This course exposes students to major approaches to the interdisciplinary field of Jewish Studies. We will focus our attention, in sequence, on different objects of analysis: Jews, Jewish languages, Jewish texts, Jewish politics, and Jewish cultural expression. In each case, we will ask what it means to call that kind of object (a person, word, political idea, work of culture, etc.) Jewish, and we will examine some of the most influential answers that have been presented, from antiquity to modernity. By the end of the semester, students will have a solid grounding in the field as a whole and a roadmap for pursuing the study of Jews, Judaism, and Jewish culture at Wellesley (and beyond).
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 18
Crosslisted Courses: REL 10 2
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Lambert
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Critical introduction to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, studying its role in the history and culture of ancient Israel and its relationship to ancient Near Eastern cultures. Special focus on the fundamental techniques of literary, historical, and source criticism in modern scholarship, with emphasis on the Bible's literary structure and compositional evolution.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 10 4
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Jarrard
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
An introduction to the Bible at the intersection of queer theory, biblical interpretation, and the historical study of the ancient Middle East. Through an examination of queer readings of the biblical canon and the canon of contemporary queer theory, the class explores the social construction of gender and examines how people in the biblical world and ancient Middle East maintained and contested gender roles. Using primary texts and iconographic evidence, we will consider not only the complex interaction between the categories of gender and sexual orientation, but also how contemporary expectations about “biological sex”, patriarchal structures, and the biblical world impede our capacity to understand the biblical text, explore the experiential varieties of gender in the ancient world, and appreciate the inherent queerness of gender. This is an introductory course; no previous knowledge of the Bible is required or presumed.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 10 6
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Jarrard
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Topic for Spring 2023: Satan
Topics in this course explores the Bible and its uses in contemporary popular culture. In Spring 2023, we will focus on Satan and popular culture. We will examine related concepts of demons and spirit possession in the biblical world along with their history of interpretation. Key biblical texts include the book of Job, Jesus’s temptation in the wilderness, and apocalyptic literature. In addition to the (re)creation of Satan in the medieval and early modern period, we will also cover popular case studies including Lil Nas X, Southpark, DMX, Hellboy, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Rick & Morty, and The Simpsons. This class has no prerequisites; no previous knowledge of the Bible is presumed.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 20 1
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Jarrard
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: This is a topics course and can be taken more than once for credit as long as the topic is different each time.
This course explores the use of biblical stories and themes in cinema. We will begin with films based on selected biblical texts including the creation accounts, the exodus, the books of Ruth and Job, the life of Jesus. We will then examine cinematic treatments of biblical themes: roles of women and children, apocalypse, monsters, and suffering. No previous knowledge of film or the Bible is assumed; the course offers an introduction to key modes of biblical interpretation including historical criticism, feminist, womanist, literary and comparative approaches. Films include East of Eden, Moonlight, Prince of Egypt, The Shape of Water, The Color Purple, Get Out, Apocalypse Now, and JoJo Rabbit.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 20
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 20 9
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Jarrard
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy; ARS - Visual Arts, Music, Theater, Film and Video
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Scholars of Jewish Studies tend to focus on moments of hardship and pain. But do disasters and the despair tell the whole story? What gets missed when we prioritize despair and misery and cast aside allegedly lighter and more positive themes? Such questions are the engine that runs this seminar. We will rethink the cultural roles of joy in Judaism, take Jewish humor seriously, and ponder whether happiness in Judaism is distinct from what we find in other religious traditions. Throughout the semester, through careful readings of primary sources (in translation) and contemporary theories, we will explore how so-called positive emotions, moods, and affects are inextricable from the most serious aspects of religion, politics, and the human experience, such as identity formation, violence, gender norms, and power.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: REL 210
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: DeGolan
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
This course offers an overview of Italian Jewish culture and literature from the Middle Ages to the present. Students will read prose and poetry, essays and articles, as well as watch films that address issues such as religious and cultural identity, the right to difference, anti-Semitism and the Shoah. The course will also give students an overview of the formation and transformation of the Jewish community in Italian society. In addition to well-known Jewish Italian writers like Primo Levi and Giorgio Bassani, students will read pertinent works by non-Jewish writers like Rosetta Loy and Pier Paolo Pasolini.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 211
