This course is designed to engage students in conversations about particular perspectives on the history of a selected nation, region, people, culture, institution, or historical phenomenon as specified by the respective instructor. By taking this course, students will come to understand, and develop an appreciation for, some combination of: the origins and evolution of the people, cultures, and/or political, economic, and/or social institutions of a particular region(s) of the world. They may also explore how human encounters shaped individual and collective identities and the complex political, economic, and social orders of the region/nation/communities under study. Instructors and subject will vary.

This course will follow the history of Tel Aviv, the first Hebrew city, from its birth in 1909 as “a city from the sands," to its present position as a global metropolis. Tel Aviv, planned as a Garden City, quickly became the center of political and cultural activity in Eretz, Israel. We will study various aspects of the city’s life: architecture, urban planning, culture, politics and the arts. This examination will include the study of photography, art works and exhibitions, poetry and popular songs, performance, theatre, and film. All readings for this class will be available on bCourses. Questions for the final exam will be given a week in advance and will integrate material delivered in class and individual readings. Students will be allowed to use notes during the exam. Instructor bio: Visiting professor and architect Stephanie Shosh Rotem is a graduate of Tel Aviv University. She received a PhD in 2010 in the Program for Interdisciplinary Arts, and her doctorate was published in 2013, as “Constructing Memory: Architectural Narratives of Holocaust Museums.” From 2011 to 2017, Rotem was Head of the Museum Studies Program at Tel Aviv University. She also taught graduate courses in Tel Aviv’s Faculty of the Arts and in the International Program for Holocaust Studies at the University of Haifa. In 2018-19 she was a visiting professor for Israel Studies at the University of Virginia. Rotem lectures and publishes on architectural history, museum history and architecture, and Holocaust museums.

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Requirements class fulfills