This course examines Israeli identity using a broad array of materials, including popular music, film, documentaries, and art, in addition to academic historical writings. Topics include Israel’s political system and society, ethnic relations, settlement projects, and the Arab minorities in the Jewish state. Students also discuss whether there is a unique Israeli culture and the struggle for Israel’s identity.
Preference is given to students in the MISTI MIT-Israel program.

This course is designed for students seeking a fundamental understanding of Japanese history, politics, culture, and the economy. “Raw Fish 101” (as it is often labeled) combines lectures, seminar discussion, small-team case studies, and Web page construction exercises, all designed to shed light on contemporary Japan.

This course covers medieval Japanese society and culture from the twelfth to the nineteenth centuries, when political power rested largely in the hands of feudal warriors. Topics include religion (especially Zen Buddhism); changing concepts of “the way of the warrior;” women under feudalism; popular culture; and protest and rebellion. Presentations include weekly feature films. Assigned readings include many literary writings in translation.

This course explores how our views of Jewish history have been formed and how this history can explain the survival of the Jews as an ethnic/religious group into the present day. Special attention is given to the partial and fragmentary nature of our information about the past, and the difficulties inherent in decoding statements about the past that were written with a religious agenda in mind. It also considers complex events in Jewish history – from early history as portrayed in the Bible to recent history, including the Holocaust.

On September 25, 1963, President John F. Kennedy traveled to Grand Forks, North Dakota, greeted its citizens while touring the city, and delivered a speech at the University of North Dakota Field House, which addressed important issues still vital today: environmental protection, conservation of natural resources, economic development, the struggle between democracy and totalitarianism, and the importance of education and public service. The University conferred on the President an honorary Doctor of Laws degree. Over 20,000 people assembled on campus that day to see JFK -- the largest campus gathering in UND history. Tragically, less than two months later, the thirty-fifth President of the United States was assassinated in Dallas.

To commemorate the forty-fifth anniversary of the President's Grand Forks visit, and in tandem with the University's one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary, UND organized a September 25-27, 2008 conference to foster interdisciplinary discussion and analysis of the issues addressed in JFK's UND speech, as well as other significant issues of the Kennedy era, including civil rights, space exploration, the nuclear threat, and the influence of the media on presidential politics. The Conference also explored issues related to the President's assassination within weeks of his UND visit. This publication of conference proceedings collects the papers presented during this conference as well as transcripts of significant addresses and discussions.

Short Description:
This is a collection of travel letters written by the textile merchant John (Jack) McCaldin Loewenthal, known as JMcC, to his mother Jane at their home in Lennoxvale, Belfast, between 1889 and 1895. They were written during his journeys to South America and the West Indies, where he was securing commercial contracts while representing the firm in which his father was a partner.

Long Description:
This is a collection of travel letters written by the textile merchant John (Jack) McCaldin Loewenthal, known as JMcC, to his mother Jane at their home in Lennoxvale, Belfast, between 1889 and 1895. They were written during his journeys to South America and the West Indies, where he was securing commercial contracts, whilst representing the firm “Moore and Weinberg”, Linen and Jute traders, based in Dundee and Belfast, in which his father Julius Loewenthal was a senior partner. The reason these letters survived for posterity is that he had specifically asked his mother to keep them as a record of his travels, for him to look back on after his return home to Belfast. The letters are a diary-like account of his travels and travel impressions, also containing little anecdotes, as well as more personal interactions with his mother to do with family and friends in Belfast and Dundee, as well as social chit chat. They were part of a regular correspondence between him and Jane.

Word Count: 153006

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Journey to Understanding: An Introduction to North Dakota Tribes is an introductory booklet intended to give a quick overview of Indigenous culture in North Dakota. It is a starting point for the rest of the North Dakota Tribal History & Culture series. The booklet explains the names and backgrounds of the nations that share geography with North Dakota. It also teaches basic cultural competency to facilitate interaction for people from a different background. The content is presented in the form of self-quizzes with provided answers. Journey to Understanding was originally used within the North Dakota Department of Human Services (NDDHS) --now part of the North Dakota Department of Health & Human Services (NDHHS)-- and was developed by NDDHS in collaboration with the Native American Training Institute. After its initial publication, it soon made its way from state government and into classrooms. With the permission of NDHHS, it is now distributed as part of the North Dakota Tribal History & Culture series.

This course explores the political, social, and economic factors commonly offered to explain the fall of the Roman Republic: growth of the territorial empire, increased intensity of aristocratic competition, transformation of the Italian economy, growth of the city of Rome and dependence of the urban plebs, changes in military recruitment and dependence of soldiers on their generals. There is an emphasis on the reading of ancient sources in translation, including Cicero, Sallust, Caesar, Augustus, Appian, Plutarch, and Suetonius.

Diverse Perspectives

Short Description:
This book is intended for readers who have never studied the Middle East, or experts who may wish to fill gaps in their knowledge of the region from other disciplines. Whether for establishing or deepening one’s knowledge of the region, these fundamentals are important to know. The languages, cultural, religious and sectarian communities of the region, and selected turning points and influential people in history are starting points for gaining an understanding of the diverse contexts of the region.