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Parussa
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Traditionally, the study of Judaism has neglected the senses, the body, and emotions as worthy objects of inquiry. This course aims to fill this gap in our conception of Judaism by surveying key Jewish traditions from antiquity to the present through the lenses of sensory studies, new materialism, and affect theory. We will explore, for instance, the centrality of pleasant and foul odors to premodern Israelite religiosity, notions of attention as a bodily experience in medieval Jewish mysticism, and modern debates about love and shame as determining factors in Jewish law. To appreciate the sensory, somatic, and affective realms of Jewish history, we will engage analytical tools that focus on texts’ representation of textures of lived experiences and apply these methods to sources such as the biblical Song of Songs, the talmudic tractate Berakhot (“prayers and blessings”), hassidic tales of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, and Noah Kahan’s Twitter feed.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: REL 212
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: DeGolan
Distribution Requirements: REP - Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
This course examines Jews’ roles in the development of the American mass media and popular culture, as well as representations of Jewishness in a range of media from the turn of the 20th century to the present. We will focus on print, recorded, and broadcast media—including magazines, newspapers, pamphlets, record albums, radio, film, and television—and study some of the crucial figures in the histories of these cultural forms, while considering how Jewishness has been packaged for and presented to American audiences. Cultural productions studied will include Abie the Agent, The Jazz Singer, The Goldbergs, MAD Magazine, Annie Hall, Seinfeld, the New Yorker, and This American Life.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 30
Crosslisted Courses: CAMS 233
Prerequisites:
Instructor: Lambert
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
An examination of the origins, character, course, and consequences of Nazi antisemitism during the Third Reich. Special attention to Nazi racialist ideology, and how it shaped policies that affected such groups as the Jews, the disabled, the Roma, Poles and Russians, Afro-Germans, and gay men. Consideration of the impact of Nazism on women and on the German medical and teaching professions.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 245
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Geller
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
The roles played by Jews in the development of modern American literature are complex and contradictory. Influential American authors expressed anti-Semitic views in their correspondence and work, and prejudice excluded Jews from many literary and cultural opportunities well into the 20th century. Nonetheless Jewish publishers, editors, critics, and writers were extraordinarily influential in the development of the field, founding leading publishing houses, supporting freedom of expression and movements like modernism and postmodernism, and writing some of the most influential and lasting works in the tradition. In this course, we will explore the ways Jews have been represented in American literature and their roles in modernizing and expanding the field. Fulfills the English Department’s Diversity of Literatures in English requirement.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 30
Crosslisted Courses: ENG 270
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Lambert
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes:
What was at stake in the production and consumption of literature in the age of television and nuclear proliferation? We will read and analyze U.S. fiction, drama, and poetry produced after 1945, a period during which minority voices, particularly (but not only) those of American Jews, became central in U.S. literary culture. We will explore the tension between literature as just another form of entertainment (or even a pretentious instrument of exclusion) and literature as a privileged site of social analysis, critique, and minority self-expression. Authors considered may include Chester Himes, Saul Bellow, Flannery O’Connor, Lorraine Hansberry, Tillie Olsen, Fran Ross, Thomas Pynchon, Raymond Carver, Toni Morrison, Louise Erdrich, Susan Sontag, Alejandro Morales, Kathy Acker, Shelley Jackson, Tony Kushner, and Lan Samantha Chang. Fulfills the Diversity of Literatures in English requirement.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 274
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Lambert
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
What stories do U.S. video games tell us, and whose stories are they to tell? In this course, we will survey the history of narrative video games in the U.S., from the 1980s to the present, paying particular attention to how games represent gender, ethnicity, religion, and class. We will explore the way that games allow for identification across difference; the significant contributions of American Jewish game developers; and the prevalence of exoticism, cultural appropriation, and misogyny in the history of the medium. Games we will consider, in whole or in part, include Silas Warner’s Castle Wolfenstein (1981) and its many sequels, Jordan Mechner’s Karateka (1984) and The Prince of Persia (1989), Freedom! (1993), Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004), Sean Vanaman and Jake Rodkin’s The Walking Dead (2013), David Cage's Detroit: Become Human (2018); Neil Druckmann and Halley Gross’ The Last of Us, Part 2 (2020), Zak Garriss’ Life Is Strange: True Colors (2021), and Meredith Gran’s Perfect Tides (2022). We will consider game studies scholarship and criticism by Akil Fletcher, Jacob Geller, Cameron Kunzelman, Julian Lucas, Soraya Murray, Gene Park, Amanda Phillips, and Anita Sarkeesian, among others, and students will be expected to write several analytical or research essays. Fulfills the English Department’s Diversity of Literatures in English requirement.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: ENG 275
Prerequisites: None.
