Israel Studies at UT By Dr. Karen Grumberg, Israel Studies Faculty Coordinator at SCJS, and Director, Center for Middle Eastern Studies Despite the pandemic, the horizons of Israel Studies at UT have continued to expand. Not only were we able to invite people from outside Austin, Texas, and the US to join our events through Zoom, but the events themselves, along with the accomplishments of our students, also reflect the transnational currents informing our conceptualization of Israel. Over the last year, we heard Dr. Sophia Stamatopoulou-Robbins on waste infrastructure in Palestine, Dr. David Barak-Gorodetsky on American Zionism, and Dr. Yehudit Henshke on the origins of the Mizrahi Sociolect in Israel. We heard comedian Yair Nitzani link the Jewish humor of Eastern Europe and New York to Israeli humor; we viewed the gender-bending art of the Berlin-based Israeli artist Roey Victoria Heifetz, who discussed cultural cross-currents in Israel and Germany; and we chatted with folks from a Houston-based theater company that had performed Anat Gov’s Hebrew play “Oh My God” in English translation. The student activities supported by Israel Studies demonstrate the same commitment to understanding Israel in a broader context. Though we had to redirect the Israel Studies Travel Fellowship toward research, we were able to award several fellowships. Two Dual Language Fellowships were awarded to students for their commitment to the study of both Hebrew and Arabic: Hannah Salmon (Ethnomusicology) and Garrett Shuffield (Middle Eastern
Studies). Two Travel/Research fellowships were awarded to students whose research contributes to Israel Studies: Tara Ginnane (Government), for her comparison of absentee voting politics in Israel and elsewhere; and Robyn Croft (SpeechLanguage Pathology), for her consideration of cross-cultural differences among people who stutter in Israel and the US. The ongoing research of UT faculty working on Israel has also benefitted from the support of Israel Studies at UT. For the first time this spring, we launched a competition for the Israel Studies Faculty Summer Research Stipend. For this award, our committee selected Dr. Amy Weinreb (Senior Lecturer, SCJS) and Dr. Jason Lustig (Israel Institute Teaching Fellow, SCJS).
Weinreb's proposed project, “The Essential Israel Studies Teaching Guide: Global, Virtual, and Ethnographic Approaches,” draws on her decade of expertise teaching Israel Studies and her in-depth interviews of Israel Studies program directors and faculty worldwide. It offers strategies and pedagogical innovations for approaching Israel Studies through an academic lens. Lustig's proposed project, “Fake Jews: Trust and the Contested Epistemologies of Jewishness,” offers “a history of modern Jewish life as a history of trust.” Global in scope, the project poses timely questions regarding truth and disinformation in the context of ascertaining who is or isn’t a Jew, and examines the way trust has informed Jewish history.
OUR STUDENT FUNDING Israel Studies Dual Language Fellowships 2020-2021: $2,000 Israel Studies Travel Fellowship 2020-2021: $3,000 Israel Studies Essay Award 2020-2021:$2,000, supported by the Consulate of Israel in Houston, TX Israel Studies Graduate Fellowship 2020-2021 Recipient: Benjamin Rangell, Middle Eastern Studies 2021-2022 Recipient: Atalia Israeli-Nevo, Anthropology Israel Studies Supplementary Graduate Fellowship 2020-2021 Recipient 2020-2021: Libby Hilliard, Middle Eastern Studies
