Jewish Studies
Jewish Studies looks at all subjects relating to Jewishness and Judaism whether historical, political, literary, philosophical, cultural or religious.
Mosaic
Mosaic with fish motif.
Our courses in Jewish Studies will be of interest to anyone who wants to learn more about Judaism and Jewishness, or how different cultures and religions interact. The programme is taught by members of the University of Southampton’s Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, whose enthusiasm for their subjects is clear in their teaching. The involvement of the Parkes Institute also encourages a multidisciplinary approach to Jewish Studies, which illustrates the connection between different aspects of Jewish history and culture.
The courses present the opportunity to look at the variety of issues that have impacted on the Jewish people throughout history and have influenced the relationship between Jews and non-Jews to the present. It is a subject area that not only deals with the past to understand where we are today, but is of fundamental importance to knowledge of inter-cultural issues that impact on today’s world.
The Jewish Studies programme presents two evening courses this year: ‘Jews, Christians and Muslims: Relations Through the Ages’ and ‘Jews and Christians on the Bible: Past and Present’.
The Parkes Institute
The programme is taught by members of the University of Southampton’s Parkes Institute for the Study of Jewish/non-Jewish Relations, a unique centre for the study of Jewish/non-Jewish relations across the ages. The Institute, through its research, publications, teaching and outreach work, is based on the library and life work of the Christian scholar, the Reverend Dr James Parkes (1896-1981). The library now consists of over 20,000 printed items and is supplemented by one of the largest collections of Jewish archives in Europe, consisting of many hundreds of individual and institutional records, totalling millions of items. This international group of scholars and their work reflects the global ambitions of the Parkes Institute. We place particular emphasis on our innovative interdisciplinary approaches, including perspectives from history, literature, language, cultural studies, anthropology, geography, music, film and television studies and theology.