This course introduces students to the host of core concepts in terms of which Jewish identity has been and continues to be defined and debated. Topics include: the difference between insiders and outsiders; collective vs individual identity; the nature of the bond between group members; identification across time, space, and disagreements; social and gendered hierarchies; joining and leaving the group; the identities of outsiders.

A detailed exploration of how Jewish thought develops in relationship to key figures or moments in modern European philosophy (e.g., Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx, Nietzsche, Heidegger). The particular focus varies from year to year.

What is the significance of the designation “Mizrahi” in Israel today? Does it refer to people who share a common geographical and ethnic origin or does it indicate a shared worldview that draws upon Middle Eastern Arabic culture? What are its relations with other terms, such as “Sephardi,” “Oriental,” or “Levantine”? What kind of political membership does it entail? Does it possess a certain cultural, religious, or political vocabulary? And, ultimately, does the diasporic concept of “Mizrahiyut” (mizrahiness) undermine national homogeneity or rather facilitate and enable its enforcement?

This course will explore the relationship of Jews to political power. Among the themes to be covered are: How has the relationship of the Jewish community to political authority changed over time? What is the Jewish conception of political authority? How did Jews protect their communal and individual rights in the absence of sovereignty? How did the dynamics of antisemitism, philosemitism, and anti-Jewish violence change over time? How did Zionism and the revival of Jewish sovereignty change the position of Jews in the political order? What are the political and moral dilemmas posed by statehood? And what are the implications of Jewish sovereignty for Jews in the Diaspora?

This course examines the critical role that Messianic thought plays in the emergence of modern Jewish secular thought. A study of the secular dimension of Messianism in the writings of Jewish philosophers, from Spinoza to Derrida, leading to the larger question of its place in the project of Jewish modernity.

An examination of issues in Jewish Studies. Content in any given year depends on instructor.

An examination of issues in Jewish Studies. Content in any given year depends on instructor.

An examination of issues in Jewish Studies. Content in any given year depends on instructor.

A scholarly project on an approved topic supervised by a faculty affiliated with the Centre for Jewish Studies. For details, please visit the ATCJS webpage on Independent Studies Courses. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

An interdisciplinary seminar in which Jewish Studies topics are explored intensively, culminating in a major research paper by each student. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

A well-known saying "two Jews, three opinions" captures succinctly just how ubiquitous conflicts and disagreements are in Jewish life. These contestations are indeed not only common but also deep: they run all the way down to very foundations of Jewish identity, to questions of who belongs to and who should be excluded from the community. This course looks at some historical and current conflicts that have fundamentally divided Jew from Jew as well as various responses to such conflicts from within the Jewish tradition, asking why some conflicts are managed successfully while others aren't and how the answer to that question might be applicable within the groups to which we each belong. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course invites students to explore the debates around the term “Arab Jews.” A cultural, historical, and historiographical designation, the term encompasses a range of experiences for Arabic-speaking Jews. These Jews lived in diverse cultural worlds across the Middle East and North Africa, where they developed deep and enduring relationships with non-Jews, and were instrumental in shaping local, regional and national cultures and politics. By engaging with the term “Arab Jews” in its various incarnations, the course offers new perspectives on questions of Zionism and nationalism, colonialism and geography, religion and secularization, as well as historiography and memory.

This seminar explores in depth one of the many theoretical or methodological issues that confront scholars of antisemitism. Possible topics include: definitions of antisemitism and their purposes; philosemitism and its conceptual and real connection with antisemitism; Jewish self-hatred; contextualist vs eternalist accounts of antisemitism; classic and contemporary theories of antisemitism.

An in-depth investigation of topics in Jewish Studies. Content in any given year depends on instructor.

An in-depth investigation of topics in Jewish Studies. Content in any given year depends on instructor.

A scholarly project on an approved topic supervised by a faculty affiliated with the Centre for Jewish Studies. For details, please visit the ATCJS webpage on Independent Studies Courses. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

A scholarly project on an approved topic supervised by a faculty affiliated with the Centre for Jewish Studies. For details, please visit the ATCJS webpage on Independent Studies Courses. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

An introduction to major themes in the development of Greek and Roman civilization, literature and culture.

