Support BGU Support BGU
Young Family School for the Human Experience
Young Family School for the Human Experience
72 1200X630

The Human Experience Track for Double Major Degrees in the Social Sciences

​​​​​
section-bottom

People, Society, and Spirit

As Social Sciences students, you are constantly exposed to human structures, organizations, and behaviors. The Human Spirit Pathway will deepen these foundations by connecting them to the big questions of history, ethics, identity, and culture. This is the space where sociological, political, and psychological theories meet philosophical thought and human creativity.

Track Overview

Training
Program Scope
A broad and flexible selection of 24 credits, from which you will choose and study only 12 credits (comprising the foundational course and at least 4 credits from each conceptual axis).
Building
Foundational Course (2 credits)
"And I Will Put a Spirit Within You" – Examining the points of intersection and friction between the humanities, social sciences, and the technologies that shape society.
Graduate 2
Core Requirements
The foundational course (2 credits) and at least 4 credits from each of the two cluster axes ("Humanity and Its Time" and "Humanity and Its Spirit").

Departmental Tracks in the Faculty of Social Sciences

The Track for the Department of Education is built around questions of learning, language, interpretation, identity, values, and education. It includes courses dealing with parent-child relationships, memory and narrative, language and discourse, digital literacy, Enlightenment thought, ethics, gender, minorities, and critical reading of texts. The aim of the track is to broaden the perspective of future educators and strengthen their skills in interpretation, critical thinking, understanding cultural diversity, and navigating ethical questions.

Anchor Course: "Introduction to Educational Thought"

Sample courses offered in this track:

  • Fathers and Daughters: The Story of a Relationship in Hebrew Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Culture

  • Meaning Relations in Text and Discourse

  • Folk Genres and Practices in the Screen Age

  • What is (Jewish) Enlightenment?

  • Minorities in the Middle East

  • Who Wrote the Bible?

The Track for the Department of Psychology focuses on the intersection of psychology with cultural studies, literature, language, history, and thought. Courses cover topics such as family relationships, memory and narrative, self-presentation and online behavior, language and communication, identity, morality, faith, gender, stereotypes, majority-minority relations, and group behavior.

Anchor Course: "Philosophical Foundations of Psychological Science"

Sample courses offered in this track:

  • The Literary Game with Memory

  • Fathers and Daughters: The Story of a Relationship in Hebrew Literature, Psychoanalysis, and Culture

  • Meaning Relations in Text and Discourse

  • Introduction to Linguistic Research

  • Between Religion and Morality in Modern Jewish Thought

  • Monsters! Jews and Others

  • Myths and Reality in the Middle East

The Track for the Department of Politics and Government addresses questions of state and regime, power and legitimacy, nationalism, war and peace, religion and state, rights, minorities, gender, protest, and public discourse. The track aims to deepen the understanding of political processes through the historical, cultural, religious, and spatial contexts in which they take shape. Courses cover key issues of statehood, nationalism, democracy, identity, racism, and policy within regional, Israeli, and local spheres.

Anchor Courses: "Introduction to Political Thought" and "Historical Introduction to Contemporary Politics"

Sample courses offered in this track:

  • Introduction to the Modern Middle East

  • The Palestinians: History, Society, Culture, Nationalism

  • Racism: Past, Present, Future – Personal and Policy Aspects

  • Democracy Between Historical Idea and Concrete Reality

  • Introduction to Islam

  • Beer Sheva – An Israeli City: Place, Space, and History