Global Seminar to Israel/Palestine

Justice, Human Rights, and Democracy in Israel/Palestine (JWST 4302/IAFS 3520)

This course will take place April 2022 - June 2022  - Learn more here
Please contact CUJewishStudies@colorado.edu with any questions. 

How do history and collective memory differ? How are both put into service for nationalist projects? What happens when various groups hold views and positions which are fundamentally incompatible? How do issues of political economy, race, and globalization interact with these views and narratives? How is history used and adapted to serve various interests? This global seminar focuses on the conflict and overlap between history, memory, and nationalism in one of the areas where the relationship between these three categories is the most fraught: Israel/Palestine. After doing theoretical reading, and learning the historical background to the Arab/Israeli and Palestinian conflict in Boulder, students will spend three weeks in Israel and the West Bank/Occupied Territories/Judea and Samaria. Rather than students learning the history of the region, students are pushed to question the meaning and reimagining of historical narratives today. By meeting different actors from the region and visiting sites ranging from museums to archaeological parks to cemeteries and government buildings, students will gain a nuanced, multi-sided perspective of Israel, Palestine and the uses of history and memory. 

This 3-week course will take place in Boulder, Israel, and the West Bank in Summer 2021. Students will meet for 4 pre-trip class meetings in April of 2021. During these intensive sessions, we will work through primary source texts and monographs focused on the history of the region, and comparative works which consider the relationships between history, memory and nationalism. Then in May-June 2021, students will travel to Israel. Students will experience sites of collective memory that deploy history in the service of various historical narratives and will meet a variety of individuals who offer very different perspectives on Israel and Palestine today. Through these site visits and interactions, students will gain both theoretical and practical understanding of the conflict, Israeli and Palestinian histories, and the uses of history and collective memory in the present day. 

• Meets Core Requirements for Contemporary Societies
• Credits can be applied to majors and minors in Jewish Studies
• For International Affairs majors, credits can be applied to Africa/Middle East Geographic Concentration (3 credits) and Functional Area IV, Institutions, Rights and Norms (3 credits)
• Credits can also be applied to the Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Certificate

Global Seminar to Istanbul

Jews and Muslims: The Multi-Ethnic History of Istanbul

(JWST/IAFS/RLST 3530)

This program is currently suspended due to safety concerns, but we are hopeful that it will be re-instated soon.

In this program, students will spend two weeks in Istanbul, a world heritage site, a global mega-city where people from urban and rural environments, different social classes, multiple cultures and religious backgrounds, coexist. The crossroads of civilization for at least 500 years, Istanbul is the perfect place to study the history of interaction between Jews and Muslims. This program will allow CU students access to otherwise inaccessible sites, including cemeteries, synagogues, monasteries, mosques, and museums.

The first preparatory week of the seminar will immerse students in the history of the Ottoman Empire and of the Jews within it through readings and lectures.  The remaining two weeks will be held on site in Istanbul. During the two weeks in Istanbul, students will take workshops on a variety of topics including Ottoman Jewish cultural life; the life of Sabbatai Sevi; Jewish immigration patterns in the Ottoman Empire; contemporary Turkish Jewish fiction; varieties of Jewish experience in the Eastern Mediterranean; and an introduction to Ladino.

The 2016 Global Seminar to Istanbul was led by Nan Goodman, Director of the Program in Jewish Studies and Professor of English and Jewish Studies. Professor Goodman's research explores the lives of Jews in the Ottoman Empire. She served as a Fulbright Scholar in Istanbul at Boğaziçi University in the spring of 2014 and is actively involved with the Jewish community and Jewish studies in Turkey.