Jewish Studies Faculty
The Jewish Studies Program at the University of Virginia draws faculty from a number of disciplines. Below are our faculty, listed by department. To learn more about a faculty member, click on his or her name. To contact a faculty member via email, click on his or her email address.
Anthropology
Associate Professor / Department of Anthropology
Director / Interdisciplinary Program in Archaeology
Contact Information
Email: jlh3x@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-3953
Fax: 434-924-1350
Education
Ph.D. Arizona State University, 1983
M.A. Arizona State University, 1978
B.A. Binghamton University, 1975
Research Interests
In his research, Jeffrey Hantman studies the diversity of the American Jewish experience, with a particular focus on issues of Southern Jewish history and identity. Towards this end, he has conducted research with Phyllis Leffler on the history of Jewish life in Charlottesville and at the University of Virginia. He is also interested in the anthropological study of the representation of history and culture in museums.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
JWST 352 Southern Jewish History and Culture (co-taught with P. Leffler)
ANTH 335 Museums and Representation of Culture
Recent Projects
"Jewish Life at the University of Virginia" - exhibit curated with Phyllis Leffler and Carol Ely, 1993 (exhibited in Newcomb Hall, 1993)
"To Seek the Peace of the City: Jewish Life in Charlottesville" (exhibit catalog co-authored with Carol Ely and Phyllis Leffler), 1994.
Current project to expand "To Seek the Peace of the City" as an on-line text and to create an historical archive on Jewish life in Charlottesville, focused on the history of Congregation Beth Israel and the larger community. This archive will be housed at the University of Virginia.
Comparative study of Jewish museums and American Indian museums in the U.S.
Assistant Professor
Department of Anthropology
Contact Information
Office: Cabell B-011, Brooks 203
Email: dl2h@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-982-3093 or 434-243-4930
Education
- Ph.D., Linguistic Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin May 1995
Dissertation: Joel Sherzer and Anthony Woodbury, Advisors
Language and the Negotiation of Social Identities: Arab-Jewish Interaction in an Israeli City. - M.A., Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania 1985-87
- B.A., Anthropology, magna cum laude, Dartmouth College 1979-83
Publications
Book
- Words and Stones: Language and the Israeli/Palestinian Conflict. Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. New York : Oxford University Press, 2004.
Articles in Refereed Journals
- On the Relation Between Sound and Meaning in Hicks' Snow Falling on Cedars. Semiotica 155 (1/4):15�50, 2005.
- Advertising Emotion: Love and Anger in Investment Ads. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 13(1):71-97, 2003.
- Negotiated and Mediated Meanings: Ethnicity and Politics in an Israeli Newspaper. Anthropological Quarterly 74(4), 2001.
- Constructing Affective Responses to ('Nationalistic') Violence in Israel. Political and Legal Anthropology Review 18(2):105-117, 1995.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- Reflections of Exile: Jewish Languages & Their Communities (Anth 247)
- Majors' Seminar in Middle East Studies (MEST 496)
- The Anthropology of the Middle East (Anth 393)
- Literatures of Asia & the Middle East (AMEL 101)
- Language & Culture in the Middle East (Anth 347) Fall 2008
Research Interests
Sociolinguistics; Israeli language, culture, and society; Language in cinema; Intonation and prosody.
Recent Projects
I am currently working on a book describing the role of language (dialects, accents, etc.) in Hollywood cinema. I am also working on a new project that investigates the use and meaning of "creaky voice" in American discourse.
Center for the Liberal Arts
Associate Professor and Director
Center for the Liberal Arts
Contact Information
Email: vl4n@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-982-5503
Fax: 434-924-1478
Education
Ph.d., Stanford University, 1988
MA, Johns Hopkins University, 1983
BA, Colgate University, 1981
Research Interests
In his research, Victor Luftig focuses on Irish literature, Victorian and twentieth century English literature, professional education of K-12 teachers, pedagogy, expository writing, and poetry and statesmanship.
Recent Projects
"Poetry, Causality, and an Irish Ceasefire," Peace Review, June 2001.
English
Professor
Department of English
Contact Information
Email: ab6j@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-7105
Fax: 434-924-1478
Education
Ph.D., Princeton University, 1986
MFA, Cornell University, 1979
BA, Bennington College, 1976
Research Interests
In her research, Alison Booth focuses on feminist studies, transatlantic Victorian and modern literature and culture, biography and autobiography, narrative theory, and the narratives of cultural history and nationhood. Her studies of collective biography or prosopography have merged with research in tourism, space, and memory, in an interdisciplinary project entitled "Homes and Haunts: Transatlantic Author Country." She has investigated "dark tourism" and Holocaust memorials as a related topic. Future teaching and editing will encompass memoir and modern and contemporary fiction, including works by Jewish authors.
Recent Projects
- How to Make It as a Woman: Collective Biographical History from Victoria to the Present, in Women in Culture and Society, ed. Catharine R. Stimpson. Chicago: U Chicago P, 2004. Winner of the Barbara Penny Kanner Award
- Wuthering Heights: A Cultural Edition, ed. Alison Booth. New York: Longman, 2009. (publication winter 2008).
- Co-editor, with Jerome Beaty, Paul Hunter, and Kelly Mays, Norton Introduction to Literature, 9th ed. New York: Norton, 2005. 10th ed. forthcoming 2009.
- Collective Biographies of Women: Annotated Bibliography http://womensbios.lib.virginia.edu Based on bibliography of 930 collections in How to Make It as a Woman. Accepted NINES consortium, 2007.
Selected Articles
- "Author Country: Longfellow, the Bront�s, and Anglophone Homes and Haunts," Romanticism and Victorianism on the Net, in production 2008.
- "Fighting for Lives in the ODNB, or Taking Prosopography Personally," Journal of Victorian Culture 10:2 (2005): 267-79.
- "Men and Women of the Time: Victorian Prosopographies," in Life Writing and Victorian Culture, ed. David Amigoni. London: Ashgate, 2005. 41-66.
- "The Changing Faces of Mount Rushmore: Collective Portraiture and Participatory National Heritage," in A Companion to Narrative Theory, ed. James Phelan and Peter Rabinowitz. Oxford: Blackwell, 2005. 337-55.
- "Neo-Victorian Self-Help, or Cider House Rules," American Literary History 14 (2002): 284-310.
- "The Scent of a Narrative: Rank Discourse in Flush and Written on the Body," Narrative 8 (January 2000): 3-22.
- "The Mother of All Cultures: Camille Paglia and Feminist Mythologies," The Kenyon Review 21 (1999): 27-45.
Professor
Department of English
Contact Information
Email: jcn@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6629
Fax: 434-924-1478
Education
Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1970
Jr. Fellowship, Soc. of Fellows (no degree), Harvard University, 1965-68
BA magna cum laude, Harvard College, 1962
No degree, Kenyon College, 1958-60
Research Interests
In his research, James Nohrnberg explores the Bible, Milton, Dante, Spenser, allegory, and medieval and Renaissance literature.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- ENRN927 Milton's Paradise Lost
- ENMD/RN5028 Dante and Spenser
- ENSP 480 or 500-level Bible for Literature Students
- ENRN 325 Milton
Recent Projects
"Sisters, Daughters, Concubines, and Wives: Rape, Prostitution, and Sexual Intrigue as (Programmatic for the Israelites' National History in the Bible: Some Incidents of Gendered Violence, and Intramural and Inter-Ethnic Sexual Trafficking, in the Old Testament Narrative"
"Concerto Barocco: A St. Jerome for Junipero Serra" (poem), Meridian, No. 11 (5:2), Spring/Summer, 2003 (Charlottesville, VA), 116-17
"Esther Expires, Melodramatically: Audition & Reading for the Holy Day of Purim," 3rd Prize, Poetry, in The Writer's Eye (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Museum, 2003), 21
"The Autobiographical Imperative and the Necessity of 'Dante' in Purgatorio 30.55,"Modern Philology, Vol. 111, No. 1 (Autumn, 2003), 1-47
"The First-Fruits of the Last Judgment: Dante's Commedia as a Thirteenth Century Apocalypse," in Last Things: Apocalypse, Judgment, and Millennium in the Middle Ages, ed. Susan Ridyard; Sewanee Medieval Studies, Number Twelve (Sewanee, Tenn.: University of the South, 2002), 111-5
"The Singing School: The Future of Literary-Historical Study upon Past Example," in The Future of Literary Study, ed. John Unsworth (eText publication on www: Univ. of Virginia, Dept. of English, 2002)
"Paradigm Reclaimed: The Scriptural, Literary, Archaeological, and Theological Context for the Veneration of the Divine Image in Paradise Lost, or Glorious Crown: A Brief Adamology for Milton's Diffuse Epic," in Texts and Contexts, ed. John Unsworth (eText publication on www: Univ. of Virginia, Dept. of English, 2001)
"The Master of the Myth of Literature: An Interpenetrative Ogdoad for Northrop Frye": review-essay of Rereading Frye: The Published and Unpublished Works, ed. David Boyd and Imre Salusinszky (Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press, 1999), for Comparative Literature, Vol. 53, No. 1 (Winter, 2001), 58-82
-----------------------: article reprinted in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism article reprinted in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism Vol. 165 (Detroit, et al.: Thomson / Gale, 2005), 233-49
"Dante's Adam's Dropsy: A Case Study in the Literary Etiology of the Sickness of Sin," in Death, Sickness, and Health in Medieval Society and Culture, ed. Susan J. Ridyard, Sewanee Mediaeval Studies, Vol. 10 (Sewanee, Tenn.: The University of the South, 2000), 133-72
"The Love that Moves the Sun and Other Stars in Dante's Hell," in Sparks and Seeds: Medieval Literature and its Afterlife. Essays in Honor of John Freccero, edited by Dana E. Stewart and Alison Cornish, with introduction by Giuseppe Mazzotta, Binghamton Medieval and Early Modern Studies, vol. 2 (Brepols, 2000), 87-118
"The Love That Moves the Sun and Other Stars in Inferno XVIII," in Earthly Love, Spiritual Love, Love of the Saints, ed. Susan J. Ridyard; Sewanee Mediaeval Studies, No. 8 (Sewanee, Tenn.: The University of the South, 1999), 179-207
"Inferno XVIII: Introduction to Malebolge," in Lectura Dantis: Inferno, ed. Allen Mandelbaum, Anthony Oldcorn, and Charles Ross (Berkeley, Los Angeles, and London: Univ. of California Press, 1998), 238-61
"Allegory De-veiled: A New Theory for Construing Allegory's Two Bodies": review essay on Gordon Teskey's Allegory and Violence), Modern Philology, 96:2 (Nov. 1998), 188-207.
