JEWSH-MIN - Jewish Studies (Minor)

The Interdepartmental Program in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CSRE) explores how race and ethnicity shape global history, undergird our social systems, and touch every aspect of our lives. Our courses empower students with the tools to assess and build inclusivity, equity, diversity, accessibility, and justice. CCSRE programs—encompassing Asian American Studies, Chicana/o-Latina/o Studies, Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, Jewish Studies, and Native American Studies—take an interdisciplinary approach to considering how gender, sexuality, ability, capital, technology, education, politics, and the environment structure our bodies, experiences, and communities. Students have the option to focus on particular racial and ethnic groups and on issues that move across peoples and places. 

The interdisciplinary nature of the academic programs empowers students to enroll in a wide variety of courses. CCSRE listings can be found in Anthropology, Art and Art History, Education, History, Linguistics, Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Religious Studies, Sociology, Theater and Performance Studies, and more. Majors and minors in CCSRE engage with various perspectives and methodologies and grapple with pivotal themes, including decolonization, indigeneity, intersectionality, movement-building, resistance, solidarity, and wellness. By analyzing interlocking structures of identity and difference, CCSRE students interrogate the role of power, reimagine the world, and reclaim the future.

The Jewish Studies minor provides students with an overview of Jewish history, languages, literature, religion, thought, and politics. Drawing from the Humanities, the Social Sciences, and from courses offered by affiliated faculty in the School of Education, the Jewish Studies minor seeks to help students understand Jewish identities, thought, and self-expression within larger historical and social contexts and to develop their ability to analyze human experience from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. Students can explore the multiplicity of racial, ethnic, and religious meanings claimed by or assigned to Jews historically and today.

In addition to the undergraduate major and minor offered through the Interdepartmental Program in CSRE, the Taube Center for Jewish Studies offers a full range of guest lectures, conferences, and symposia. 

Visit the Jewish Studies website and the Taube Center for Jewish Studies for more information about the program and how to declare the minor.

Program Learning Outcomes:

The Program in Jewish Studies expects that undergraduate minors concluding their course of study will be able to:

• Demonstrate broad knowledge of Jewish history (ancient through contemporary), texts, and religion while specializing in a disciplinary approach to the study of Jews, Judaism, and Jewish cultures

• Mobilize comparative frameworks for analyzing how race, ethnicity, and religion develop historically, cross-culturally, and transnationally with a focus on Jewish racialization

• Understand, interpret, and utilize trans- and interdisciplinary theories and methods in the study of race, ethnicity, and religion as they pertain to Jews

• Critically engage with primary and secondary sources and use both types of evidence in research and argumentation, including demonstrating the ability to engage with a Jewish language

• Effectively communicate data, research, and arguments to diverse audiences

• Apply a core inventory of theories, methods, and concepts to local and global contexts