BU Today: Who takes this class? I’ve read that courses like this do not attract those most fervent on either side, but tend to attract more of a middle group wanting to be educated in the region’s history. Has that been your experience previously? And is it still true?

Anderson: I would say that previously, it was. It was always a mix between students who were really just curious, or perhaps focusing on the Middle East in their undergraduate studies. And then mixed in with students who did have, you know, what I think of as skin in the game somehow, either they’re Jewish or they’re Israeli Jews or Israeli Arabs or they have family in Israel, and they just got back from birthright or they’re Egyptian or they’re from Saudi Arabia or Syria. We have quite a lot of students of Arab descent, including Palestinians, here at BU.

BU Today: Has that composition changed this semester?

Anderson: I don’t know that it’s changed much. Although I think that the assumption on campus among students, likely—this is just my guess—is that students who tend to have a very pro-Palestinian outlook, and perhaps even a pro-Hamas outlook, and they’re out there, are not signing up for these classes. But we do have students who are involved with Students for Israel on campus. I just think that our community at BU is so diverse that it’s typically very, very well mixed. And I would say this time, it’s the same.

Professor Karlinsky said that last term, when I was listed as the instructor of record but he actually taught the course, there were way more students of Arab descent than when he’s listed as the instructor of record. And so he found that terrific, you know, because they often know a lot more about what’s going on in the region than students at BU who don’t have any affiliation with the Middle East at all. So that’s interesting.

BU Today: Curriculum wise, have you done anything different with the course this time?

Anderson: I have one thing that I realized would likely be more necessary than ever and that would be to make sure that we have time to connect what we’re learning in class to what’s happening today in the news. And so I added an assignment recommended to me by a colleague that involves students doing news presentations at the beginning of every class. Each student is expected to choose a story in the news on the day that they’re meant to present. And, you know, look at that story from at least three different news sources, discuss the difference in coverage, discuss the issue and start the discussion. And that’s maybe 10 minutes, and that gets us going on current stuff. And then we can sort of segue it back into [the history].

Another change I’ve made is, I’ve added a textbook that is called Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine (The New Press, 2012), a book that was written by three different academics, one American Jew, one Israeli Jew, and one who I believe is Egyptian, a Muslim. It’s a textbook that tells the narratives of each side on pages that are facing each other. And it’s a really beautiful book, and really well done. I have really liked this book for a long time, and I felt like this was a good time to add it, particularly because I think it’s very easy to lose track of the humanity of both contingents in this conflict right now.

BU Today: Sometimes disturbing content is an issue with this current generation of students, who sometimes wonder why they must look at things they find triggering. And I wonder, given the atrocities of the last few months, how much of that enters into the class and what the reaction has been?

Anderson: Well, I’m not a fan of trauma porn, generally speaking, and I started out teaching classes on the Holocaust. I tended not to use visual representations. To me, that was not going to drive home the point that I wanted to drive home. I’ll never show the footage of the massacre on October 7, ever—I won’t do that. It doesn’t mean that I’m not glad it’s out there as proof of the atrocities committed against residents of Israel that day. And that if students want to see that on their own, I’m not going to discourage them. That’s up to them.

I do tell students really from the very beginning that this is not going to be easy, that hopefully you wouldn’t be in this class if you weren’t really interested in learning about racism, antisemitism, the conflict, because that’s what we’re going to do, and it will be upsetting. And just be ready for that. Be ready for that and figure out how you’re going to take care of yourself if you find that this is really difficult.

BU Today: What has been the reaction from students? Have you found a different tenor to the classroom discussions?

Anderson: Professor Karlinsky felt a tangible shift last semester. And I think partly, this was due to the fact that he did have a lot of students of Arab descent in the classroom. He didn’t feel that anyone was unkind or unpleasant, it was just, if you have a room full of people with skin in the game, they’re experiencing it, and you’re feeling that. 

This term, I have a real sense of students feeling like it’s quite important for them to really learn about it. And that sounds silly, because that’s what they always feel. But there’s a sadness, you know? I think they all really feel, why is this happening? And it’s really affecting my world on campus.

And it’s been positive. I’ve had students say really remarkable things in class about assumptions they’ve made, that have been changed by the course, just in the first few weeks. So that’s promising. That’s good.

BU Today: Is there an effect here that they hope for outside the classroom?

Anderson: I think so. It’s so difficult to find accurate information on the history of Israel, the history of Jews, the history of Palestine, the history of the Arab world. It’s really hard to find, on your own, information that you feel you can trust. 

Our universities are little microcosms of our greater society. And I want students to feel better prepared to discuss it with people, more confident. They’re able to say it’s complicated, and they’re able to say both Israelis and Palestinians have historically justifiable claims to that land.

Peace is possible, but it’s going to take everybody giving up something—that tends to be what they walk out with. And, you know, the final assignment is our mock peace talks. I assign it such that they don’t know who they’re going to have to represent until the day they come in for it. So that means they have to know both sides very well. And then, when they have to sit down and negotiate it, they realize how hard it is. What should be done, what will never be accepted? What can you kick down the road? What do you have to deal with right now?

It humanizes it for them. And I think that’s the first step. I mean, things get scary, with regard to antisemitism, Islamophobia, when we forget that we’re talking about other human beings who live someplace with lots of particular challenges, right? As soon as we remember that, it turns down the volume, I find.

BU Today: Given the last few months and what has happened on some campuses, I wonder if there was a little double clutch in your mind a few days before the beginning of the semester, ‘Oh, what is this gonna bring me?’

Anderson: Yeah, of course. But I always think that because of the things that I teach. I’m teaching a class this term on Blacks and Jews in America with Steve Hodin [a Writing Program senior lecturer], a lot of which is going to deal with the tension between American Jewish organizations and organizations like Black Lives Matter and the women’s movement. You know, I often am in that place. I do have faith in my ability to just be present to what people are feeling and to try and keep us focused on listening.