-----------------------: article reprinted in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism, Vol. 98, ed. Jennifer Baise (Topics Volume; section "Literature and Violence") (Farmington Mills, Missouri: Gale Group, 2001), 328-38
"The Descent of Geryon: The Moral System of Inferno XVI-XXXI," Dante Studies CXIV (1996; publ. 1998), 129-87
Like unto Moses: The Constituting of an Interruption, Indiana Studies in Biblical Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1995): 396 pp. + pp. ix-xix
"Allegories of Scripture," in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, Winter, 1993, Vol. 11, No. 2, Special Issue, Literary Approaches to the Bible, ed. Stanley Goldman, 127-166
"Princely Characters," in 'Not in Heaven': Coherence and Complexity in Biblical Narrative (Georgetown Conference, The Bible and Contemporary Literary Theory), ed. Joseph Sitterson, Jr., and Jacob Rosenblatt (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 58-97, 231-239
"Justifying Narrative: Commentary in Biblical Storytelling," in Annotation and Its Texts, ed. Stephen A. Barney, Publications of the University of California Humanities Research Institute (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991), 3-42
"The Tale Told By Twice-Told Tales": review-essay on Meir Sternberg's The Poetics of Biblical Narrative; Yearbook of Comparative and General Literature (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1990), 143-52
"The Keeping of Nahor: The Etiology of Biblical Election in Genesis," in The Book and the Text: The Bible and Literary Theory, ed. Regina Schwartz (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), 161-188
"'Paradise Regained By One Greater Man: Milton's Wisdom Epic as a 'Fable of Identity,'"in Centre and Labyrinth: Essays in Honour of Northrop Frye, ed. Eleanor Cook, et al. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1983; paperback., 1985), 83-114
"Moses," in Images of Man and God: The Old Testament Short Story in Literary Focus, ed. Burke O. Long (Sheffield, England: Almond Press, 1981), 35-57, 117-19
"Pynchon's Paraclete," in Pynchon: A Collection of Critical Essays, ed. Edward Mendelson (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1977), 147-61
The Analogy of 'The Faerie Queene' (Englewood, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1976; lmtd. pb. edn. 1980).
"On Literature and the Bible," Theology Digest XXV:l, 1977, 39-44 (author's condensation of following Centrum piece)
"On Literature and the Bible," Centrum: Publications of the Minnesota Centre for Advanced Studies in Literature and Language II:2, (1974; publ. 1976), 5-43
Unpublished Monographs in Chapter-Length Typescript:
"Comparative Epic and Epic Comparison in Paradise Lost"
"Confines of Empire and Theatre of Inwardness: Milton's Paradise Regained with His Samson Agonistes"
"The Blessing of Abraham: Subjective and Objective Genitive in the Patriarchal Saga"
"Genesis as Anthropology: Multicultural Diselection and/or the Absence of a History"
"The History of David and the Invention of Politics"
"The Tale Told By Twice-Told Tales: Dual Story-Structure as a Principle in Biblical Narration"
"The Ethos of Hebrew Poetical Parallelism"
"Saul Among the Former Prophets: Verse Utterances in the Biblical Kingship Narratives"
"Scripture Resurrected: Dialectics of the Sequel for the Christian Bible"
Associate Professor
Department of English
Contact Information
Email: cmr8v@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6628
Fax: 434-924-1478
Education
Ph.D. University of Virginia, 1995
M.A. University of Virginia, 1991
B.A. Harvard University, 1983
Research Interests
In her research, Caroline M. Rody explores contemporary ethnic American fiction, women's fiction, and postcolonial and Caribbean fiction.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
Jewish American Fiction
Contemporary World Jewish Fiction
Recent Projects
"The Transnational Imagination: Karen Tei Yamashita's Tropic of Orange." Asian North American Identities: Beyond the Hyphen. Ed. Eleanor Ty and Donald C. Goellnicht. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2004. 130-148.
The Daughter's Return: African-American and Caribbean Women's Fictions of History, Oxford University Press, 2001.
"Impossible Voices: Ethnic Postmodern Narration in Toni Morrison's Jazz and Karen Tei Yamashita's Through the Arc of the Rain Forest." Contemporary Literature 41.1 (2000).
"Toni Morrison's Beloved: History, 'Rememory,' and a 'Clamor for a Kiss,'" American Literary History (1995)
German
Assistant Professor / Department of German
Faculty Consultant / Teaching Resource Center
Contact Information
Email: djb4d@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-982-2815
Fax: 434-982-3085
Education
Ph.D. University of Virginia
M.A. Albert-Ludwigs-Universit�t (Freiburg)
Research Interests
Dorothe Bach's research and teaching interests include autobiographical and polemical writings, German Jewish literature and culture, and most recently children's and young adult literature.
Associate Professor
Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures
Contact Information
Email: jg2t@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-3530
Fax: 434-924-6700
Education
Ph.D. University of Texas at Austin 1992
M.A. Tufts University 1986
B.A. Tufts University 1982
Research Interests
My current research addresses questions of literary translation and cultural transformation (in Yiddish, German and English), while relating those questions to that of memory and the controversial German (Jewish) writer Heinrich Heine. It focuses on Heine since he condenses within both his writing and his person a series of conflicts and interventions � about poetry and the public role of intellectuals, on the one hand, and about modern Jewish and German identities, on the other. One recent paper presented at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in New York (part of the Center for Jewish History), "The Invention of Love? Or, How Moyshe Leyb Halpern Read Heinrich Heine," explores how a major avant-garde Yiddish poet responded to Heine in the effort to transform his own writing and Yiddish poetry, in general. A forthcoming article deals with Heine, violence, memory and love in the 19th c. German context: "Fractured Histories: Heine's Responses to Violence and Revolution."
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- YITR/RELJ 351: Yiddish Literature and the Response to Modernity
- YITR/HIEU/RELJ 353 Jewish Culture & History in Eastern Europe (co-taught with Gabriel Finder)
- GETR/HIEU 360 German Jewish Culture & History (co-taught with Gabriel Finder)
- GETR 347: Literary Responses to the Holocaust
Recent Projects
The Discourse on Yiddish in German Literature from the Enlightenment to the Second Empire (2000, at Camden House division of Boydell and Brewer/University of Rochester Press).
"Heine and Jewish Culture: The Poetics of Appropriation," forthcoming in: A Companion to Heinrich Heine. Ed. Roger Cook. Rochester, NY: Camden House.
"From East to West: Translating Y. L. Peretz in Early 20th-Century Germany" In: Orality, Textuality, and the Materiality of Jewish Tradition: Representations and Transformations. Ed. Israel Gershoni and Yaakov Elman. New Haven: Yale UP. 2000.
Hebrew
Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: mah3uh@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6723
Fax: 434-924-1467
Research Interests
In her research and teaching, Martien Halvorson-Taylor focuses on Hebrew Bible/Old Testament; classical Hebrew; history and religion of Ancient Israel; wisdom literature; biblical interpretation in the Second Temple period; canonical process; history of biblical scholarship; literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible.
