Fall 2023 Courses

CLCV 133 Archaeology of Israel

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Brett Kaufman 

Exploration of the archaeology and history of the Near East with a specific focus on the development of Israel. Cultures of the Near East adapted to a rapidly changing world by pioneering the world's earliest innovations in agriculture, urbanism, bronze technology, and writing. We will investigate the Near Eastern background of the Israelites and their neighbors from the beginnings of agriculture during the "Neolithic Revolution", to the formation of the world's first cities in the Bronze Age, to the archaeological remnants of the Hebrew Bible. We will investigate the ramifications of wave after wave of military conflict and how this has shaped the Middle East, including the Babylonian Exile, the conquests of Alexander the Great, and the Jewish Revolts against the Romans.

CWL 581 Seminar Lit Themes

Credit: 4 hours

Instructor: Brett Kaplan

Study of a theme or type (the Faust myth, the romantic hero, etc.) to discover its essential components in all the literatures studied and the significance of national variations. The subject of the seminar varies each term.

May be repeated to a maximum of 12 hours if topics vary.

Section Title: Whaley Seminar

This course will meet in Siebel Design Center, room 0060. This course explores literatures intersecting environmental and memory studies through a focus on whales and water. We’ll practice close reading and literary analyses as we work through a series of texts probably including Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s Undrowned, Linda Hogan’s People of the Whale, Yuri Rythheu’s When the Whales Leave, and Amitav Ghosh’s The Hungry Tide. We’ll also be looking at performances such as Sarah Cameron Sunde’s 36.5 / A Durational Performance with the Sea and Mayfield Brooks’s Whalefall. We will not be reading all of Moby-Dick because we at Illinois are graced with a brilliant world expert on Melville who will be teaching a seminar on same. I encourage you to take Professor Jamie Jones’s course when it’s next offered. Very fortunate confluences for fall 2023 include Deke Weaver’s amazing Cetacean which will be performed in late September and a visit through the Humanities Research Institute of Alexis Pauline Gumbs on November 1. As we see waters rise, glaciers mourn, temperatures rise/fall/fluctuate, magnolias bloom in February, forests burn, and mud sliding down mountains and hills, we’ll need to think more about how we can listen to whales.

GER 473 1920s to Today

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Anke Pinkert

Literature from the 1920 to Today: Politics & Aesthetics, Activism In this course we will consider the politics of writing in the twentieth century through various literary movements, genres, and historical moments. Issues to be discussed include mass culture; the aestheticization of politics; historical violence, trauma and memory; power and literary resistance; student protests; feminist writing; multiculturalism, minority literature; postcolonial museum practices; and contemporary eco-criticism.

HIST 140 Western Worlds: Ancient and Medieval Societies from the Mediterranean to N. Europe

Credit:

Instructor: Carol Symes

Western societies from antiquity to the early modern age in western Asia, North Africa, and Europe; with an emphasis on cultural exchange, migration, and the transmission of knowledge, ideas, technologies, and arts. Topics include the formation of the earliest civilizations; political and intellectual experiments of the Greek and Roman worlds; emergence of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; military, commercial, social, and educational revolutions of the Middle Ages; rise of independent cities and territorial monarchies; religious upheavals and violent aftermaths.

Course is identical to HIST 141 except for the additional writing component. See HIST 141.

Credit is not given for both HIST 140 and HIST 141. Prerequisite: Completion of campus Composition I General Education requirement.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2023 for:

• Advanced Composition
• Cultural Studies - Western
• Humanities – Hist & Phil

HIST 281 Constructing Race in America

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Multiple Instructors

Interdisciplinary examination of the historical, cultural, and social dimensions of race and ethnicity in the United States. Explores the complex and intricate pursuit of multiracial and multicultural democracy.

Same as AAS 281, AFRO 281, and LLS 281.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2023 for:

• Cultural Studies - US Minority
• Humanities – Hist & Phil

HIST 335 Middle East 1566-1914

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: L Goffman

Did the Middle East really "decline," and how did it become "modern"? During the four centuries before the First World War the Middle East witnessed the transformation of the classical Ottoman order, the re-ordering of government and society, and, after 1800, the steady growth of European influence in the economic, political, and cultural spheres, culminating in the establishment of colonial rule over much of the area. Toward the end of this era, a debate arose among Middle Eastern intellectuals over the causes of their "backwardness" and its possible remedies, contributing to the rise of new religious, social, and political movements, which have continued to the present. We will be examining these developments in the context of ongoing social and economic changes, in the region consisting of Egypt, Arabia, the Fertile Crescent, Iran, and Turkey.

Same as JS 335.

JS 231 Development of Ancient Cities

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Brett Kaufman

Monuments, archaeological remains, and histories illustrating the development of the earliest states and urban centers of the Ancient Mediterranean, including Athens, Rome, Carthage, and Jerusalem.

Same as ARTH 217 and CLCV 231. See CLCV 231.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2023 for:

• Cultural Studies - Western
• Humanities – Hist & Phil

REL 201 Hebrew Bible in English

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Dov Weiss

Analyzes the critical issues in the interpretation of the literature of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament; surveys the history and religion of Ancient Israel with special reference to Israel's setting in the ancient Near East.

Prerequisite: Sophomore standing or consent of instructor.

This course satisfies the General Education Criteria in Fall 2023 for:

• Humanities – Hist & Phil

REL 416 Readings in Rabbinic Midrash

Credit: 3 hours

Instructor: Dov Weiss

Seminar on the foundational text of Judaism- the Midrashic collections (3rd c. - 8th C.E.). We will consider the distinctiveness of Midrashic form and content, and also reflect upon the central methodological issues and problems for the study of this classic corpus.

3 undergraduate hours. 3 graduate hours.