Curricular Development

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the University of Michigan provides funding for instructors to develop new courses, including team-taught classes and courses devoted to research on relevant topics; to add modules to existing courses; or to redesign courses that advance the mission of the institute. Funding may also be used for undergraduate and graduate student support, course website development, the acquisition of curricular materials, digital and technological assistance, or other projects related to curricular development. The institute may also want to develop a certificate program.

Flagship Course

Beginning in fall 2025, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the University of Michigan will offer a flagship course, in which students will observe challenging conversations between experts drawn from across the University of Michigan; engage in workshops focusing on the skills of dialogue, discourse, and compassion; and engage in challenging conversations with diverse populalations of University of Michigan classmates. More details about this course will be available soon.

Student Leadership and Experiential Learning

The Raoul Wallenberg Institute at the University of Michigan will fund and assist in the identification and development of experiential learning and leadership training opportunities for students who seek to engage with the values of the institute beyond the classroom. Experiential learning can be integrated into courses and/or promoted through internships. The institute will work with and support instructors to identify or develop experiential learning opportunities in collaboration with community partners.

Through the flagship course, students will be introduced to methods of discussion leadership and those eager to continue will have the opportunity to join the Wallenberg student leadership program, geared specifically toward fostering crosscultural dialogue and common understandings about charged issues related to the mission of the institute. 

Current Courses

ALA 260- The World After October 7th

Instructors: Jeffrey Veidlinger and Miriam Mora

This course examines the impact of the Hamas attacks on southern Israel on October 7th, 2023 and the ensuing two years of devastation in Gaza and violence in the region more broadly. Students will study the reverberations of this violence across the globe and within the university. Combining observation of expert dialogue, focused readings, and group discussions about the impacts of global events and trends, students will engage with their classmates and learn skills of civic discourse as well as subject knowledge.

History 244- Islam in History

Instructor: Aaron Rock-Singer

For over a hundred years, Arabs and Jews living between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea have engaged in the modern world's longest and arguably most embittered dispute. As a source of media attention, UN resolutions, and public debate, the conflict has no equal. The most recent iteration of this conflict, which has caused immense human suffering, continues as of the writing of this syllabus. 

This course assesses the origins, key dynamics and persistence of the conflict between two nationalist projects, Zionist and Palestinian. How does today’s Gaza war relate to earlier conflicts? How did the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis begin? What arguments does each use to justify its position? When, if ever, will the conflict end?  Just as importantly, however, this is a course not only about a conflict between two nationalist movements but also a story of a broader region, namely the Middle East.

HIST 384- Antisemitism and Philosemitism: Jews in Myth and Thought

Instructor: Elliot Ratzman

Jews have figured prominently in European myth for some two thousand years. Regardless of whether it is out of admiration for their contributions to modern civilization or as a warning about imagined Jewish conspiracies, the figure of "the Jew" has occupied some of the most influential minds of the last two centuries. Some have lauded them as God's Chosen People, Hollywood moguls, Nobel Laureates, intellectual geniuses, and highly accomplished doctors, lawyers, and professionals. At the same time "the Jews" have been feared and despised as imagined worshipers of the Anti-Christ, political conspirators, financial manipulators, child murderers, and threats to racial purity.

Through close readings of some of the most influential works on the nature of Jewish identity---written by Jews and non-Jews alike-- this course analyzes some of the ways that Jews have been imagined in modern history. Notably, this class does not focus on actual Jews. You learn little about Jewish life, community and culture from the readings in this course. Instead you come to understand how the image of the Jew has been represented by a variety of writers, many of whom had little or no contact with actual Jews and wrote their treatises solely on the basis of their own prejudices and imaginations. Since antisemitism remains a threat and prominent—even accepted—form of bigotry in the world today, it is important to understand the tropes and myths that inform it.

Partnerships

National History Day

 

A partnership was established with National History Day to create teacher resources and guides for middle and high school educators on topics of ethnic and religious tolerance.