Faculty
Faculty info
Keren Ayalon
Hebrew Instructor
Education
MA, Middlebury College – Teaching Hebrew as a Second Language
MS, University of Illinois
BS, Ithaca College
Research Interest
Keren Ayalon’s research interests include Foreign Language Enjoyment (FLE), a variable in psycholinguistics that looks at how positive emotions can accelerate learner language acquisition, as well as the role of the educator in this process and the effect of the media and social media on the evolution of Israeli food culture.
Courses Taught
• HBRW 101 and HBRW 102 – Beginner’s Hebrew
• HBRW 201 and HBRW 202 – Intermediate Hebrew
• JWST 201 – Israeli Pop Culture
• FYSE 124 – Film and Media in Israel
Yaron Ayalon
Associate Professor of Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies and Director of Jewish Studies Program
Education
Ph.D., Princeton University, 2009, Near Eastern Studies
B.A., 2002, Tel Aviv University, Middle East History and Education
Research Interest
Yaron Ayalon studies Sephardic Jews, the Ottoman Empire, the Middle East, and Israel using an interdisciplinary approach that incorporates history, psychology, sociology, climate science, and disaster studies. He is the author of a book on natural disasters in the Ottoman Empire and how Jewish and other communities dealt with them; another forthcoming book on Jews in the Ottoman Empire, and other articles. Dr. Ayalon is an editor for the Encyclopedia of Jews in the Islamic World and co-chairs the Sephardi/Mizrahi division of the Association for Jewish Studies.
Courses Taught
JWST 400 – Tradition and Innovation in the Jewish World
JWST 350 – Jews and Muslims: Coexistence and Conflict
JWST 220 – History of Israel
JWST 210 – Jewish History, Ancient to Modern
JWST 201 – Black Jews, Arab Jews: Prejudice and Diversity
JWST 201 – Racism and Antisemitism in the Modern World
JWST 201 – Social Justice in the Jewish World
FYSE 124 – Film and Media in Israel
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Joshua M. Shanes
Professor of Jewish Studies Joshua Shanes joined the College of Charleston in 2006 and was named head of the Center for Israel Studies in 2019. Professor Shanes teaches ancient and modern Jewish history, Zionism and modern Jewish politics, nationalism, and various courses on Jewish religion.
Education
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin, Madison (2002), History
B.A., University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign (1993), History
Courses Taught:
FYSE 124: Nations and Nationalism
JWST 210: Premodern Jewish History
JWST 215: Modern Jewish HistoryJWST 220: History of Israel
JWST 220: History of Israel
JWST 225: The Jewish Tradition
JWST 300: Doing Business in Israel (Spring Break Travel)
JWST 325: Jewish Mysticism
JWST 335: Modern Jewish Politics