The course will focus on gender power relations in Israeli local and national politics and their connection to gender issues in Israel in general. It will discuss the background, processes and mechanisms of women's marginalization in political power centers and will examine various interpretations for this phenomenon. Historical processes and changes in women's political rights and status since the beginning of the 19th century will be explored through critical lenses. The students will also be exposed to the ongoing struggles, led by women's organizations, for .women's equality and political rights.
This course will address central issues in Israeli politics in a comparative perspective. Specifically, we will deal with Israeli democracy and current politics; highlighting Israeli electoral system, parties and state institutions – and compare those essential institutions to other modern democracies. Students in this course will first be introduced to the basic concepts and approaches used by comparative politics scholars. Emphasis will be on the mapping and classification of modern democracies (about 15 countries), classification of electoral systems and the political consequences various methods, the advantages and weaknesses of each method, and the differences in the functioning and political behavior in several countries that will be under the study. Throughout the course, we will deal in a comparative perspective with the key political processes that led some countries to reform their electoral systems, the implications of these changes and the discussion surrounding the electoral reform in Israel that is still present in those days.
Different countries and different societies have different ranges of social policies – between Socialism and Capitalism. Those are influenced to a large extent, by the availability of social services at the community, the local authority, the regional, the national and the international levels. Those social services may be delivered by the public sector, by the voluntary and/or by the for-profit sectors. Social policies influence the financial, the physical, the mental and the emotional state of the citizens. Simply put, social policies may create mental tensions and stress on individuals, families, groups and communities that has an effect on our quality of life. For example: in cases of poverty; hunger; physical or mental disability; interpersonal and inter-group violence; war and political instability; natural disasters and other communal and/or environmental stressors. The course will introduce and discuss the history, the theories and the practices of Social Policy in Western countries and in Israel. It will emphasize topics such as poverty and wealth; the Welfare State; differences between Governmental and Non-Governmental social services; the privatization of services, and the importance of interorganizational and inter-disciplinary collaborations.
The course will expand on learning about the problem of domestic violence and intimate relationships. Students will be exposed to existing knowledge in the field of violence at the individual, family and community levels. As part of the course, students will learn basic definitions of the problem of domestic violence, key theories in understanding the problem, deepen the understanding of the phenomenon occurring in different cultures in Israel, and learn about the emotional world of women affected by violence and the characteristics of men who use violence. We will also understand the cycle of violence and dynamics that take place between the couple, and the consequences of the violence. We will study a model for diagnosing and treating women who are victims of violence. We will also learn about the experiences of children exposed to domestic violence, and we will elaborate on the cases in which women use violence against their spouses.
The course deals with fundamental questions in philosophy of science. We will examine how the philosophy of science has reformulated basic questions and debates in Western philosophy, and how it has addressed them using the means at its disposal. Among the questions we will discuss are: Is there scientific rationality, and how is it to be conceptualized? What does it mean that science is a social enterprise? As time progresses, does science approximate the truth, at least in some cases? What are the ways in which science represents the world? The course readings consist of classical and contemporary sources.
The course deals with philosophical dilemmas that arise in the process of technology design. Among the questions the course asks are: Is technology value-neutral, or does it embody social values? If technology embodies values, in what ways does it do so, and how can we recognize them? Who is a responsible designer, and what are her responsibilities? Where is the mind located – is it restricted to the human body, or does it extend to technological artefacts? The course readings consist of papers in philosophy that address current technologies, particularly digital technologies.
