Spring

This sequence introduces three great empires of the ancient world. Each course in the sequence focuses on one empire, with attention to the similarities and differences among the empires being considered. By exploring the rich legacy of documents and monuments that these empires produced, students are introduced to ways of understanding imperialism and its cultural and societal effects—both on the imperial elites and on those they conquered.

For most of the duration of the New Kingdom (1550-1069 BC), the ancient Egyptians were able to establish a vast empire and becoming one of the key powers within the Near East. This course will investigate in detail the development of Egyptian foreign policies and military expansion which affected parts of the Near East and Nubia. We will examine and discuss topics such as ideology, imperial identity, political struggle and motivation for conquest and control of wider regions surrounding the Egyptian state as well as the relationship with other powers and their perspective on Egyptian rulers as for example described in the Amarna letters.

This course investigates public and private buildings in which ancient records have been found in situ, seeking to find correlations based on architecture, artifacts, and the contents of texts. Often, in the past, the findspots of texts have not been meticulously recorded, resulting in the loss of valuable information on the function of specific buildings or even rooms in buildings; the layout of a building can also give information that can add significantly to the interpretation of the texts.

This course is an exploration of the continuities of Egyptian culture from the Ptolemaic period down to modern times, a span of over 2000 years.  The emphasis will be on the archaeology of Coptic and Islamic Egypt.  The focus will be on the role of medieval archaeology in amplifying the history of economic and social systems.  It is this connective quality of archaeology which contributes to an understanding of Pharaonic culture and fills the gap between ancient and modern Egypt.

This one quarter course is designed to provide students with skills for viewing original movies, reading short newspaper articles as well as watching T.V. shows - all dealing with cultural and social issues in Israel. The learning stages include reading and listening comprehension, oral and written expression, vocabulary and grammar enrichment. The movies, articles and shows are supplemented with a simultaneous script and a dictionary. This courseware is suitable for students who had at least one year of Modern Hebrew studies or were placed into Intermediate Modern Hebrew. Consent of instructor is required.

The beginner's class is the first of three sequential courses, offered through one academic year. The course aims to introduce students to reading, writing and speaking Modern Hebrew. Students gain experience with a variety of skills: • Comprehension: Reading & Listening to short texts and recorded conversations
• Conversation: Simple dialogues and stories
• Reading: dialogues and texts in non-diacritical easy Hebrew on various topics
• Writing: Short dialogues and passages on the topics taught in class
• Grammatical Skills: Elementary grammatical structures, inflection of the strong and some weak verb in the past and present tenses. Basic semantic and syntactic topics are also introduced.
By the end of that course, students usually know 800-1000 words and are expected to be able to conduct short conversations in Hebrew; read materials designed to this level and write short compositions.
Final grade is based on attendance, class participation, homework, quizzes and tests, oral exam.

A continuation of Elementary Classical Hebrew. The first quarter consists of reviewing grammar, and of reading and analyzing further prose texts. The last two quarters are devoted to an introduction to Hebrew poetry with readings from Psalms, Proverbs, and the prophets.

In this intensive, three-quarter sequence course student will gain skills corresponding to two full years of study. The course brings students to high-intermediate levels in all four skills: reading, writing, comprehension and grammar so that students can enter third-year level courses in Reading Modern Hebrew. With the main emphasis this course places on grammar, students that graduates this course successfully can enter third-year level courses in Reading Modern Hebrew

The third quarter is spent examining prose passages from the Hebrew Bible and includes a review of grammar.

Intro to OE texts and grammar

This course features readings in a variety of genres, including historical, literary, and scientific texts.