Education
* Ph.D. Harvard University (Near Eastern Languages and Civlizations)* A.M. Harvard University
* M.Div. Harvard Divinity School
* B.A. Yale University
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- RELJ 111-2: Introduction to Biblical Hebrew
- RELC/J 121: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
- RELC/J 301: The Book of Genesis
- RELC/J 302: Faith On Trial: The Book of Job and Its Traditions
- RELC/J 321: Joseph, Esther, Daniel, Judith
- RELC/J 501: Genesis and Its Interpretation
- RELC/J 506: The Tree of Life: Wisdom Literature in Ancient Israel
Lecturer
Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Languages and Cultures
Contact Information
Email: hh5u@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-1322
Fax: 434-924-6977
Web: http://www.virginia.edu/mesa/languages_hebrew.html
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
Modern Hebrew courses
History
General Faculty
Departments of History and German
Contact Information
Email: ma6cq@virginia.edu
Tel: 434-924-3530
Fax: 434-924-6700
Education
- Ph.D. University of Michigan (2005)
- M.A. Free University of Berlin (1996)
Research Interests
Ms. Achilles combines the study of German culture with historical and theoretical analyses. Her teaching and research span the fields of cultural studies, literary theory, historical anthropology, modern German history and European history. She is especially interested in the relations between democracy and violence, reason and emotion, and ideology and culture.
Courses Taught in Jewish Studies
- HIEU 100A: German and Jews in the 20th Century (Fall 2008)
Recent Projects/Publications
- "Reforming the Reich: Democratic Symbols and Rituals in the Weimar Republic," in Kathleen Canning, Kerstin Barndt and Kristin McGuire (eds), Weimar Publics/Weimar Subjects, Berghahn (forthcoming).
- "Placing Benjamin in the Tradition of German Kulturwissenschaft. Book review for H-German@h-net.msu.edu (September 2007).
- "On Healing and Hailing: Laurence A. Rickel's Nazi Psychoanalysis." Book review for H-German@h-net.msu.edu (April 2004).
- "Nationalist Violence and Republican Identity in Weimar Germany," in David Midgley and Christian Emden (eds), German Literature, History and the Nation. Papers from the Conference: "The Fragile Tradition" (Cambridge 2002), Oxford: Peter Lang, 2004, pp. 305-328.
- "'Blutdurst' und 'Symbolhunger': Zur Semantik von Blut und Erde", in Walter Delabar, Horst Denkler, Erhard Sch�tz (eds), Spielräume des Einzelnen: Deutsche Literatur in der Weimarer Republik und im Dritten Reich, Berlin: Weidler Buchverlag, 2000, pp. 185-315.
Professor of History and Director of Jewish Studies
Contact Information
Office: 203 Randall Hall
Hours: Wednesday 10-12
Phone: (434) 924-6412
Fax: (434) 924-7891
E-Mail: confino@virginia.edu.
Education
- Ph.D. History, University of California , Berkeley , 1992.
- M.A. History, University of California , Berkeley , 1986.
- B.A. History, University of Tel Aviv , Israel , 1985.
Publications (selected):
Books:
- Germany As a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006) http://uncpress.unc.edu/books/T-7341.html.
- The Nation As a Local Metaphor: W�rttemberg, Imperial Germany , and National Memory, 1871-1918 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997). (Reprinted, 2004).
Winner of the Charles Smith Book Prize of the European section of the Southern Historical Association, 1998.
Edited Collections:
- Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany. Co-edited with Paul Betts and Dirk Schumann (Berghahn Press, 2008, forthcoming).
- The Work of Memory: New Directions in the Study of German Society and Culture. Co-edited with Peter Fritzsche ( University of Illinois Press, 2002).
Edited Special Journal Issues:
- "Histories and Memories of Twentieth Century Germany ." A special double-issue of History and Memory (vol. 17, nos. 1-2, 2005).
- "Viewed from the Locality: the Local, National, and Global." Co-edited with Ajay Skaria. A special issue of National Identities , vol. 4, no. 1 (March 2002).
- "Regimes of Consumer Culture." Co-edited with Rudy Koshar. A special issue of German History , vol. 19, no. 2 (2001).
Most Recent Articles (selected):
- "History and Memory," in Axel Schneider and Daniel Woolf, eds., The Oxford History of Historical Writing (Oxford UP), 2009, forthcoming.
- "1967 in History and Memory," Yisrael , (lead article in a special issue on the 1967 Arab-Israeli war), forthcoming, 2009 (in Hebrew).
- "Memory and the History of Mentalities," in Ansgar N�nning and Astrid Erll, eds., Cultural Memory Studies: An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook ( Berlin / New York , 2008), forthcoming.
- "Death, Spiritual Solace, and Afterlife: Between Nazism and Religion," in Confino, Paul Betts, and Dirk Schumann, eds., Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth-Century Germany (Berghahn Press, 2008, forthcoming).
- "On the Liberation from the Tyranny of the Past: Jews and Arabs in Israel ," Alpayim (An Interdisciplinary Publication for Contemporary Thought and Literature) 32 (2008): forthcoming (in Hebrew).
- "The Travels of Bettina Humpel: One Stasi File and Narratives of State and Self in East Germany ," in Paul Betts and Katherine Pence, eds., Socialist Modern: East German Politics, Society, and Culture ( University of Michigan Press ), 2008, forthcoming.
- "Freud, Moses, and Modern Nationhood," in Ruth Ginsburg and Ilana Pardes, eds., New Perspectives on Freud's Moses and Monotheism , (Niemeyer: T�bingen, 2006): 165-175.
- "Lo local, una esencia de toda naci�n," Ayer , 64, no. 4 (2006): 19- 31. A special issue edited by X. M. N��ez, La construcci�n de la identidad regional en Europa y Espa�a.
- "Intellectuals and the Lure of Exile: Home and Exile in the Autobiographies of Edward Said and George Steiner," The Hedgehog Review (Fall 2005): 20-28.
- "Remembering the Second World War, 1945-1965: Narratives of Victimhood and Genocide," Cultural Analysis: An Interdisciplinary Forum on Folklore and Popular Culture , Vol. 4, 2005: http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~caforum/volume4/vol4_article3.html With responses by Robert Moeller (History: UC Irvine) and Jay Winter (History: Yale).
- "Fantasies about the Jews: Cultural Reflections on the Holocaust," History and Memory 17, nos. 1-2 (2005): 296-322.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- HIEU 401 The Holocaust
- HIME 200 " Palestine and Israel , 1948,"
Research Interests
Modern German and Eurpoean history, history of Israel/Palestine, memory, nationhood, historical method.
Recent Projects
I recently completed a collection of ten essays about Germany, memory, and the method of history: "Germany As a Culture of Remembrance: Promises and Limits of Writing History ". The main book-project that now occupies me--entitled Foundational Pasts: An Essay on the Holocaust, the French Revolution, and Historical Understandings--concerns the way historians have attempted to interpret and explain what are to my mind the two foundational events in modern European history. The French Revolution was for generations after 1789 a historical compass that organized questions of history, morality, and values; recently, at the same time when the Revolution was declared by Fran�ois Furet to be over, the Holocaust has taken its place as the foundational event of our time. Both events have reformulated people's relations to the past; both have challenged the boundaries of the historical discipline itself, of historical explanation, interpretation, and narrative. My aim is to read the Holocaust against the historiography of the French Revolution in order to find some of the hidden assumptions, narratives, and modes of explanation that govern it. It proceeds by asking specific enough questions about the explanatory role of origins and outcome, of context, of ideology, and of contingency. By thinking about these two events, the essay seeks in essence to uncover some of the basic assumptions used by present-day historians in historical explanation, narration, and understanding.
General Faculty,
Departments of History and German
Jewish Studies Program
Contact Information
Email: gf6n@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-243-4369
Education
Brandeis
University, B.A., 1978, in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies.
University
of
University
of
Research Interests
I am fascinated by how survivors reassembled their lives in the immediate aftermath of the Holocaust. My book in progress deals with the legacy of the Holocaust and its impact on Polish-Jewish relations in communist Poland from 1945 to 1968.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
HIEU
210: Modern Jewish History
HIEU
213: Jews of
HIEU
348: The Holocaust
HIEU
353: Jewish Culture and History in
HIST
322: Zionism and the Creation of the State of Israel
HIST
401: The Holocaust and the Law
HIUS
371: American Jewish History
LAW
4734: The Holocaust and the Law
YIDD
105: Elementary Yiddish Language and Culture
YIDD
106: Elementary Yiddish Language and Culture
YIDD
205: Intermediate Yiddish Language and Culture
YIDD
210: Intermediate Yiddish Language and Culture
Recent Fellowships and Honors
American Council of Learned Societies, East European Studies Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2000-1.
Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies Fellowship, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, 2000-1.
YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, Samuel and Flora Weiss Research Fellowship, 2007-8.
Publications
Book Project
Aftermath: Jews, Poles, and the Legacy of the Holocaust, 1945-1968 (estimated date of completion, 2008).
Journal Contributing Guest Coeditor
Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 20 ("Making Holocaust Memory"), ed. Gabriel N. Finder, Natalia Aleksiun, Antony Polonsky, and Jan Schwarz (2008).
Published Articles and Book Chapters
Jewish History
"Collaboration in Eastern Galicia: The Ukrainian Police and the Holocaust," coauthor with Alexander Prusin, East European Jewish Affairs 34, no. 2 (2004): 95-118.
"Jewish Prisoner Labour in Warsaw After the Ghetto Uprising, 1943-1944," Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 17 (2004): 325-51.
"'Sweep out Evil from Your Midst': The Jewish People's Court in Postwar Poland," in Beyond Camps and Forced Labour: Current International Research on Survivors of Nazi Persecution (Proceedings of the International Conference, London, 29-31 January 2003), ed. Johannes-Dieter Steinert and Inge Weber-Newth (Osnabrueck, Germany: Secolo Verlag, 2005): 269-79.
"The Trial of Shepsl Rotholc and the Politics of Retribution in the Aftermath of the Holocaust," Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry 20 (2006): 63-89 (English section).
"Proces Szepsla Rotholca a polityka kary w nastepstwie Zaglady," Zaglada Zydow: Studia i materialy 2 (2006): 221-41 (Polish translation of "The Trial of Shepsl Rotholc and the Politics of Retribution in the Aftermath of the Holocaust").
"Introduction" to Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 20 ("Making Holocaust Memory"), ed. Gabriel N. Finder, Natalia Aleksiun, Antony Polonsky, and Jan Schwarz (2008): 3-52.
"Memento Mori: Photographs from the Grave," coauthor with Judith R. Cohen, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 20 ("Making Holocaust Memory"), ed. Gabriel N. Finder, Natalia Aleksiun, Antony Polonsky, and Jan Schwarz (2008): 55-73.
"Jewish Collaborators on Trial in Poland, 1944-1956," coauthor with Alexander Prusin, Polin: Studies in Polish Jewry 20 ("Making Holocaust Memory"), ed. Gabriel N. Finder, Natalia Aleksiun, Antony Polonsky, and Jan Schwarz (2008): 122-48.
European History
"Der Fall Vukobrankovics: Begutachtung und Verturteilung einer Verbrecherin um 1920, " Kriminologisches Journal 26 (1994): 47-69.
"The Criminal and his Analysts: Psychoanalytic Criminology in Weimar Germany and the First Austrian Republic," in Criminals and their Scientists: The History of Criminology in International Perspective, ed. Peter Becker and Richard F. Wetzell (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006): 447-69.
Forthcoming Articles and Book Chapters
Jewish History
"Yizkor! Commemoration of the Dead by Jewish Displaced Persons in Postwar Germany," in Between Mass Death and Individual Loss: The Place of the Dead in Twentieth- Century Germany, ed. Paul Betts, Alon Confino, and Dirk Schumann (New York: Berghahn Books, forthcoming 2008).
"'Boxing for Everyone!' Jewish DPs, Sports, and Boxing," in Jews and Sports (Studies in Contemporary Jewry: An Annual 23), ed. Ezra Mendelsohn (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2008).
European History
"The Medicalization of Wilhelmine and Weimar Juvenile Justice Reconsidered," in Crime and Criminal Justice in Modern Germany, 1870-1960, ed. Richard F. Wetzell (New York: Berghahn Books, forthcoming 2008).
Forthcoming Encyclopedia Entries
"Honor Courts," in the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, ed. Gershon David Hundert (New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming 2008).
"Sportcajtung," in the YIVO Encyclopedia of Jews in Eastern Europe, ed. Gershon David Hundert (New Haven: Yale University Press, forthcoming 2008).
Recent Reviews
"Gunnar S. Paulsson, Secret City: The Hidden Jews of Warsaw, 1940-1945," in East European Politics and Societies 18, no. 2 (2004): 342-47; 18, no. 3 (2004): 558 (erratum).
"Joshua D. Zimmerman, ed., Contested Memories: Poles and Jews during the Holocaust and its Aftermath," in Journal of the American Academy of Religion 73, no. 1 (2005): 284-87.
"Antony Polonsky and Joanna B. Michlic, eds., The Neighbors Respond: The Controversy over the Jedwabne Massacre in Poland," European History Quarterly 36, no. 2 (2006): 327-29.
"Robert Blobaum, ed., Antisemitism and its Opponents in Modern Poland," Gal-Ed: On the History and Culture of Polish Jewry 21 (2007): 179-84 (Hebrew section).
Recent Presentations
"Postwar Polish-Jewish Relations Seen through the Lens of Yizkor Books," presented at "The Burden of History: WWII Memory and Polish-Jewish Reconciliation," Workshop of the Simon Dubnow Institute, Leipzig in Cooperation with the Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs, New York, Leipzig, April 2003.
"Retributive Justice in Polish Jewish Life after the Holocaust," presented at the European Social History Conference, Berlin, March 2004.
"'They are worse than the Germans': Testimony from the People's Court of the Central Committee of Polish Jews, 1946-1949," presented at Lessons and Legacies VIII, Brown University, November 2004.
"Jacob Glatshtein's Yash Novels between Fiction and History," presented at the Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, December 2004.
"Jewish Honor Courts and the Politics of Retribution in the Aftermath of the Shoah," Faculty and Graduate Student Seminar conducted by invitation of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research for its Max Weinreich Center for Advanced Jewish Studies, at the Center for Jewish History, New York, March 10, 2004.
"Sheol on the Vistula: The Return of Jews to Poland after the Holocaust," presented at the workshop "Dreams and Nightmares: Jewish Life and the Experience of Modernity," under the auspices of the Jewish Studies Program, University of Virginia, April 13, 2005.
"Night has Fallen over Treblinka: Rachel Auerbach's Oyf di felder fun Treblinke (In the Fields of Treblinka)," presented at the Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, December 2005.
"Muscular Judaism after the Shoah: Sports and Jewish DPs," presented at "Beyond Camps and Forced Labour - 60 Years On: Second International Multidisciplinary Conference, Imperial War Museum London, January 2006.
"Undzere Kinder
(Our Children): A Yiddish Film from Poland in the Aftermath of the
Holocaust," to be presented at the Annual Conference of the American
Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, November 2007.
"Together and Apart: Jews and Poles Remember the Holocaust," keybote address presented at "Making Holocaust Memory at Poland," conference held at the Polish Embassy in London under the patronage of the Polish Ambassador, November 29, 2007.
"'Boxing for Everyone!' Jewish Displaced Persons and Boxing after the Shoah," presented at the Annual Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, December 2007.
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Contact Information
Email: kal8q@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-243-7746
Fax: 434-924-7891
Education
Ph.D., 2001 (Columbia)
M.A., 1995 (Columbia)
B.A., 1991 (Yale)
Research Interests
Modern Eastern Europe; Poland; Postwar Europe
Fellowships
Jean Monnet Fellow, European University Institute (Florence, Italy), Jan.-Jun. 2005.
Recent Projects
Stalinistische Stadtplanung und Sozialgeschichte: Wohnen in Nowa Huta 1949-1956. Schoenheit und Typenprojektierung. Der DDR-Staedtebau im internationalen Kontext. C. Bernhardt and T. Wolfes. Erkner, Leibniz-Institut fr Regionalentwicklung und Strukturplanung: 367-83.
Review of John Czaplicka and Blair Ruble, Composing Urban History and the Constitution of Civic Identities, forthcoming in Social History (Nov. 2005)
Professor, Department of History
Director, Institute for Public History
Contact Information
Email: pkl6h@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6945
Fax: 434-924-7891
Education
Ph.D., History, The Ohio State University, 1971
M.A., History of Ideas, The University of Sussex, England, 1967
B.A., Queens College of the City University of New York, 1966
Research Interests
In her research, Phyllis Leffler is currently engaged in writing a book on African American leadership. This is based on a joint project with Julian Bond, currently national chair of the NAACP. Her interests also extend to the history of the local Jewish community of Charlottesville and of the surrounding areas.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- Southern Jewish History
- Exhibiting Jews: The Jewish Museum (with Vanessa Ochs)
Recent Projects
- "Peopling the Portholes: National Identity and Maritime Museums in the U.S. and U.K.", published in The Public Historian, Vol. 26, No. 4 (Fall 2004).
- "Maritime Museums and Transatlantic Slavery: a Study in British and American Identity," published in Journal of Transatlantic Studies (Spring 2006)
- "Mr. Jefferson's University: Women in the Village!," published in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 115, No. 1 (2007)
- Explorations in Black Leadership (www.virginia.edu/publichistory/bl)
Awards & Community Involvement
- "Peopling the Portholes" was awarded the G. Wesley Johnson Prize for the best article of the year in The Public Historian (2004-2005).
