Problems & Methods in Hebrew & Judaic Studies

Catalog description

This course introduces first-year graduate students to some of the basic contours of the field of academic Jewish studies—the central questions that occupy scholars working in the field, the various disciplinary methods by which they seek answers to those questions, the types of sources from which they derive their answers, the organizing theoretical concepts that guide them in their research, the ethos that informs their work, and the difficulties they encounter in carrying out their programs. As will become apparent from the outset of the course, there are debates among scholars over all of these issues, including over whether there is any central core that constitutes Jewish Studies as a field at all. Students will be asked to become participants in these debates by interacting with scholars who have articulated positions in them. Faculty from Hebrew and Judaic Studies will visit the course throughout the semester.