New Lectures in History (300-0-24)

Topic

Violence in Israel/Palestine: A History

Instructors

Shira Pinhas
Crowe 5-167
Office Hours: Tuesdays 10:30 - 12:30

Meeting Info

Kresge Centennial Hall 2-319: Tues, Thurs 12:30PM - 1:50PM

Overview of class

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people" (American proverb). "You are different with a gun in your hand; the gun is different with you holding it" (Bruno Latour, Pandora's Hope: Essays on the Reality of Science Studies, 179). These two sayings present diametrically opposed views of the relationship between weapons and society: one regards weapons as a neutral medium that merely executes violent human intentions, while the other attributes to them agency in shaping those very intentions. This course examines this tension through the history of violence and arms in Palestine/Israel, spanning the periods of the Ottoman Empire, British rule, and the establishment of the State of Israel up to the present day. Violence is a human experience unlike any other. It leaves deep emotional and physical imprints, and sometimes transforms the very way people perceive and sense the world. To examine this, we will engage with poetry, music, and film alongside archival sources, inquiring into how violence has shaped the subjectivities of perpetrators, victims, witnesses, and bystanders across various times and contexts. Can violence form a collective identity or experience? Rather than considering these questions abstractly, we will situate them in the material realities of technology. We will analyze how changing forms of surveillance, policing, and bombing have shaped ideas of humanity, delineating who belongs to it and who is excluded from it. Throughout the course, we will ask: What made different people at different points in time decide to use arms or object to their use? How and to what extent did the materiality of arms - their production, dissemination, design, or operation - influence these choices?

Learning Objectives

The course is designed with three key objectives in mind:
1) to explore how arms shaped and were shaped by the social and cultural history of Palestine/Israel
2) to examine diverse perspectives on arms production and use as experienced and enacted by various historical actors
3) and, perhaps most crucially, to analyze how militarization has profoundly shaped the subjectivities of those affected by it across different times and contexts.
To achieve these insights, a central aim of the seminar is to guide students in analyzing historical sources, contextualizing them, and constructing well-founded arguments based on their analyses.

Evaluation Method

Class participation: 20%
Weekly Online Reactions: 15%
Quiz: 5%
Class Presentations: 20%
Final paper: 40%

Class Materials (Required)

Materials will be provided by instructor.

Class Attributes

Historical Studies Foundational Discipline
Historical Studies Distro Area