- Phyllis Leffler is a board member of the Southern Jewish Historical Society.
Assistant Professor
Department of History
Contact Information
Email: jbl6w@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6408
Fax: 434-924-7891
Education
B.A. Harvard University, 1996
M.A. Columbia University, 2000
Ph.D. Columbia University, 2006
Research Interests
In his research, James Loeffler focuses on modern European Jewish history,
particularly the cultural and political history of East European Jewry. He is
currently completing a book manuscript on the relationship between music and
modern Jewish identity in nineteenth and early twentieth-century
Fellowships
Hays-Fulbright Doctoral Dissertation Research Award to Russia and Ukraine, 2003-2004
National Foundation for Jewish Culture Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2003-2004
Center for Jewish History Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 2002-2003
Recent Projects
Academic Vice-Chair, The Jewish Music Forum, Center for Jewish
History (
Research Director, Pro Musica Hebraica (
"Concert
Music" The YIVO Encyclopedia of East European Jewish History and Culture
(
"Joel Engel and the Development of Jewish Musical
Nationalism [Russian]," On the History of Jewish Music in
"Di Rusishe Progresiv Muzikal Yunyon No. 1 af Amerike:
The First Klezmer Union in the
"Neither the King"s English nor the Rebbetzin's
Yiddish: Yinglish Literature in
Landscape Architecture
Associate Professor
Department of Landscape Architecture
Contact Information
Email: ebr8j@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6461
Fax: 434-982-2678
Education
BA, University of Toronto
MLA, Cornell University
Media Studies
Robertson Professor of Modern Media Studies
Media Studies Program
Contact Information
Email: jrd8e@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-7530
Fax: 434-243-8869
Education
Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 1986
Research Interests
During her sabbatical, she continued her work on Testament of Women, a book-in-progress based on the telling of women's tales in the Old Testament.
Recent Projects
Sweet Dreams: Contemporary Art and Complicity (University of Chicago Press, 2005)
Involved in the Virginia Arts of the Book Center, located in Charlottesville, Va.
Music
Associate Professor, Ethnomusicology
Department of Music
Contact Information
Email: mk6k@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6496
Office: Old Cabell 204
Website: Michelle Kisliuk's
Webpage; Analyzing
Music
Education
Ph.D. in Performance Studies, New York University (1991)
Research Interests
Specializes in integrating performance theory and practice, cultural studies, experiential field research, and the poetics of ethnographic writing. Area specialties include African music: the forest people (BaAka) as well as urban music and dance in the Central African Republic, jam sessions at bluegrass festivals in the United States, and Jewish Africans.
Assistant Professor
Director of Music
Performance
Department of Music
Contact Information
Email: jer2y@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6499
Office: Old Cabell 207
Web: www.rubin-ottens.com
http://www.virginia.edu/music/facultyacadmore.html#rubin
Education
Ph.D. in Ethnomusicology, City University of London
B.F.A. in Clarinet Performance, State University of New York, College at
Purchase
Research Interests
Ornamentation; improvisation and modality; music and trauma; music and professionalism; music and immigration; music and diaspora; music and identity; music and religion; folk music revivals; musical hybridity; Jewish musical traditions (klezmer, hasidic, American Jewish popular music, Middle East and beyond); art and urban popular traditions of the Balkans, Turkey and the Middle East.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
MUEN 363: Klezmer Ensemble
MUSI 409: American Jewish Popular Music
MUSI 213, Jewish Music
William R Kenan, Jr, Professor
Department of Music
Contact Information
Email: jsa@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6495
Fax: 434-924-6033
Education
Ph.D., Princeton University
M.M. The Juilliard School
A.B. Douglass College
Politics
Associate Professor
Department of Politics
Contact Information
Email: ga8h@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-3978
Fax: 434-924-3359
Education
Ph.D., Columbia University, 1997
Research Interests
In his research, Gerard Alexander focuses on democratic transitions and consolidation, empirical democratic theory, and the politics of advanced industrial societies, particularly in Western Europe. His current research focuses on the trajectory of the political right in democratic politics in Western Europe and the U.S.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
PLCP 424 Politics of the Holocaust
Recent Projects
The Sources of Democratic Consolidation (Cornell University Press, 2002).
"Institutionalized Uncertainty, The Rule of Law, and the Sources of Democratic Stability," Comparative Political Studies, December 2002.
"Institutions, Path Dependence, and Democratic Consolidation," Journal of Theoretical Politics, July 2001.
Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., Professor / Department of Politics
Vice Provost for International Affairs
Contact Information
Email: quandt@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-7896
Fax: 434-971-1810
Education
Ph.D., MIT
Research Interests
In his research, William Quandt focuses on conflict.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
PLCP 341 Comparative Politics of the Middle East
Recent Projects
"Peace Process; American Diplomacy and the Arab-Israeli Conflict Since 1967", Brookings, 2001
Religious Studies
Assistant Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: ab5j@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-3643
Fax: 434-924-1467
Education
Karl-Franzens Universität, Graz
Hebrew University, Jerusalem
Research Interests
Modern Jewish thought and intellectual history; German-Jewish studies; Zionism and Jewish nationalism; dialogical philosophy; theories of Jewish history and Jewish renaissance; Jewish art and aesthetics; Israeli cinema.
Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: hyg@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6714
Fax: 434-924-1467
Education
Ph.D, Yale University
M.A., Yale University
M.Div., Duke University
B.A., Wake Forest University
Research Interests
In his research, Harry Gamble focuses on early Christian history, literature, and thought, the historical Jesus, Pauline studies, the history of the text and canon of the New Testament, the Jewish matrix of Christian beginnings, the social description of early Christianity, and bridgework with patristics: apostolic fathers, apologists, apocryphal literature, and the early history of the liturgy.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
RELC 122 Early Christianity and the New Testament
RELC/J 303 The Historical Jesus
RELC 304 Paul: Life, Letters and Thought
RELC/J Judaism and Christianity in Conflict
RELC/J Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church
Recent Projects
"Letters in the Greco-Roman World and Early Christianity," in The Biblical World (Routledge, 2001)
"Literacy and Liturgy," in The Formation of the Fourfold Gospel (Chester Beatty Library, 2002)
"Marcion and the History of the Canon" in the Cambridge History of Christianity (Cambridge, 2003)
Research Associate Professor of Religious Studies,
Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture
Contact Information
Email: jlg2u@virginia.edu
Tel: 434-924-3038
Fax: 434-243-5590
Education
Ph.D. University of Virginia, 1999
M.A. University of Virginia, 1995
B.A. University of Virginia, 1987
Research Interests
In her research, Jennifer Geddes focuses on religion and literature, particularly 20th century literature, religion and culture, evil and suffering, hermeneutics, Holocaust studies, literary theory, philosophy of religion, ethics, and postmodern thought.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
RELJ 352 Responses to the Holocaust
Recent Projects
- The Rhetorics of Evil. Current book project.
- "Toward an Ethics of Responding to Survivor Testimonies." Studies in the Literary Imagination. Special Issue: "Reading Texts/Reading Trauma." Vol. 41.1 (Spring 2008) forthcoming.
- A review of Against the Unspeakable: Complicity, the Holocaust, and Slavery in America by Naomi Mandel. Forthcoming in Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
- A review of Hannah Arendt and Human Rights by Peg Birmingham. Forthcoming in Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy.
- "Attending to Suffering In / At the Wake of Postmodernism," The Mourning After: Attending the Wake of Postmodernism, ed. Neil Brooks and Josh Toth. Postmodern Studies 40 Series. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 2007.
- "Banal Evil and Useless Knowledge: Hannah Arendt and Charlotte Delbo on Evil after the Holocaust," Feminist Philosophy and the Problem of Evil, ed. Robin May Schott. Indiana University Press, 2006.
- Review of Andrew W. Hass's Poetics of Critique: The Interdisciplinarity of Textuality in The Journal of Religion 85.2 (April 2005): 358-359.
Contact Information
Department of Religious Studies
University of Virginia
PO Box 400126
Charlottesville VA 22904-4216
Fax: 434.924.1467
Email: goering@virginia.edu
Education
- Th.D., Harvard Divinity School, Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, 2006
- M.Div., Harvard Divinity School, 1996
- B.A., Bethel College (KS), Mathematics, summa cum laude, 1988
- B.S., Bethel College (KS), Physics, Chemistry, summa cum laude, 1988
Publications
"Election and Knowledge in the Wisdom of Solomon," The Book of Wisdom and Hellenistic Jewish Philosophy, ed. G�za G.
Xeravits, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism (Leiden: Brill, forthcoming).
