. Even though still known primarily for his contributions to Holocaust testimony and theory, paradoxical as it may seem, the experience of Auschwitz and his need to tell proved to be the initial impulse that drove Levi to continue to write until his death as a critical engagement of the Western classical canon and civilization that in the end created Auschwitz. In addition to being a memoirist, he was a columnist, novelist, writer of short stories and fantasy tales, many of which touch on science fiction, a literary critic, poet, essayist, and he also tried his hand as translator (of Kafka's The Trial) and playwright. He has also been the subject of countless illuminating interviews, many of which have been translated into English. Levi is one of most prolific writers of our time, earning the right to be regarded simply as a well-respected writer, as he himself wished, with no other qualifications added. This course will be taught in Italian. Prerequisite: ITAL B102 or permission of instructor.

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POLS B283 Middle East Politics

Fall 2024

This course offers an overview on the contemporary politics of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and the relevant social (mostly political) science work on it. It brings together empirical knowledge on domestic and transnational politics in different countries of the region and how empirical political science around the big questions is conducted. Each module of the course revolves around a central question that has been keeping social and political scientists busy in the last decades: What triggers risky protest movements in authoritarian settings? Why has the MENA region remained authoritarian despite successive global waves of democratization? Under which conditions do transitions to democracies succeed? Do monarchies in the Middle East have an advantage in ensuring political stability, and if so, why? Is it impossible to ensure good governance and peace at the same time in divided societies? What motivates people to take up arms in the name of religion and sect? What are the reasons behind the economic underdevelopment of the MENA region? Students are also invited to think about these "big questions" and take MENA countries as their case studies, while at the same significantly enhancing their contextual knowledge about the region. No prerequisites, but either some prior familiarity with the Middle East or a prior political science course encouraged.

Cross-Cultural Analysis (CC)

Counts Toward International Studies

Counts Toward MECANA Studies

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