First-Year Seminar in Jewish Studies

Catalog description

Critical approaches to the history, sociology, and literature of Jewish Studies. JST 83 First-Year Seminar in Jewish Studies (3) (GH;FYS;IL)(BA) This course meets the Bachelor of Arts degree requirements. Through a combination of readings, lectures, discussions, and research projects, students will learn to master the subject material of the course and acquire basic skills important to the study of humanities. Students will learn to read academic books, as well as original documents, to formulate arguments, and to write analytical essays and papers. Analyses of this type will provide students with techniques for formulating, identifying, and judging academic arguments and presentations in many fields of learning other than Jewish Studies. The topics chosen for these seminars will introduce students to some of the major figures, historical, literary, religious, and sociological developments in Jewish Studies. By concentrating on these topics, the students will better understand the cultural assumptions of different groups and societies. Although the course will focus on a specific topic, the instructor will aid the student in seeing the larger implications of the issues and controversies discussed in the class. The international and intercultural aspects of the topic will consistently be considered. The course will require students to express their ideas as well as to gather information through research, discussion, and writing. It will consistently challenge students to consider social behavior, the nature of the community, and the value of scholarly work as these relate to the particular topic of the seminar. The course fulfills the first-year requirement, as well as one of the humanities requirements in general education or a Bachelor of Arts humanities requirement. The first-year seminar will be offered twice per year with an enrollment limit of 20 per section.