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- RELJ 111 Introduction to Classical Hebrew I
- RELJ 112 Introduction to Classical Hebrew II
- RELJ 311 Advanced Readings in Classical Hebrew
- RELC/J 309 Israelite Prophets
Research Interests
wisdom literature in the ancient Near East • nature and revelation in Jewish wisdom literature • the intersection of historical and literary methodologies in the study of ancient texts • Jewish religious practices in the Second Temple Period • the application of theories from cultural anthropology to the study of the Hebrew Bible • Jewish and Christian biblical interpretation in antiquity and modernity • ethnicity and religious identity in antiquity • Judaism in Latin AmericaRecent Projects
I am currently revising a manuscript, to be published by Brill, about Ben Sira's adoption of the election theme. The manuscript is tentatively titled Ben Sira and the Election of Israel . Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: mah3uh@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6723
Fax: 434-924-1467
Research Interests
In her research and teaching, Martien Halvorson-Taylor focuses on Hebrew Bible/Old Testament; classical Hebrew; history and religion of Ancient Israel; wisdom literature; biblical interpretation in the Second Temple period; canonical process; history of biblical scholarship; literary approaches to the Hebrew Bible.
Education
* Ph.D. Harvard University (Near Eastern Languages and Civlizations)* A.M. Harvard University
* M.Div. Harvard Divinity School
* B.A. Yale University
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
- RELJ 111-2: Introduction to Biblical Hebrew
- RELC/J 121: Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
- RELC/J 301: The Book of Genesis
- RELC/J 302: Faith On Trial: The Book of Job and Its Traditions
- RELC/J 321: Joseph, Esther, Daniel, Judith
- RELC/J 501: Genesis and Its Interpretation
- RELC/J 506: The Tree of Life: Wisdom Literature in Ancient Israel
Associate Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: jkovacs@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-3741
Office: Halsey Trailer 107
Education
Ph.D. Columbia University
M.A. Columbia University
B.A. The College of Wooster
Research and Teaching Interests
Jewish and Christian apocalyptic; the Revelation to John; Biblical women; Gnosticism; early Christian theology in Alexandria; Clement and Origin of Alexandria; the letters of Paul of Tarsus and their interpretation in the early church; New Testament; early Christian theology (the church fathers)
Books
The Revelation to John. Blackwell Bible Commentaries. Oxford: Blackwell, 2004.
First Corinthians. The Church's Bible. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2005.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
RELJ 391: Women and the Bible
Edgar Bronfman Professor of Modern Judaic Studies
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: pochs@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6718
Fax: 434-924-1467
Education
Ph.D., Yale University, l980
M.A., The Jewish Theological Seminary, l975
B.A., Yale College, l97l
Research Interests
In his research, Peter Ochs explores modern Jewish philosophy and theology, the history of Jewish thought and Jewish ethics, rabbinic hermeneutics, semiotics, and ethics, modern and postmodern philosophic theology, and the philosophy of religion.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
RELJ 337 Jewish Theology After the Holocaust
RELG 217 Philosophies of God and Religion: From Plato to Philo to Pascal
RELJ 310 Medieval Jewish Theology
RELJ 307 Belief & Ethics After the Holocaust
RELJ 523 Modern Jewish Thought
RELJ 330 Jewish Mysticism & Spirituality
RELG 743 Language, Signs & Scripture (Semiotics & the Bible)
RELG 744 Prayer, Liturgy, and Aesthetics
RELG 745 Phenomenology and Mysticism
Fellowships
Peter Ochs was on research leave during the spring of 2005 at Cambridge University, UK, with a research fellowship from Wabash/Lilly, to write a book, "Teaching and Learning Scriptural Reasoning," which is still in progress.
Recent Interviews
"Postliberal Scholars Find Reason to Study Christian Theology: an interview with Peter Ochs," by David Reid, Vital Theology 1 #3 (April, 2004): 4-5.
"Peacemaking among the Abrahamic Faiths: An Interview with Peter Ochs," by Jennifer L. Geddes, The Hedgehog Review 6 #1 (Spring 2004): 90-102.
Recent Projects
"The Passion and Repentance," in The Living Pulpit 13 #3 (July-Sept, 2004): 6-8.
"Covenant," in Modern Judaism: An Oxford Guide, eds. Nicholas de Lange and Miri Frued-Kandel (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004): 290-300.
"Scripture," in Fields of Faith: Theological and Religious Studies for the Twenty-First Century, eds. David Ford, Janet Soskice, Ben Quash (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 104-118.
"A Road to the Postmodern Palace: Michael Rosenaks Theological Response to the Postmodern Condition," in ed. Jonathan Cohen, In Search of a Jewish Paideia: Directions in the Philosophy of Jewish Education. Melton Studies in Jewish Education Vol X (Hebrew University, Magnes Press, 2004: 17-31.
"Israels Redeemer is the One to Whom and with Whom She Prays," in eds. S. David, D. Kendall, and G. Collins, The Redemption: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Christ as Redeemer (Oxford University Press, 2004): 121-146.
"Textual Reasoning as a Model for Jewish Thought After Shoah," in eds. P. Amodio, G. Giannini, and G. Lissa, Filosofia E Critica Della Filisofia Nel Pensiero Ebraico (Napoli: Giannini Editore, 2004): 233-272.
"Judaism and Christian Theology," in The Modern Theologians 3rd Edition, eds. David Ford and Rachel Muers (Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2005): 645-662.
"Abrahamic Hauerwas," in God, Truth, and Witness: Engaging Stanley Hauerwas, eds. L.G. Jones, R. Hutter, C. R. Ewell (Brazos Press, 2005): 309-327.
Associate Professor, Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: vanessa@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6722
Fax: 434-924-1467
Education
Ph.D. 2000 (Drew University)
MFA 1977 (Sarah Lawrence College)
B.A. 1974 (Tufts University)
Research Interests
Women and Judaism, Jewish ritual practices, Judaism and Healing, Spirituality, Religion and Material Culture, Jewish ethical practices
Current Projects
New Jewish rituals in America and Israel, Women and Judaism, Jewish Museums
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
RELJ 203 Introduction to Judaic Traditions
RELJ 223 Jewish Spiritual Journeys
RELJ 323 Exhibiting Jews: the Jewish Museum
RELJ 332 Judaism, Medicine and Healing
RELJ 333 Women in Judaism: Tradition and Change
RELG 400 Majors Seminar in Religious Studies: Material Culture and the Study of Religion
RELG 400 Majors Seminar in Religious Studies: The Spiritual Journey
RELG 537 Feasting, Fasting and Faith: Food in Jewish and Christian Traditions
Spiritual writing
Ethnography of Jews
Publications
Books
Inventing
Jewish Ritual (Jewish Publication Society: 2007)
Sarah
Laughed (McGraw Hill: 2004)
The
Jewish Dream Book (with Elizabeth Ochs) (Jewish Lights Publications: 2003)
The
Book of Jewish Sacred Practices (co-edited with Irwin Kula) (Jewish Lights
Publications: 2001)
Miriam's Object Lesson: A Study of Objects Emerging in the New Rituals of
Jewish Women. Ph.D. Dissertation, Drew University (October 2000)
Words
on Fire : One Woman's Journey into the Sacred, Revised Edition, with a new
introduction and afterword, (Westview Press: 1999)
Safe
and Sound: Protecting Children in an Unpredictable World (Penguin: 1995)
Words
on Fire: One Woman's Journey into the Sacred, (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich:
1990; HBJ/Harvest paperback: 1991)
Chapters of Books
"Women and Ritual Artifacts," in Women of the Wall eds. Phyllis Chesler and Rivka Haut, (Jewish Lights: 2003)Introduction to The Rituals and Practices of a Jewish Life: edited by Olitsky and Judson (Jewish Lights: 2002)
"Jewish healing in the contexts of friendship in Talmud and ritual practice" in Take My Hand (Hadassah Department of Education: 2002)
" Women's Studies and Jewish Studies " in Hatishma Kol i (Yediot Ahronot: 2001)
