Dr. Melissa Weininger, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, has been developing new curriculum since she came to CSUN in 2021. Next spring, she will be teaching two new courses relevant to the study of popular culture, JS 220: Jews on Film and JS 333: Jewish Graphic Novels. JS 333 is the second permanent course in the CSUN Catalog devoted to comics studies! Dr. Weininger describes the course as follows:
The connection between image and text is foundational to Jewish practice and thought. Even now, the central text of Judaism, the Torah, is inscribed by hand, the appearance and design of the letters dictated by tradition. This course will examine contemporary works that combine image and text to depict Jewish history, culture, community, and identity in the form of the graphic novel. We will trace the development of comic art and the graphic novel and explore its Jewish roots, explore the ways in which Jewish writers have employed and adapted the form to represent Jewish identity and historical experience, and consider the ways that this hybrid form is suited to a tradition of Jewish narrative and literature. We will learn a scholarly vocabulary for analyzing graphic novels on diverse topics including immigration, Israel, the Holocaust, gender and sexuality, and American Jewish life and culture.
JS 333 is open to all undergraduate students who have completed the lower-division writing requirement, and is available for General Education in C2 (Humanities). The class will be offered in person on Monday/Wednesday at 11:00 a.m. and will be capped at about 41 students.
Dr. Melissa Weininger