Gaius Julius Caesar (100 – 44 BC) was a writer, an orator, a reformer, and a builder, as well as a general, a conqueror, an explorer, and a dictator. After his death, he was even worshipped as a god with a temple in the very heart of Rome. According to his critics, both ancient and modern, he was also a megalomaniac, an enemy of the state, a war criminal, and a tyrant. Only a very few individuals have left such an extensive and controversial mark on the history of the ancient world. We shall consider as many aspects of his life and his legacy as we can, from his conquest of Gaul to his decision to plunge Rome into a horrific civil war, from his love-affair with Queen Cleopatra of Egypt to his brutal assassination on the Ides of March. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Unhappy families appear throughout Greco-Roman literature and culture. Spectacular Tragic Houses were filled with several generations of disasters. These inspired a variety of poets to retell select moments in their histories. But even the comic household can mobilize hatred, suspicion, and other ugly feelings to humorous effect. Conflict between domineering fathers and the rest of the household was a staple of rhetorical training. And in many homes we can see the misery of slaves, members who are also not members of the family. This course will survey a variety of intimate disasters. We will explore norms and ideals as well as the sense that the same are fragile, contradictory, or even impossible. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Two thousand years ago Roman hydraulic engineers designed aqueducts and provided hundreds of cities in the Mediterranean region with a richer water supply than any nation could boast before the late 1800s. Ever more sophisticated ships transported goods from harbour to harbour and Roman experts on construction built the Colosseum and other amphitheatres, as well as countless temples, theatres, roads, bridges, and even high-rise apartment buildings, which in some cases survive to this very day. What was the secret of Roman civilization, and what did this level of technology mean for the empire’s inhabitants? This course presents for discussion the many achievements of centuries of Roman presence on three continents around the Mediterranean Sea, while bringing into the equation also the issue of standard of living and the ecological costs. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

This course will survey creative works inspired by Homer's Odyssey. First we will read through the Odyssey, contextualizing the Homeric epic within the larger story of the Trojan War and the subsequent heroic return in the "Epic Cycle." Then we will study various "receptions" of the Odyssey, ancient and modern. Ancient works will include the satyr play Cyclops by Euripides and portrayals of a love-sick Cyclops in Theocritus and Ovid. In True Story Lucian calls Odysseus a liar but rivals his travel tale with episodes placed on the moon and inside a whale. Modern works include Atwood's Penelopiad, Walcott's stage version of the Odyssey, and the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Themes will include travel literature, truth and lying, localization of the wanderings of Odysseus, culture clash, and the definition of home. All this material, various in date, media, and fidelity to their Homeric source, will provide us with a well-rounded sense of how the Odyssey has been re-imagined over the ages. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

After a high water mark of territorial reach and economic success in the middle of the 2nd century CE, the Roman Empire eventually disintegrated. How? Why? When? In this course, we will consider some of the historical features that may have contributed to its political collapse, and we will consider some modern scholarly analyses from Edward Gibbon (late 18th century) to the present. But we will also investigate “decline and fall” as a narrative trope. Why is this story arc always with us? Who decides what qualifies as “decline”? Is the “fall” of some systems necessarily a bad thing? Among the topics to be considered in the context of the Later Roman Empire are several of relevance in the modern world, not least: climate change, disease, human migration, religious difference, and economic inequality. Restricted to first-year students. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

The study of technical and scientific terms derived from Latin and Greek: word elements, formation, analysis. The course is designed to give students in any field of specialization a better grasp of the derivation and basic meaning of English words derived from Latin and Greek elements.

The first scientific traditions in the classical Mediterranean and the Near East, with emphasis on Greek science. Discussions of early physical science, biology, mathematics, and astronomy, and their place in ancient life and thought, based on primary sources in translation. Designed for students in both the sciences and humanities.

A survey of the myths and legends of ancient Greece (and their extension to Rome) with some consideration of their role in ancient and modern literature and art.

Already in antiquity, Socrates was viewed as a watershed in philosophical history, and a reference-point for everything that came after him. This course explores the evidence for his beliefs and methods and the context in which he lived and worked, and it introduces a lively circle of interlocutors and pupils going far beyond the most famous, Plato and Xenophon.

A study of the overlapping and contested categories of “magic”, “religion”, and “science” in ancient Greek and Roman thought and practice.

A survey of the practices and theory of archaeology in the Classical Mediterranean, from the Greek Bronze Age through the Roman Empire. This course introduces students to the archaeological record of the Greco-Roman past, as well as the means by which we access it. Students will develop essential skills to recognize and analyze ancient material culture in preparation for upper level classes, or for fieldwork. No previous knowledge of the discipline is required.