Race, Sexuality, and the Jews

This seminar offers an interdisciplinary and intersectional examination of the historical and contemporary experiences of Jews from antiquity through the present. We will learn about social and cultural constructions of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexuality, focusing on Jews and other neighboring minority and majority communities; we will study how in different geographical and temporal spheres these communities have defined or blurred boundaries, shaping both distinctly visible and invisible characteristics; we will examine how perceptions of race and ethnicity have changed over time and across circumstances and how the traditional binary of men and women has been reinforced throughout but also how it has been challenged and altered in various contexts.