Long Description:
This book is intended for readers who have never studied the Middle East, or experts who may wish to fill gaps in their knowledge of the region from other disciplines. Whether for establishing or deepening one’s knowledge of the region, these fundamentals are important to know. The languages, cultural, religious and sectarian communities of the region, and selected turning points and influential people in history are starting points for gaining an understanding of the diverse contexts of the region. It is based on introductory and graduate courses on the contemporary Middle East, which the Center’s director, Dr. Alam Payind, has been teaching for the past 30 years. The book’s co-author, Melinda McClimans, has taught these and other courses with him, as well as her own, for the past 15 years. The material is intended engage with diverse – even conflicting – cultural and historical perspectives, and ways of perceiving both Middle Eastern and world history from perspectives within the region. It is not intended to reinforce a monolithic or matter-of-fact perception of the region. For this and many other reasons, images are an important aspect of the knowledge presented. Each chapter starts with links to its image galleries, along with other visual aids and key elements.

Word Count: 28082

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UM-Dearborn Edition

Short Description:
This book, developed for students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, is an adaptation of Alam Payind's and Melissa McClimans' 2017 open text, "Keys to Understanding the Middle East," published by Ohio State University. Specifically, this version adds a more consistent approach to transliteration, and expands on languages in the Middle East, Islamic sects, and the history that preceded the modern period.

Long Description:
This book, developed for students at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, is a remix of Alam Payind’s and Melissa McClimans’ 2017 open text, “Keys to Understanding the Middle East,” published by Ohio State University. Specifically, this version adds a more consistent approach to transliteration, and expands on languages in the Middle East, Islamic sects, and the history that preceded the modern period.

This book is intended for those who have never studied the Middle East, or experts who may wish to fill gaps in their knowledge of the region from other disciplines. Whether for establishing or deepening one’s knowledge of the region, these fundamentals are important to know. The languages, cultural, religious and sectarian communities of the region, and selected turning points and influential people in history are starting points for gaining an understanding of the diverse contexts of the region.

Word Count: 29227

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A Student-Authored Textbook

Short Description:
An Open Education Resource textbook for anybody who wants to learn more about Korean history.

Long Description:
In this textbook students from the course HST259 share what they learned and want you to know about a particular aspect of Korean history. The content ranges from the earliest times to the present, and covers music, food, archaeology, armed conflicts, and much more. The students are not experts in Korean history, but hope that their chapter will make you curious to discover more about the fascinating history of the Korean peninsula.

Second edition: Published August 19, 2022.

Word Count: 44898

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Short Description:
In this class, students will explore diverse topics in the geosciences at a high level. Students who complete this class will have had the opportunity acquire the skills needed to engage in advanced geologic study.

Word Count: 30933

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Word Count: 6468

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This seminar explores “land” as a genre, theme, and medium of art and architecture of the last five decades. Focusing largely on work within the boundaries of the United States, the course seeks to understand how the use of land in art and architecture is bound into complicated entanglements of property and power, the inheritances of non-U.S. traditions, and the violence of colonial ambitions. The term “landscape” is variously deployed in the service of a range of political and philosophical positions.

Word Count: 14985

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Word Count: 25128

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As events of the last few years have shown, the Supreme Court has played a crucial role in American political life. There is practically no issue of social significance in the American past that did not at some point end up in the nation’s courtrooms, yet much of the workings of the constitution remain obscure. This subject is designed to introduce students to the main themes and events of American constitutional law since 1787. It introduces terms and concepts of law and legal history, focusing on three recurring themes in American public life: liberty, equality, and property. Readings consist mostly of original court cases, especially from the U.S. Supreme Court, but the focus of the class is on the historical connections between those cases and broader social, political, and cultural trends.

Un demi-siècle au service de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche en Afrique

Long Description:
Le Conseil africain et malgache pour l’enseignement supérieur (CAMES), fondé à Niamey en 1968, est une institution panafricaine au cœur de l’histoire intellectuelle et scientifique de l’Afrique francophone moderne. À l’occasion de son cinquantenaire, l’historien Chikouna Cissé fait le point sur l’ensemble des faits et des humains qui ont fait de cette institution celle qu’elle est devenue en 2018, de la volonté initiale des chefs d’État de l’OCAM à son Plan stratégique de développement 2015-2019. Cette histoire part à la recherche des traces matérielles, des solidarités originelles et des stratifications générationnelles qui ont permis au CAMES d’advenir, de surmonter obstacles et erreurs et d’avancer vers la modernité. Elle convoque de nombreux angles d’analyse issus du droit, de l’économie, de la philosophie des sciences et de la sociologie. Comment le CAMES a-t-il produit sa légitimité juridique et scientifique dans un contexte décolonial? Comment cette institution a-t-elle été financée? Quelle place son système d’évaluation occupe-t-il dans les politiques universitaires des pays membres? Qu’a fait le CAMES pour encourager la recherche africaine? Utilisant autant l’analyse des documents que l’histoire orale, ce livre permettra à toute l’Afrique de s’approprier l’histoire d’une de ses institutions les plus remarquables.

Word Count: 82594

ISBN: 978-2-924661-56-7

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This class explores the creation (and creativity) of the modern scientific and cultural world through study of western Europe in the 17th century, the age of Descartes and Newton, Shakespeare, Milton and Ford. It compares period thinking to present-day debates about the scientific method, art, religion, and society. This team-taught, interdisciplinary subject draws on a wide range of literary, dramatic, historical, and scientific texts and images, and involves theatrical experimentation as well as reading, writing, researching and conversing.
The primary theme of the class is to explore how England in the mid-seventeenth century became “a world turned upside down” by the new ideas and upheavals in religion, politics, and philosophy, ideas that would shape our modern world. Paying special attention to the “theatricality” of the new models and perspectives afforded by scientific experimentation, the class will read plays by Shakespeare, Tate, Brecht, Ford, Churchill, and Kushner, as well as primary and secondary texts from a wide range of disciplines. Students will also compose and perform in scenes based on that material.