"The Contemporary Haggadah" and "Rituals of Mourning" in Religious Practices in America , ed. Colleen McDannell. ( Princeton University Press: 2001)
"It's a Small World After All, It's a Small World After All, It's a Small World After All, It's a Small, Small World" in Disney and Religion, eds. L. Zoloth-Dorfman and S. Harak, (Oxford University Press: forthcoming)
"Homecoming," "Teamwork," "Sustaining Family Ties," "Balancing Feeling and Reason," "A New Thanksgiving Ritual," in Restful Reflections: Nighttime Inspirations to Calm the Spirit, eds. Lori Forman and Kerry Olitsky, (Jewish Lights Press: 2001)
"We Knew the Deal" in Prayers for a Thousand Years , eds. Elias Amidon and Elizabeth Roberts, Harper SanFrancisco (San Francisco: 1999)
"Not in My Backyard" in The Norton Reader (eleventh edition), (W. Norton and Co: 1999)
"Tamar" in The Book of Women's Sermons: Hearing God in Each Other's Voices
ed. Eugenia Lee Hancock, (Putnam: 1999)
"Reading Ruth: Where Are the Women?" in Reading Ruth , eds. J. Kates and G. Riemer (Ballentine: 1994)
"Reading Torah" in Lifecycles , ed. Debra Orenstein (Jewish Lights Press: 1997)
"Reframing Definitions of Continuity" At the Crossroads: Shaping Our Jewish Future . (Wilstein Institute of Jewish Policy Studies: 1995)
"Taking Women's Diaries Seriously," in A Women's Diary Miscellany , ed. Jane Begos (Magic Circle Press:1990)
Edited Journals
Guest Editor, volume 9: summer 2005. Jewish Women's Spirituality for Nashim
( Brandies University/University Press of Indiana
Guest Editor, volume 10: winter 2006. Jewish Women's Spirituality for Nashim
( Brandies University/University Press of Indiana
Edited Books
Lashon Hakodesh: Holy Words (CLAL- The National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership: 2000)Shehecheyanu: Reaching Each Moment (CLAL: 1999)
Renew the Old, Sanctify the New (CLAL: 1998)
In the Name of Heaven (CLAL: 1997)
Torah of Life (CLAL: 1996)
These are the Words (CLAL: 1995)
Published Curricula
Cultural Inventory : An Introduction to Religion and Material Culture
(CLAL: 1995)
Heal Us and We shall be Healed: A Course in Jewish Healing (CLAL: 1996)
The Outstretched Arm: A Comprehensive Course in Ancient and Modern Jewish
Texts and Traditions in Jewish Healing ( CLAL:1997)
Essays and Articles in Jewish Studies
"Where's
the Love" New Jersey Jewish News, June 2006 http://www.njjewishnews.com/njjn.com/052506/nbtWheresTheLove.html
"Waiting
for the Messiah, a Tambourine in her Hand" Nashim Spring 2005
Introduction,
Nashim 9 , Spring 2005
Introduction,
Nashim 10, Fall 2005
"Ten Jewish Sensibilities," Shma, Dec 2003, (with debates
by scholars and educators) also made available on www.shma.com , www.clal.org
, reprinted by Project Kesher in Russian
"Jewish
Sensibilities" and issues devoted to the topic in The Journal of the
Sopciety for Textual Reasoning. Volume 4, Number 3, May 2006: http://etext.virginia.edu/journals/tr/volume4/number3/index.html
"Love and Intermarriage," New Jersey Jewish N ews, (Oct 2003)
JewishFamilyLife.com
"Miriam's Cup" American Jewish Feminism (working title) edited
by Riv Ellen Prell, ( Wayne State Pres, forthcoming)
"The Proper Blessing for Terror" Sh'ma December 2001
"When Jews Make End of Life Decisions" , Derekh CLAL on-line weekly
webzine: 2001, Baltimore Jewish News
When We Become the Olden Days E- CLAL on-line weekly webzine , 2000, MetroWest
Jewish News
"Power Beads and Torah" E-CLAL 2000:
"Jewish Life Along the Oregon Trail E-CLAL 2000:
You Are What You Hang E-CLAL 2000:
Walls Within Community E-CLAL 2000:
Interfaith Judaica: The "Kosher-Style Ketubah" E-CLAL 2000, The
Forward (NY) August 2000, Ha'Artez ( Israel ) August 2000
"Va'yeshev " Beliefnet.com, December 2000
" Toldot " Beliefnet.com, December 2000
"Role Models for Jewish Girls, " Sh'ma , March 1999
"What Makes a Jewish Home Jewish? " Electronic Journal for the
Study of Religion and Material Culture Spring 1999.
"What Makes a Jewish Home Jewish? " Crosscurrents, Winter 2000
"The Jewelry of Jewry" in Sh'ma, Feb, 4, 1998
"Brave Hearts" The Outstretched Arm : Journal of the National
Center for Jewish Healing, Fall 1998
"Shma Minah" Sh'ma , Fall 1997
"Home" Sh'ma, Spring, 1977
"Feminist Prayer," On the Issues , Spring 1997
"Not in My Backyard," Tikkun , Summer 1993
"Escape from Peril" Congress Monthly , Nov/Dec 1990
"Women Finally Decode Jewish Law" Lilith , vol. 15, no. 3,
Summer 1990
"Jewish Feminist Scholarship Comes of Age" Lilith , vol. 15,
no. 1, Winter 1990
"Words from Jerusalem ," Congress Monthly, July 1988
"Recollecting Bitburg" Congress Monthly , March/April 1987
"A is for Autopsy," Moment , November 1986
"A Guide to the Perplexed Jewish Woman" (with P. Ochs), Melton
Journal , Summer 1985; Religion and Intellectual Life , Spring 1986
"Flying in the Face of Terror," Congress Monthly , Spring 1986,
Syracuse Jewish Observer ,'86
"Prayer Symposium," New Traditions, Summer 1986
"Ripple Effect," Moment , October 1985
"Advertising the Holy Land," Syracuse Jewish Observer , Dec. 1984,
Congress Monthly, Jan1985; Baltimore Jewish Times, Spring 1985
"The Case of the Islamic Museum, a Pretty Woman and a Balcony", Moment,
April 1984
"Yavneh," Melton Journal , Winter 1983
Reviews
New works on Jewish marriage and divorce (Netter, Olitsky and Jungreis)
for Sh'ma , Summer 2003
The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by Wendy Mogel, Beliefnet.com ,
December 2000
How to be a Jewish Parent by Anita Diamant and Karen Kushner for Beliefnet.com
December 2000
The Nine Commandments by David Noel Freedman for Beliefnet.com
October 2000
Being Jewish by Ari Goldman for The Forward, October 8, 2000,
Ha'aretz, October 8, 2000
My Gradfather's Blessings by Rachel Naomi Remen for Beliefnet.com
August 2000
String of Pearls by JoAnna Lund for Beliefnet.com , August 2000
A Place Like Any Other by Molly Wolf for Beliefnet.com , August
2000
Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Jennie Fields for New York Daily News
, July 1997
Schoolgirls , by Peggy Orenstein for Newsday , 1994
In the Wake of the Goddesses , by Tikva Frymer-Kensky for Congress
Monthly , 1993
Four Centuries of Women's Spirituality , edited by Ashton and Umansky
for Journal of Religious Studies , 1993
Daughters of the King , edited by Haut and Grossman, Congress Monthly
, January 1993
The Way We Never Were by Stephanie Coontz for Newsday, October
4, 1992
Deborah, Golda and Me by Letty Cottin Pogrebin for Moment , February
1992
After Great Pain by Diane Cole for Newsday , January 5, 1992
Women in Time and Torah by E. Bekovits for Congress Monthly ,
January 1992
Hilary's Trial by J. Groner for Newsday , May 1991
Latecomers by A.Yarrow for Newsday , Feruary 1991
Crisis and Covenant by Alan Berger, Congress Monthly, February
1988
Women and Religion in America , vol. 3 edited by Reuther and Keller,
Women's Review of Books, February 1987
A Leak in the Heart by Faye Moskowitz in Congress Monthly , Nov-Dec
1985
Norton Anthology of Literature by Women edited by Gilbert and Grubar
in
The Bookwoman , Summer 1985
Damaged Goods by Thomas Friedmann, Congress Monthly , July-August
1985
Magazine, journal and newspaper articles
"Recycled" New York Daily News , August 1997
"Taking the Cure," Tikkun , March-April 1995
"It's All Relative," Woman's Day , April 1994
"Whiplash: It's No Laughing Matter," Woman's Day , Jan. 1994
"Water Play," Child , 1993
"L'Chaim," Woman's Day , Dec. 1993
"Taking the Teens," Woman's Day, Dec. 1993
"Simplify Your Life," Woman's Day, Sept. 1992
"Kids Pitch in," Woman's Day , Sept. 1992
"Children Who Follow, Children Who Lead," Redbook , October
1992
" Get Your Kids to Pitch In," Woman's Day , September 1992
"Fight Right," Woman's Day , September 1992
"A Healing Hand: The Children's Health Fund," Woman's Day ,
February 18, 1992
"Joy Again," Woman's Day , December 17, 1991
"Magic from Madison Avenue" Child , March 1991; Syndicated
by the New York Times
"Giovanni's Last Chance" Scholastic Voice , November 1990
"Why Free Play Has Become Passe" Child , August 1990
"Floor Time" Child , June/July 1990
"Loving Care: Just What the Doctor Ordered," Traditions Spring
1990
"Should Your Son Play with Dolls--and Your Daughter with Hot Wheels?"