Instructor: Lambert
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Spring
Notes:
This course will explore the vibrant literary culture of Jewish women writers of Latin America from the 1920s to the present. We will examine selected works by these authors, daughters of immigrants, whose various literary genres reveal the struggle with issues of identity, acculturation, and diasporic imagination. Writers include Alicia Steimberg of Argentina, Clarice Lispector of Brazil, and Margo Glantz of Mexico, as well as a new generation of writers who explore issues of multiculturalism and ethnicity.
This course is taught in Spanish.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 14
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 277
Prerequisites: Open to students who have completed SPAN 241 or SPAN 242 or equivalent (AP 5) or by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken JWST 377/SPAN 377.
Instructor: Agosin
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 300-level as JWST 377/SPAN 377.
Comic strips, comic books, and graphic novels have throughout their history in the United States had a complex relationship with members of minority groups, who have often been represented in racist and dehumanizing ways. Meanwhile, though, American Jews played influential roles in the development of the medium, and African-American, Latinx, Asian-American, and LGBTQ artists have more recently found innovative ways to use this medium to tell their stories. In this course, we will survey the history of comics in the U.S., focusing on the problems and opportunities they present for the representation of racial, ethnic, and sexual difference. Comics we may read include Abie the Agent, Krazy Kat, Torchy Brown, Superman, and Love & Rockets, as well as Art Spiegelman’s Maus, Gene Luen Yang’s American Born Chinese, Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home, and Mira Jacob’s Good Talk.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 30
Crosslisted Courses: CPLT 290,ENG 290
Prerequisites: None
Instructor: Lambert
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Why do people build monuments? How do they help and whom do they hurt? This seminar introduces approaches and case studies related to sacred monuments, monumentality, and memory from the ancient Mediterranean to the Confederate South. We will review current research in biblical studies, classics, archaeology, and sociology with a focus on physical monuments in the Bible, and in the ancient Near East, Greco-Roman antiquity, and up through the present. Case studies include historical monuments and artifacts such as the Law of Hammurabi, Confederate monuments, and obelisks of Mussolini; literary descriptions of artifacts including the Ten Commandments, cultic statues, and the Dead Sea Scrolls; and monument desecration and destruction including Roman condemnations of memory and #BlackLivesMatter protests. Possible trips to the MFA, and Harvard Art and Semitic Museums.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 344
Prerequisites: A course in a relevant subject area such as religion, art history, Africana studies, Jewish studies, classics, American studies, sociology, or by permission of the instructor.
Instructor: Jarrard
Distribution Requirements: HS or REP - Historical Studies or Religion, Ethics, and Moral Philosophy
Typical Periods Offered: Every other year
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes:
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Units: 0.5
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor. Open to juniors and seniors.
Instructor:
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes:
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: Permission of the program.
Instructor:
Typical Periods Offered: Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 25
Prerequisites: JWST 360 and permission of the program.
Instructor:
Typical Periods Offered: Spring
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall; Spring
Notes: Students enroll in Senior Thesis Research (360) in the first semester and carry out independent work under the supervision of a faculty member. If sufficient progress is made, students may continue with Senior Thesis (370) in the second semester.
This course will explore the vibrant literary culture of Jewish women writers of Latin America from the 1920s to the present. We will examine selected works by these authors, daughters of immigrants, whose various literary genres reveal the struggle with issues of identity, acculturation, and diasporic imagination. Writers include Alicia Steimberg of Argentina, Clarice Lispector of Brazil, and Margo Glantz of Mexico, as well as a new generation of writers who explore issues of multiculturalism and ethnicity.
Students in JWST 227/SPAN 277 and JWST 377/SPAN 377 will all get the same material, but students taking the 300-level version of the course will have additional assignments, including formal presentations and longer writing and independent work.
This course is taught in Spanish.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 10
Crosslisted Courses: JWST 377
Prerequisites: Open to Junior and Senior majors or by permission of the instructor. Not open to students who have taken JWST 277/SPAN 277.
Instructor: Agosin
Distribution Requirements: LL - Language and Literature
Typical Periods Offered: Every three years
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Fall
Notes: This course is also offered at the 200-level as JWST 277/SPAN 277.
This course is designed as a capstone experience for the Jewish Studies major. Each Jewish Studies major will meet with the Director of the Jewish Studies Program at the end of her junior year. Together they will develop a reading list and course of study designed to situate the student's prior coursework within the broader field of Jewish Studies. The Jewish Studies Director will then arrange for appropriate faculty to meet with students during the academic term to supervise their reading and facilitate weekly discussions.
Units: 1
Max Enrollment: 15
Prerequisites: Open to Jewish Studies majors only.
Instructor:
Distribution Requirements: HS - Historical Studies
Typical Periods Offered: Spring; Fall
Semesters Offered this Academic Year: Not Offered
Notes: