Professors from the political science, religious studies and music departments will be teaching new classes regarding conflict in the Middle East next quarter.
Religious studies professor Stephen Lloyd-Moffett and political science professor Anika Leithner will be team teaching an experimental class, RELS/POLS x380, Religion and Politics in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It will be a chance to “learn to talk about the conflict in ways that are productive,” Lloyd-Moffett.
Lloyd-Moffett hopes to create a unbiased environment, with a balance in discussion and an opportunity to hear both sides.
“There are lots of different dimensions,” he said.
The course will cover the several aspects tied to the conflict, and will include lecture, group discussion and a major project toward the end of the quarter. The class is open to all class levels and majors.
“I don’t buy the fact that one side is evil,” Lloyd-Moffett said, who stressed that he nor professor Leithner have leanings either way.
“There’s no agenda,” Leithner said.
She will cover the causes, processes, and possible solutions to the conflict. She will also present the political aspect as well as looking at the individual. This will include a psychological and realist view.
She will attempt to answer her question of “what perpetuates this hatred?”
Leithner holds that “our views are socially constructed,” and that rhetoric, propaganda, education, and views of ‘the enemy’ contribute to the conflict.
“If we can change the way people talk about the conflict, maybe we can change the way people act,” Leithner said.
Ken Habib, a music professor and ethno musicologist, will be teaching another new class, MU 324, Music and Conflict in the Middle East.
The class will focus on the ways music is used in political and conflicted ways, and in the context of conflict. Habib will cover aspects such as struggle for land ownership, power, freedom and gender equality issues.
It is open to all majors and class levels.
The class will be reading and writing intensive, and discussion oriented. The course will be “open to perspectives and mutual respect for opinions,” Habib said.
Israeli rap artist Kobi Shimoni and Palestinian artist Tamer Nafer will be studied.
These artists “take up a symbolic political struggle in their music,” Habib said.
Habib hopes students will gain a better appreciation for music upon completion of the course, and a broader understanding of conflict in the Middle East.