Child , Jan-Feb 1990
"How Many Toys Does a Kid Really Need?" Child , Nov-Dec 1989
"The TV Advantage," Child, May-June 1989
"Confessions of a Former Nature Girl," Woman's Day, January
1989
"Color Me Convinced," Woman's Day, October 1987
"What Mother Told Me About Kids," Bride's , June/July 1987
"Illusions Inspired by a First House," New York Times , June
7, 1987
"Keep the Change," Woman's Day , June 1987
"Classy Mothering," Woman's Day, May 1987
"Cranberries," New Haven Advocate , November 1986
"In Praise of Snow White," Woman's Day, August, 1986
"Mother of the Bride," Woman's Day , May 1986
"Taking Women's Diaries Seriously," Women's Diaries, Spring
1985
"Ode to a House with Naked Windows," Syracuse Herald Journal,
Feb. 1985
"Sour Cherries," New York Times, May 9, 1984; Choice Listening
Spring 1984
"Aspects of Transformation," IWWG Symposium Monograph #3, July
1983
"On Inspiration, or Off It," IWWG Symposium Monograph #2, July
1982
Fiction
"People Suspect She Is Either On Drugs Or A Member of A Cult," Sun Dog: The Southeast Review, Fall 1987"Chanuka Clock," Woman's Day, December 3, 1985
"Panama Hat," Woman's Day, September 1985
"The Mothers' Goose," Woman's Day, May 1985; Talking Book Magazine of the Month (Library of Congress)
"Naming," Wooster Review, Fall 1984
"Birds: Life After College," Classes (Sarah Lawrence Alumni Publication) Spring 1983
"Epistle from Sister Deirdre," Croton Review, Spring 1982
"Get me to a Nunnery," Moment, December 1981
"Brothers Musser," Face of the Sage, Fall 1980
Honors
2004: Brandeis University Grinspoon Fellow
2000 AJPA Simon Rockower Award , Honorable Mention of the Noah Bee Award for
Excellence in Editorial Writing Sh'ma 1999
1994-95 CLAL Dorot Fellowship
1991-92 National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Literature (non-fiction
writing)
1990 Words on Fire : nominated for the National Jewish Book Award in
Jewish Thought
1987 Finalist: Florida State University Short Story Contest
1983 Performing Arts Repertory Theater (NYC) award for contributions to young
people's theater
1982 Colgate University Research Council Grant for performances of Anne Sexton's
"Transformations" in U.S. and Israel , co-sponsored by U.S. Embassy
in Israel
1982 CAPS Playlending library
Consulting
Religion and Ethics Newseekly (PBS) Consultant in Judaism, healing
and spirituality (Spring-Fall 2000)
"Avodah: Jewish Ceremonial Art" Consultant for the development and
evaluation of a traveling exhibit sponsored by the University of Southern California
(June 25, 2000)
CLAL-The National Jewish center for Learning and Leadership: Consultant in Jewish
ritual practices , Editing of the "Sacred Day series" (Spring-Fall
2000)
"Kach Yadi" advisor to Hadassah National Organization project in Jewish
Healing and Friendship (Fall 2000)
Beliefnet.com columnist
Assistant Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: esa3p@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6711
Fax: 434-924-3741
Education
Ph.D., Yale University, 1998
M. Phil., Yale University, 1993
M.A., Yale University, 1991
B.A., Haverford College, 1989
Fellowships
2004-2005 Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Fellowship
Research Interests
In her research, Elizabeth Alexander explores literary questions of how the Talmud makes its meaning. Her current book-length project investigates the impact of oral transmission on the way traditions are received and understood. Other interests include articulating that which is aesthetic in talmudic argumentation and tracing the history of the rabbinic use of metaphors of biological reproduction to describe processes of cultural reproduction.
During her recent sabbatical, she completed five chapters of a new book, to be entitled "Between Man and Woman: The Development of Gender in Rabbinic Law."
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
RELJ 203 Introduction to Judaic Traditions
RELJ 256 Great Books in the Jewish Tradition
RELJ 331 Law in Judaism
RELJ 343 Women in Classical Jewish Sources
RELJ 383 Introduction to Talmud
RELJ 505 Judaism in Antiquity
RELJ 522 Seminar in Rabbinic Literature
RELG 537 Orality, Tradition and Religion
Recent Projects
"Transmitting Mishnah: The Shaping Influence of oral Tradition," forthcoming from Cambridge University Press, February 2006.
"The Orality of Rabbinic Writing," Cambridge Companion to Rabbinic Literature, eds. Martin S. Jaffee and Charlotte Fonrobert, Cambridge Univerity Press, forthcoming.
"Casuistic Elements in Mishnaic Law: Examples from Tractate Shavuot," Jewish Studies Quarterly 10:3 (2003), 189-243.
"Art, Argument and Ambiguity in the Talmud: Conflicting Conceptions of the Evil Impulse in b. Sukkah 51b-52a," Hebrew Union College Annual 73:97-132.
"The Impact of Feminism on Rabbinic Studies" (in Jews and Gender: The Challenge to Hierarchy, Oxford University Press, 2000).
"The Fixing of the Oral Mishnah and the Displacement of Meaning" (in Oral Tradition, 1999).
William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor
Department of Religious Studies
Contact Information
Email: rlw2w@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-6709
Fax: 434-977-7344
Education
Spertus College of Judaica (Modern Hebrew, 1975-1976)
University of Heidelberg, post-doctoral research New Testament (1963-1964)
Ph.D., University of Chicago, 1963, History of Christianity
M.A., Univeristy of Chicago, 1961
B.D., Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, 1960
Washington University, St. Louis, 1958-1960 (completed courses for M.A. in Philosophy)
Tulane University, Summer, 1957, 1959 (Philosophy)
B.A., Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri, 1957
Concordia College, Austin, Texas, 1955-1957
Research Interests
The History of Christianity and the history of Christian thought. Relations between Christians and Jews in the ancient world. The land of Israel as a holy land for Christians. The relations between Christians and Jews as the land of Israel became a Christian land in the Byzantine period.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
RELJ 203 Introduction to Judaic Traditions
RELG 400 Majors Seminar in Religious Studies
Recent Projects
Seek His Face Always: The Pattern of Early Christian Thought (Yale University Press: 2002)
Sociology
Sociology Department
Contact Information
530 Cabell Hall
P.O. Box 400766
Charlottesville, VA 22904
E-mail: jko3k@virginia.edu
Phone: (434) 924-3526
Fax: (434) 924-7028
Research Interests
While he has published on a wide variety of topics, his interests focus particularly on collective memory, critical theory, transitional justice, and postwar Germany.
Current Projects
- The Collective Memory Reader (with Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi and Daniel Levy). Forthcoming, Oxford University Press, 2008.
- Sins of the Fathers: Governing Memory in the Federal Republic of Germany, 1949-1995. Forthcoming, Chicago Studies in the Practices of Meaning, University of Chicago Press.
Two book projects based on translations and critical editions of materials surrounding the Frankfurt Group Experiment are currently supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Collaborative Award (with Andrew J. Perrin):
- Theodor Adorno: Guilt and Defense.
- Before the Public Sphere: The Frankfurt School, Public Opinion, and the Group Experiment of 1955.
Publications
Books
- The Politics of Regret: On Collective Memory and Historical Responsibility, Routledge, 2007
- In the House of the Hangman: The Agonies of German Defeat,1943-1949, University of Chicago Press, 2005
- States of Memory: Continuities, Conflicts, and Transformations in National Retrospection,Edited Volume, Duke University Press, 2003.
Selected Publications
- "Collective Memory and Nonpublic Opinion: An Historical Note on Methodological Controversy about a Political Problem." Symbolic Interaction, February 2007.
- "The Guilt of Nations?" Ethics and International Affairs, Fall 2003: 109-117.
- "Social Memory Studies: From 'Collective Memory' to the Historical Sociology of Mnemonic Practices," (with Joyce Robbins). Annual Review of Sociology 24, 1998: 105-140.
Spanish
Professor
Department of Spanish
Contact Information
Office: apw@virginia.edu
Telephone: 434-924-4647
Fax: 434-924-7160
Education
Ph.D. University of Illinois
B.A & M.A. University of California, Berkeley
Research Interests
The focus of Alison Weber�s research is culture and religion in early modern Spain. She has published widely on gender and spirituality, female monasticism, the Inquisition, and heterodox religious movements in Spain. A current research topic deals with the rise of anti-converso sentiment (conversos were Jewish converts to Christianity and their descendants) among the Jesuits and its impact on Jesuit spirituality.
Recent Projects
Approaches to Teaching Teresa of Avila and the Spanish Mystics, ed. Alison Weber. New York: Modern Language Association, forthcoming."Gender and Mysticism." Cambridge Companion to Christian Mysticism. Ed. Amy Hollywood and Patricia Beckman. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming.
Courses taught in Jewish Studies
Spanish 425/525 "The Inquisition in Spain and Latin America."