English courses for overseas students

 Dr. Daphne Goldman

The global environmental crisis is not bypassing Israel. Here, too, the environment human society depends upon is being harmed by a range of problems, including population growth, disparity between rich and poor, depletion of natural resources, pollution and global climate change. Environmental issues are complex, involve many stakeholders and are therefore controversial, most specifically regarding how to deal with them.

This course will address a selection of current issues of the environment in Israel, including: population-related problems, open space, pollution and over-use of natural resources, consumerism and waste management, climate change, biodiversity decline, environmental education. The course will provide a holistic perspective of the relationships between the biophysical, social, economic and political dimensions of environmental issues and a local perspective to global issues.

Dr. Batya Brutin

The course deals with the Holocaust, its meanings and universal implications and with its place in the collective memory and the cultural existence in Israel. The Holocaust studies program at Beit Berl Collge is based on a multi-disciplinary approach that emphasizes History and integrates literature, cinema, and visual art in it. The students will participate in a visit to Yad Vashem – the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority – Jerusalem, which will serve to demonstrate historical and cultural perspectives of the Holocaust, using art and literature sources.

Dr. Shelly Shenhav

The centrality of social and collective memory will stand at the heart of the course; we would like to decipher the poetics and politics of memory. The aim of the course is to understand the meaning, the mythic content and the power of collective memory to influence and construct public spheres, social relations and educational frameworks.

Looking at monuments, museums, sites, national ceremonies, educational programs etc. will clarify how they become contested arenas in Israel and elsewhere.

Prof. Esther Hertzog

The course will focus on the connection between women and power centers in Israel, on both the local and national levels. It will examine historical processes and changes in women's political situation along the years. A critical approach will be employed with regard to conventional interpretations of the course's topic.

The students will be exposed to the ongoing struggles for women's equality over political rights, the right to vote and to be elected and more. Along the course several women-politicians will be invited to tell their personal stories and to discuss the insights they have gained from their experience.

Aida Nasrallah

Since the establishment of Israel, several political, socio-economic variables have affected Arab women’s situation. Arab Israeli women suffer from a patriarchal system which imposes strict codes and boundaries that exert pressures on women to articulate their gender interests within the terms set by patriarchal discourse. Nevertheless, Arab women in Israel are going through major modernization processes which question prejudices and undermine their restriction to the domestic sphere.

The course will delve into the many ways in which Arab women have responded to their assumed identities and to their society's expectations. It will focus on Palestinian women's marginalization by Israel's policies and elaborate on the indirect ways it enhanced their ambitions and competition with Arab men in various spheres, among which are the visual arts and academic studies. The course will offer a comparative examination of Arab women's situation in Israel and in other countries in the Arab world, especially with regard to body’s regulations.

Dr. Yusuf Muhsin

The course examines the history of the crusades in the Middle East. The course will be taught mainly from an Arab-Muslim point of view, but the European – Christian point of view will also be presented. The course will go beyond the military struggle between the Muslims and the Crusaders to examine issues such as: cooperation between Muslims and Crusaders in many fields including, trade, economy, medicine and even in the field of war and weapon. It will also examine the influence of both sides on each other. 

Ohad Landsman

The course spans the history of Israeli Cinema from the days of Zionist realism of the 30s up to the present. Israeli cinema, in full symbiosis with Israeli society reflects but also plays an active role in shaping the myths as well as the central conflicts of Israeli society. The course will present the historic context of the films while stressing the different ideological approaches as well as central themes. The personal versus the national, or is there non-political Israeli Cinema? the politics of remembrance or the role of the Holocaust in Israeli cinema; Representation  of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, women, men; multiculturalism in the Cinema of the 2^nd generation of immigrants etc.  The course will be accompanied by screenings excerpts of films to illustrate the issues raised.