This is the kind of school I always wanted to go to. It is a group of scholars in the classical sense of the word and I’ve met people who I hope to be friends with for the rest of my life.
Students take a course load of 4-5 academic courses per semester. Courses focus on the areas of water management, renewable energy, ecology, sustainable agriculture, environmental politics, and more. Courses are offered at an undergraduate level, with some graduate courses available. Each course is for 3 academic credits.
*All details are subject to change.
Fall 2023
Taught by Noam Weiss (course coordinator), Dr. Elli Groner, Dr. Omer Polak
This course will present an overview of the ecology of the Arava desert. In this course,
both basic principles of ecology followed by desert ecology will be introduced.
Students will learn about desert food webs, the interaction between ecosystems,
pollution and other risks to the conservation of the Arava.
Students will study the link between the Arava ecosystems; they will study about
plants, arthropods, mammals and birds of the terrestrial ecosystem and the principles
and wildlife of the sea. While learning about different ecosystem and taxon students
will study the anthropogenic impact on wildlife.
Taught by Dr. Clive Lipchin
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the policy options for addressing environmental challenges at the local, national, regional and global scale. Such options include planning, legal tools, command and control measures, economic incentives and disincentives, and environmental impact statements, among others. We first consider how environmental problems are defined as a product of both social and environmental conditions. We delve into a range of political and economic philosophies influencing environmental policy making and consider how our own background, experiences and political opinions influence whether we define environmental conditions as problematic and how we choose policy remedies. We then open the ‘tool box’ of policy types, consider how they are applied and analyze their strengths and weaknesses. We will use a variety of case studies from the Middle East, to deepen our understanding of each.
Taught by Dr. Aviva Peeters
The course is an introduction to the concepts and application of geographic information systems and science (GIS). It is designed for students without former GIS experience, but students who have taken a course before can benefit from taking it. It focuses on the use of GIS for scientific inquiry and on its application for real-world problem solving. Different types of GIS spatial analysis are studied and applied such as suitability analysis, surface analysis and 3D analysis. Case studies from various environmental research domains are used as demonstrations. Each lesson comprises of a theoretical introduction and of an exercise. The exercises include training on the ArcGIS® Desktop software package.
Taught by Dr. David Lehrer
In a time of multiple environmental and political crises, it is especially important to understand how global resource geopolitics shape our lives in ways big and small. This introductory course equips students with the tools they need to understand the relationship between conflict, natural resources, and the effects of this relationship on development, peace, and security.
The course is divided into three parts:
Part I familiarizes students with key concepts in global resource geopolitics and examines the historical transformations that led to our present moment of global conflict, climate crisis, and widespread predictions of resource exhaustion. Part II examines the key concepts behind fears of resource scarcity, namely the environment, natural resources, and thresholds.
Part III examines key cases and governance approaches to global resource geopolitics, looking in particular at conflict minerals, oil and gas and renewable alternatives.
Taught by Dr. Ofer Margalit
This course is an introductory survey of key issues and debates in contemporary environmental ethics and philosophy. It aims to introduce you to some of the main and controversial topics in the field of Environmental Ethics. The course will deal first with the glossary and principles of the definition of ethics. It will cover the historical roots and ideas of the way of thinking that eventually led to the current ecological crisis. We will also read and discuss some central texts in philosophy and especially in environmental philosophy; compare and contrast schools of thought, and explore the interaction of personal, social and political environmental issues. Throughout the course, students will encounter various topics and ethical dilemmas. The main goal of this course is to improve your ability to think critically, and to help you clarify our own values and life choices surrounding these topics.
Key topics include: anthropocentrism vs. ecocentrism, development vs. conservation, animal rights, nature in western and non-western religions, social ecology, Environmental Psychology, Future Generations.
Taught by Dr. Avigail Morris
This course is designed to provide a framework for students interested in pursuing an independent research project. The course will introduce students to methods for designing, analyzing, writing and presenting both quantitative and qualitative research. It provides a unique opportunity for students to work on an individual basis with experts in their field of interest and engage in issues which are specific to the region.
In the first week of the course students will choose a research project either from ongoing research or an original research project of their choosing. Each student will either seek their own academic advisor or be assigned an academic advisor in the region who will guide them throughout the semester. Simultaneously, for the first few weeks of the semester, students will be required to attend a two-hour seminar which will teach the steps involved in conducting both qualitative and quantitative research from surveying the relevant literature to presenting the final results.
The second part of the course will focus less on frontal lectures and more on practical tutorials which will help students to progress with their individual research projects. Students will be divided according to the type of research they are conducting (qualitative, quantitative or a combination of the two) and work both in groups and individually with one of the two lecturers of the course. By the end of the semester students will have learned the skills necessary for writing a research proposal, surveying relevant literature, gathering and analyzing data, presenting the results and writing a research paper.
