Course Descriptions

Term:

Spring Quarter (S24)

Dept/Description Course No., Title  Instructor
HISTORY (S24)130c  GREAT BOOKS JEW HISFARAH, D.

The Jewish people have often understood themselves as the “people of the book,” because of the Jewish tradition’s reliance on texts and textual study as a central component of religious culture and practice. This course will take the idea of the book as a starting point for a survey of Jewish history, literature, and culture. Spanning the biblical period to the present, we will read primary texts important to Jewish life and culture as well as scholarship from various disciplines. In doing so, we will learn about the varied communities that produced these texts; the languages they spoke and read; their particular religious and cultural practices; and how they have understood themselves in the context of other social and political communities and movements.
Days:   12:00-12:00 AM

Courses Offered by the Jewish Studies Minor or other Schools at UCI

Spring Quarter (S24)

Dept Course No., Title   Instructor
INTL ST (S24)179  MIDEAST CLIM&CONFLTPETROVIC, B.

The Middle East is reportedly warming at twice the global average. As the frequency of extreme weather conditions (e.g., intensified heatwaves, droughts, and floods) in the region goes up, so does a threat to its already fragile water, food, and energy supplies. Climate variability is generally not a direct cause of intra- and inter-state conflicts, but it often exacerbates the pre-existing sources of social, economic, and political instability, thus increasing the chances of tensions within and between countries.

POL SCI (S24)139  MEDEVL JEWISH THOUGLEVINE, D.

No description is currently available.

POL SCI (S24)159  ISRAELI PALEST CONFBURSTEIN, A.

This course explores the complex history of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. The aims are to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the development and different cycles of this conflict, exploring its origins, evolvement of different actors, intractable flashpoints, and attempted resolutions.
Following a brief introduction to the origins of the Israeli and the Palestinian national collectives, the course is divided into three parts. Part one, “The Israeli-Arab Conflict,” surveys the paths towards the establishment of the Israeli state, its sociopolitical effects on the populations, and the wars that ensued during the following three decades. Part two, “From Israeli-Arab to Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” focuses on the period of the 1960’s to the 1980’s, exploring the emergence of new actors, the developments in the Israel/Palestine arena, and the ways in which the conflict evolved from interstate warfare towards a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian arena. Part three, “To There and Back Again,” surveys the attempted peace processes of the 1990’s and the 21st century, tracing the collapse of these processes and the emergence of intractable stalemates. The final week addresses the Israel-Hamas War of 2023, situating it within this trajectory.

POL SCI (S24)159  SOC MOBILZTN ISRAELBURSTEIN, A.

This course applies a social movement perspective and analysis of collective action to the Israeli social and political scene. The aim is to examine the diverse movements that have shaped the country’s social, religious, and ethnic conflicts, situating these in a comparative setting and examining which are unique to the Israeli experience and which are more common cross-nationally.
The course is divided into three parts: part one, Introduction to Social Movements and Contentious Politics, provides an overview of the theoretical foundations of social movement theory. Part two, Israel: A Movement Society, explores the development of a range of movements which have shaped Israeli society since the pre-state era. Part three, Between War and Peace, focuses on the different types of mobilization that have developed around the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Throughout the course students will be challenged to consider the shared patterns of mobilization reflected across cases, the connections between the development of Israeli social movements past and present, and the cumulative impact of the emergence of these movements on the shape of Israeli political institutions, governance, and society.