今天部: 谁上这门课？ 我读到过，像这样的课程并没有吸引到任何一方最狂热的人，而是倾向于吸引更多想要接受该地区历史教育的中间群体。 你以前有过这样的经历吗？ 现在仍然是这样吗？

安德森: 我之前会说，是的。 总是有一些学生只是好奇，或者是在本科学习中专注于中东。 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. 在波士顿大学，我们有很多阿拉伯裔学生，包括巴勒斯坦人。

今天部: 这学期那篇作文改了吗？

安德森: 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. 但是我们确实有学生参与了校园里的以色列学生组织。 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.

今天部: 在课程方面，你这次在课程上做了什么不同的事情吗？

安德森: 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. 所以我增加了一个同事推荐给我的作业，要求学生在每堂课开始时做新闻报告。 Each student is expected to choose a story in the news on the day that they’re meant to present. 你知道，从至少三个不同的新闻来源看这个故事，讨论报道的不同，讨论这个问题，然后开始讨论。 And that’s maybe 10 minutes, and that gets us going on current stuff. 然后我们可以把它带回到[历史]中。

Another change I”ve made is, I’ve added a textbook that is called 《肩并肩：以色列和巴勒斯坦的平行历史 (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.

今天部: 有时令人不安的内容是当前这一代学生的一个问题，他们有时会想，为什么他们一定要看那些让他们觉得触发的东西。 我想知道，鉴于过去几个月的暴行，课堂上有多少是这样的，人们的反应又是怎样的？

安德森: Well, I’m not a fan of trauma porn, generally speaking, and I started out teaching classes on the Holocaust. 我倾向于不使用视觉表现。 对我来说，这并不能说明我想要说明的问题。 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. 做好准备吧。 Be ready for that and figure out how you’re going to take care of yourself if you find that this is really difficult.

今天部: 学生们对此有何反应？ 你发现课堂讨论有不同的基调了吗？

安德森: 卡林斯基教授上学期感到了明显的变化。 我认为部分原因是他的课堂上确实有很多阿拉伯裔学生。 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? 我想他们都觉得，为什么会发生这种事？ 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.

今天部: 他们希望在课堂之外有什么影响吗？

安德森: 我想是的。 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.

我们的大学是我们更大社会的一个小缩影。 我希望学生们在与人讨论时能有更好的准备，更自信。 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. 最后的作业是模拟和谈。 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. 这就意味着他们必须对两边都很了解。 然后，当他们必须坐下来谈判时，他们意识到这有多难。 什么是应该做的，什么是永远不会被接受的？ 你以后能踢什么？ 你现在有什么事要处理？

这对他们来说是人性化的。 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? 我发现，一旦我们记起了这一点，它就会调低音量。

今天部: 考虑到过去的几个月以及一些校园发生的事情，我想知道在学期开始前的几天里，你是否会有一个小小的双重焦虑：“哦，这会给我带来什么？””

安德森: 是的，当然。 但我一直认为，因为我教的东西。 I’m teaching a class this term on Blacks and Jews in America with 史蒂夫Hodin说道: [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. 你知道，我经常去那个地方。 我对自己的能力很有信心，我能体会到人们的感受，并努力让我们专注于倾听。