Near East Studies

This course is an introduction to the history of the Islamic world from 550 to 1050 CE. It covers the pre-Islamic background to Islam, the life of the Prophet Muhammad, the Arab conquests, the formation of the first Muslim world empire (the Caliphate), the emergence of the "orthodox" Islamic traditions of Sunni and Shi'i Islam, and the fragmentation of the Caliphate into a "commonwealth" of successor states.

This course begins with a brief history of Islam in Ireland. It will subsequently examine the Islamic “other,” and Muslim identities in Europe from historical and modern perspectives. The focus of the course then shifts to the modern era and to debates concerning Muslims living in Europe, including discussions around secularism, human rights, and religious freedoms.

This course charts the history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from the rise of political Zionism and Palestinian-Arab nationalism to the present day. It provides an understanding of the political and scholarly debates surrounding the causes for the dispute through the eyes of the belligerent societies, and the efforts that have been made to resolve it (and their degree of success or failure). It includes an evaluation of attempts to resolve the conflict and the factors shaping peace-making efforts to the present day.

This course offers a study of Arab-Islamic culture in the context of cultural anthropology. Topics include: gender, marriage, family, and kinship; perceptions of Arab-Islamic culture; the Arabic language; myths, legends, and traditions.

This course introduces modern Turkish literature, by addressing its origination, formation, and impact on the cultural milieu. It focuses on the making and predicament of modernity, its innate contradictions, and the implications of nostalgia, anxiety of influence, and globalism. It studies Turkish authors (particularly novelists), as caught between a past that was read, misread, or misunderstood, and a present that has a large body of challenge, attraction, and difference. They fathom the cultural underpinnings of the Ottoman past and non-western legacies while negotiating a western legacy of many facets. The course reads criticism in line with novelistic production, the role of the novelist as public intellectual (terms and applications are defined and set in ethnic, national, social, and cultural terms and contexts).

This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of human rights in the Middle East and North Africa from theoretical and practical perspectives. The course gives an overview of the state of international human rights discourse and looks at the implementation of human rights law in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa. The theoretical perspective both engage the international human rights system and also consider debates around the universality of rights and the relationship between Islam and human rights.

Jerusalem's glory rests not only in the archeological sites and ancient monuments which shed light on its past, but also in the multiple dynamic religious groups whether of Jewish, Christian, Islamic, or other origin, which flourish in it today. This unique course tours the city, meeting representatives of these religious groups, visiting their communities, and thus understanding the complex but also amazing fabric of this exquisite city. 

Over the past century Israel has transformed from an agricultural colony, to a welfare state, and on to a globally integrated "market economy” characterized by great income disparities. What lies behind this transformation? How did egalitarianism give rise to inequality? What are the implications of a constant state of conflict on a country's economy? How does being an island of democracy surrounded by non-democratic regimes effect the development of a country's international economic relations? This course explores how different issues have affected the Israeli economy, including periods of economic growth or stagnation, the governments' domination of capital and credit markets in the 1970's and 1980's, the stabilization program of 1985, the implications of peace processes, and the wave of Russian immigration in the 1990's. The course concludes with an overview of the international economic relations between Israel and The European Union, The USA, and the global economic institutions (GATT and WTO, IMF and the World Bank, and the OECD).

The course introduces the normative structure and theoretical foundations of Public International Law (PIL), alongside its institutional and procedural aspects. It also looks at the interplay between Public International Law and domestic legal systems, and between Public International Law and international relations, legal philosophy, and political science. A particular focus of the course is the relevance of Public International Law to the issues and challenges confronting the State of Israel. The course discusses core issues in Public International Law and their significance to the State of Israel, in light and based upon the unique needs and history of Israel.