Module overview
This module explores the rich variety of Jewish life and the development of Jewish experience, including Antisemitism and violence from the ancient to the contemporary world. It introduces students to ideologies and cultures of antisemitism and examines attempts to theorise antisemitism as an historical and contemporary phenomenon; it places antisemitism within wider histories of racism and racialised thought. It also examines ideas, processes and experiences of emancipation, looks at histories of Jewish/non-Jewish economic, social, cultural and intellectual exchange, and examines Jewish experiences of violence such as pogroms and expulsion and Jewish community responses to persecution.
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Transferable and Generic Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- utilise and develop your time-management skills.
- use to good effect textual, visual and material culture sources, synthesising this material to develop cogent and persuasive arguments.
- research complex historical questions and communicate your findings convincingly and concisely in written essays.
Knowledge and Understanding
Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:
- a wide variety of secondary source material relating to Jewish life and antisemitism, including theoretical frameworks used in the field.
- a wide variety of primary sources relating to Jewish life and antisemitism.
- the history of Jewish life, in particular the development of Jewish experience.
Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- undertake a thorough critical analysis and assessment of a variety of textual, visual and material culture sources.
- engage with historiography and theoretical frameworks, contributing to the debates relating to Jewish life and antisemitism and its relationship to the wider world.
- apply your developed knowledge of Jewish life, structuring your ideas and research findings into well-ordered essays.
Syllabus
Topics to be explored in this module may include antisemitism and violence, racism and racial thought, emancipation, pogroms and persecution.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Teaching methods include seminars.
Learning methods include close analysis of a range of primary sources and discussion of key themes and ideas.
| Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Wider reading or practice | 52 |
| Preparation for scheduled sessions | 100 |
| Seminar | 48 |
| Completion of assessment task | 100 |
| Total study time | 300 |
Resources & Reading list
Textbooks
Michael Stanislawski (1983). Tsar Nicholas I and the Jews. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America.
Ezra Mendelsohn (1983). The Jews of East Central Europe between the World Wars. Indiana.
Jeffrey Veidlinger (2021). In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust. New York: Metropolitan Books.
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Written assessment | 30% |
| Essay | 70% |
Referral
This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Written assessment | 30% |
| Essay | 70% |
Repeat
An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.
| Method | Percentage contribution |
|---|---|
| Written assessment | 30% |
| Essay | 70% |