I bring over a decade of teaching experience across universities in Israel and the United States on topics related to African studies, sports, and politics. In my classes, I build upon three main pillars. First, my teaching pedagogy stems from the interdisciplinary experience I gained while teaching in different departments. My courses promote knowledge about current and past events, dynamics, and ideas through diverse prisms, including political science, history, sociology, and anthropology. I believe that intertwining diverse bodies of knowledge is vital for a more nuanced understanding of contemporary and historical political realities. A second pillar that characterizes my teaching approach is the promotion of critical thinking. To do so, I often begin my courses with Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's TED talk, The Danger of a Single Story. In it, the Nigerian writer challenges Africa's monolithic image in popular media, of war, poverty, and dependence, claiming that: "The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story". Indeed, the courses I have taught encouraged students to challenge superficial generalizations by seeking a multi-faceted picture of the regions, cultures, and phenomena. Lastly, my teaching philosophy is characterized by its dynamic and inclusive approach. I do not believe in a one-size-fits-all approach but in being attentive to the particular needs of my students. I employ various solutions to accommodate the social and cultural diversity I encounter in my classes and create an inclusionary environment for all.
Itamar Dubinsky
Sport and Development: Prospects and Limitations
This course teaches about the divergent perspectives of the sport-for-development field in Africa by studying the emergence of the field, surveying selected initiatives that have operated during the last three decades, analyzing their successes and failures in delivering their goals, and exploring the methodologies used to assess the ventures’ impacts. Doing so opens doors for students who are interested in engaging with the sport-for-development projects in the continent. Also, the course gives concrete tools for students who seek to implement sporting activities in projects that are not necessarily designed to address sporting goals. The course is offered in English and is taught as part of the MA in African Sustainable Communities.
The Islamic Rainbow in Africa
This course explores the importance of Islam in Africa from the 7th to the 21st century. We learn about the ways in which Islam arrived in Africa, spread, and intertwined with local beliefs. We examine the cultural, social, political, and economic roles that Muslim societies played throughout the continent's history. An examination of Muslim societies in the Horn and East of Africa, as well as in the Central and West of Africa, exposes the diverse rainbow of expressions of the religion in the continent. Doing so challenges longstanding misconceptions among academic and religious scholars who had maintained that Islam in Africa is "inferior" compared to Middle Eastern Islam and that Islam has merely been a regional and marginal phenomenon that existed in isolation from the religion's power centers.
Contemporary geopolitics between Africa and Europe
The course examines the geopolitical relations between Europe and African countries through the adoption of different perspectives and case studies. The course is organized according to three parts. The first part provides the necessary historical background for understanding the relations between Europe and Africa until the mid-20th century. The second part of the course is dedicated to different case studies. The third part of the course adopts a thematic approach. These topics include the legal, moral, and historical debates surrounding the reparations of artifacts from Europe to African hands, the African migration to Europe and European migration to Africa, which is also embodied in the realm of sport, the cultural links between the continents as expressed in books and media, and lastly, the examination of the development efforts between both regions.
Politics and Society in Postcolonial Africa
This course provides students with an overview of the major political, social and economic trends that have shaped African history in the second half of the twentieth century. Using a thematic and case study approach, we examine the evolution of political entities, social spaces, and economies over time. We try to understand both deeply local processes and the ways in which they are influenced by national, regional and transnational events and circumstances. Some of the themes to be covered will be nationalism, economic development, ethnic and political conflicts, gender and social change, religious movements and cultural innovations.
Sports Diplomacy in a Changing Global Arena
This course teaches about the ways in which individuals and communities have harnessed the global popularity of sports to promote political goals. We do so through a historical and contemporary observation of the usages of kingdoms, empires, nations, organizations, and enterprises to gain national and international interests. Simultaneously, we examine the results and consequences of these usages in political and social contexts.
Sanctions and Boycotts: Circumstances, Consequences, and Counter-reactions
This course reviews the circumstances that lead individuals, organizations, states, corporations, and organizations to impose sanctions and boycotts while examining their historical and contemporary consequences for all sides involved. Throughout the course, we ask the following questions: what are sanctions and boycotts? Why are sanctions and boycotts used in the global arena at increasing rates? What are the moral and ethical considerations that lead to their usage? When do diplomatic, economic, cultural, and social sanctions and boycotts achieve their purpose, and when do they fail? Answering these questions educates us on the effectiveness of "successful" sanctions and boycotts, as well as how actors resist and circumvent them.
Israel's relations with African Countries: The Rise, Fall, and Return of a Special Tie
This course examines the changing relations between Israel and various Sub-Saharan countries. The course covers the Israeli and African ideological, economic, cultural, and social interests that shaped the relations between the sides. The first lessons focus on the relations between Zionism and African actors until the first half of the 20th century. Afterward, the course deals with three main post-colonial eras: the honeymoon (1950s-1973), the divorce (1973-1990s), and the return (1990s-the present day). The course extends beyond the roles political actors play in shaping the links between Israel and African states through the analysis of the representations of Africa within the Israeli culture.