Taught by Dr. Miri Lavi-Neeman
Political Ecology has emerged in the past two decades as a powerful interdisciplinary critique of ecological change. In short, Political Ecology is a way for mapping political, economic, and social factors onto questions of environmental degradation and transformation. It is a powerful way therefore to politicize, apolitical discussions of ecology and the environment; to undermine common sense understandings of “the environment” as separate from “the social”, and to bring humans and non-humans into discussions about conservation.
As a theoretical tool-kit and set of empirical case-studies, the field of Political Ecology is extremely broad and diverse. This course will provide an introduction to core tenets or perspectives of political ecology. It will introduce students to key debates in the field—such as the relationship between environment and violence, the critique of environmental determinisms and of Malthusian notions of scarcity and limits, the links between conservation, control and dispossession, and more. It also evaluates the power of political ecology to explain and analyze historical and current conflicts and processes involving Israelis, Palestinians, and others in the Middle East in the context of regional and broader processes such as climate change.
Using a combination of case studies and theoretical works, we will explore a range of environmental issues including: land, forestation, settlement, energy, and environmental movements. We will follow case studies and research in particular within Israel and the Palestine, but also from other parts of the world.
Taught by Dr. Oren Hoffmann, Noah Marthinsen
This course is about wastewater treatment processes and technology, with an overview of the operation and maintenance of wastewater plants and different treatment processes. This course is intended to provide guidance and criteria for the design and selection of small-scale wastewater treatment plants. It provides both the information necessary to select, size, and design such wastewater treatment unit processes.
This subject will provide methods and technical issues related to integrated water services, treatment and reuse of water, with particular reference to urban areas, as well as an introduction to methods for the management and start-up of wastewater plants.
NON ACADEMIC COURSES
Facilitated by Lior Yom Tov & Sarah Perle Benazera
All students and interns participate in a Peacebuilding Leadership Seminar (PLS), reflecting the Arava Institute’s mission to generate capacity-building for conciliation and cooperation, even during conflict. PLS participants engage in weekly dialogue sessions overseen by three facilitators (Israeli, Palestinian, International). Together, they discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including its historical roots, the current situation as experienced by both sides, and possible futures. They share personal experiences and family stories from different sides in the conflict, raising universal questions about identity, national ideologies, power and privilege, coexistence and personal responsibility. In this process, students are challenged to examine critically their own views, cultural values and understanding of history.
Every student, no matter the country of origin, has the opportunity to contribute significantly to this ongoing dialogue. By engaging with these issues in a multi-cultural group setting, PLS participants develop competencies in intercultural understanding and empathy. The weekly dialogue sessions are enriched by guest speakers, films on the conflict, and an intensive mid-semester trip. Workshops on storytelling, active listening and other communication skills help students in the PLS dialogue process, and contribute to developing respectful interactions within the student community.
PLS is not meant to lead to political agreement among the participants. In fact, the open dialogue reveals many ideological differences within the Conflict, as reflected by the students themselves. In PLS, we explore how to live within these differences, as individuals and groups. This builds on the Arava Institute’s belief that the social and political relationships within and between groups in this region have a significant influence on environmental practices, public policies, and grassroots activism. PLS takes advantage of the Arava Institute’s own community as a microcosm of the region, building the tools and understanding necessary to foster environmental sustainability, social justice and respect in the broader society.
Taught by Shoshi Hertz
In this course we will learn the basics of the Hebrew language; the Hebrew alphabet, reading, writing, conversation vocabulary, useful expressions, slang and more. Class time will be used mainly to develop verbal communication skills in a present form. During the semester (according to the class level) we’ll start learning past form.
We will explore aspects of the Jewish culture; holidays, customs, and heritage. In addition we will get a taste of the Israeli folklore through music, art, humor, slang, food…
This course is intended for MASA students, but other students may be able to participate on a case by case basis. Language learning is strongly encouraged generally among students outside of the classroom.
Spring 2024
Taught by Dr. Tali Zohar
Taught by Dr. Miri Lavi-Neeman
Due to its social and ecological complexity, and its temporal and spatial grand scales, thinking about and acting upon Climate Change is a daunting task. In this class, we examine the possible contribution of Political Ecology as a theoretical and practical framework to understand and think about climate change and the Anthropocene more broadly.
