Abstract
This course invites you to grapple with contrasting perspectives on history and diverse collective identities, and explore the relationship between history, narrative, memory, identity, and cultural politics. Our course will be centered around one text: Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine. This history text is co-authored by Palestinian and Israeli teachers, supervised by historians, and presents two national narratives. Together we will seek understanding, analyze the dual narratives text with a critical lens, and learn more about how Israeli and Palestinian narratives, including their similarities and differences, have shaped contemporary identities, politics, nationalisms, and relations. Additionally, we will explore various Israeli-Palestinian demographic subgroups, their histories, cultures, politics, and narratives, and how these relate to Israeli-Palestinian society and the conflict.
By the end of this course, you should:
Gain strong historical understandings of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the impact historical events have on contemporary developments;
Approach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a lens that is both critical and humanizing;
Have an increased understanding of the relationships between history, narrative, memory, identity, and cultural politics, and of their implications;
Have an increased understanding of diverse communities within Israel and Palestine
Improve your ability to critically analyze and intelligently communicate sociohistorical literature and to contribute to critical and complex discussions on difficult social topics;
Understand the value of diversity in relation to knowledge production and multicultural understanding