Near East Studies

The course provides an introduction to Islam, exploring key aspects of its thought and practice and early history. The course content is built on the structure of the Hadith of Gabriel, which presents the religion as comprising Islam, or submission (action), iman, or belief (understanding), ihsan, or doing what is beautiful (sincerity), and proper understanding of human history. Topics covered typically include the social and cultural setting in which Islam emerged, religious and political developments during and after the Prophet's life, internal divisions within the Muslim community, the authoritative texts, law, and major schools of Islamic thought.

This course focuses on the topic of negotiations and conflict resolution in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1977 through the present. It is divided into three parts. First, the course examines the general theoretical framework for explaining and understanding negotiations in international relations. In addition, students study the history of the Arab-Israeli conflict and the main issues and patterns of negotiations. Second, the course addresses several case-studies of successes and failures of negotiations between Israel and its several Arab neighbors including Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and the Palestinians. In this context, the students understand the failure of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians. Finally, in the last part of the course, students conduct a simulation and present their papers and research.

This course addresses aspects of pluralism and multiculturalism from a socio-psychological perspective. The course focuses on various kinds of minorities in contemporary Israel society including immigrants (“Olim”), Palestinian Arabs, Israeli Druze, and others. Students analyze the complexity of biculturalism, and its relationship with psychological and socio-cultural adaptation. Finally, students review the DOPA model as a conceptual and methodological tool for the mapping and measurement of perceptions and orientations toward cultural diversity in educational contexts.

This course examines the development in oral and written comprehension and expression in modern Persian as spoken in Iran. General content includes: examination of the phonetics and phonology of the Persian alphabet as it is written in the Arabic script; examination of Persian grammar and syntax; study of Persian vocabulary and the similarities/cognates that are found between Persian and other Indo-European languages such as Spanish and English.