Political ecologists have long recognized that environmental degradation can’t be understood as a simple objective problem—e.g., “there are just too many people,” or “we just need cleaner and more efficient production or disposal technologies.” They have identified the need to interrogate relationships, connections, and the complexity of social -ecological systems. On the one hand, Political Ecology investigates “realities” of climate change — how societies (economy, institutions, power, discourses, practices) produce biophysical transformations in the first place and how human transformation of the planet exacerbates inequalities. But it also aspires to show how concepts, words, and metaphors of human- environment relationships travel. Where they come from, what they do in terms of guiding our thinking, how they produce knowledge and become politicized, or, equally important in regard to climate change, de-politicized.
In this class we will examine how social scientists have adopted and/or interrogated a number of concepts and keywords relating to contemporary global environmental change. Together, these keywords form a climate change vocabulary. Among these concepts, the recent explosion of critical social science literature on “the Anthropocene” is the most prominent example of cross-disciplinary borrowing; further concepts such as resilience, adaptation, vulnerability, and mitigation are more recent keywords in the lexicons of environmental politics and cognate fields. Our goal, in this class then, is to compose a set of “Keywords” for the Anthropocene. A shared vocabulary of words and meaning delineating and contextualizing concepts relevant to our own worlds and work.
The course is oriented around three questions:
- How have critical social sciences and political ecology in particular, deepened and complicated biophysically based understandings of climate change terms and concepts?
- How might discussions in the social sciences and environmental humanities benefit from engaging more carefully with the biophysical specifics of these concepts?
- What does acknowledging the Anthropocene from a political ecology perspective, mean for the practice of both social and physical science and social political change going forward?
Learning Objective: By the end of the course, students will be able to articulate a number of key debates around the origins, scale, and terminology of the Anthropocene, and to position themselves in relation to ongoing academic conversations about, climate justice, system thinking, and human transformation of the global environment.
Taught by Dr. Danny Minahan
Plants and pollinators have co-evolved together for nearly 200 million years, resulting in the diversity of flowering plants and pollinating animals, notably insects that we see today. Pollinators are a group of flower-visiting insects that promote and are in many cases necessary to the survival and reproduction of the flowering plants they visit. Likewise, the resources produced by flowering plants are collected and used by pollinators for nutrition, defense, and nesting. However, the stability of plant-pollinator interactions is rapidly being undermined in the face of climate change, habitat loss, pollution, and exposure to agrochemicals, among other drivers. Considering that nearly 80% of the food we consume as humans relies on pollination services to varying extents, there is a direct and urgent need to better understand these interactions, and the threats undermining them, and to explore novel approaches aimed at plant-pollinator conservation and sustainability.
NON ACADEMIC COURSES
Facilitated by Lior Yom Tov & Sarah Perle Benazera
All students and interns participate in a Peacebuilding Leadership Seminar (PLS), reflecting the Arava Institute’s mission to generate capacity-building for conciliation and cooperation, even during conflict. PLS participants engage in weekly dialogue sessions overseen by three facilitators (Israeli, Palestinian, International). Together, they discuss the Israeli-Palestinian conflict including its historical roots, the current situation as experienced by both sides, and possible futures. They share personal experiences and family stories from different sides in the conflict, raising universal questions about identity, national ideologies, power and privilege, coexistence and personal responsibility. In this process, students are challenged to examine critically their own views, cultural values and understanding of history.
Every student, no matter the country of origin, has the opportunity to contribute significantly to this ongoing dialogue. By engaging with these issues in a multi-cultural group setting, PLS participants develop competencies in intercultural understanding and empathy. The weekly dialogue sessions are enriched by guest speakers, films on the conflict, and an intensive mid-semester trip. Workshops on storytelling, active listening and other communication skills help students in the PLS dialogue process, and contribute to developing respectful interactions within the student community.
PLS is not meant to lead to political agreement among the participants. In fact, the open dialogue reveals many ideological differences within the Conflict, as reflected by the students themselves. In PLS, we explore how to live within these differences, as individuals and groups. This builds on the Arava Institute’s belief that the social and political relationships within and between groups in this region have a significant influence on environmental practices, public policies, and grassroots activism. PLS takes advantage of the Arava Institute’s own community as a microcosm of the region, building the tools and understanding necessary to foster environmental sustainability, social justice and respect in the broader society.
Taught by Shoshi Hertz
In this course we will learn the basics of the Hebrew language; the Hebrew alphabet, reading, writing, conversation vocabulary, useful expressions, slang and more. Class time will be used mainly to develop verbal communication skills in a present form. During the semester (according to the class level) we’ll start learning past form.
We will explore aspects of the Jewish culture; holidays, customs, and heritage. In addition we will get a taste of the Israeli folklore through music, art, humor, slang, food…
This course is intended for MASA students, but other students may be able to participate on a case by case basis. Language learning is strongly encouraged generally among students outside of the classroom.
