STUDENT WORK

Graduate Students explore topics ranging from archival photos of Harry Houdini to medical practices in Iran

Michal Calo (English) organized a graduate workshop on the Harry Ransom Center’s Jewish collections, which was led by Instructional Services Coordinator Julia O’Keefe. Graduate students with a wide range of research interests attended to observe and examine a wonderfully versatile assemblage of materials, from Brian Walton’s Biblia sacra polyglotta, to photos of Harry Houdini; from setdesigns to portraits; from the Harlem Renaissance to The Fiddler on the Roof; from Einstein to Fannie Hurst. A testament to the breadth and depth of Jewish Studies as a field, the workshop offered an opportunity for graduate students to come together, exchange ideas, and explore archival materials.

Isabelle S. Headrick (History) presented “Iranian Conditions: Health Problems and Medical Practices in the Voices of the Staff of the Alliance Israélite Universelle, 1900-1940” at the annual conference of the Association for Jewish Studies in Boston in December. This paper is now a forthcoming article in Iranian Studies She will be presenting “The Merchant of Frenchness: Networks of Learning in the Alliance Israélite Universelle in Iran” in June 2023 at a workshop in Mainz, Germany called “European History Across Boundaries.”

Karine Macarez (French and Italian) received the enrichment activity funds from the Walther Fellowship for a research trip at the Lorraine Beitler Library (UPenn) during spring break. Her research focuses on popular imagery during the Dreyfus affair, looking at postcards and trading cards. She also received the 2023 Walther excellence award in French Studies from the French and Italian department.

Tyler Moser (Middle Eastern Studies) presented two papers at November’s Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting in Denver, CO. Both papers dealt with the study of the Hebrew Bible, with one focusing on the Eden Narrative (Genesis 2–3) and the other analyzing a specific linguistic phenomenon, called Serial Verbs, within historical narrative. He was also awarded the 2023 Gorgias Press Book Grant.

Schusterman Center. His presentation was entitled “Uncovering Nakedness in Leviticus 18 and 20: A Case of Revision through Introduction in Biblical Legal Material.” He also gave papers at the annual meetings of the Southwest Commission on Religious Studies (“Never Gonna Give You Up: Using an Old Script for New Purposes”) and the American Oriental Society (“A Reconstruction of T-stems in ProtoSemitic”).

Undergraduate students spearhead Jewish organizations on campus

Mia Hay was recently named as one of the 2023-2024 Aaron Scholars. They are immensely proud of the community built this year in the Jewish Studies Undergraduate Student Association and look forward to their final year with the Schusterman Center next year.

academic areas, including being the founder and president of Atidna International: the first and only campus-based, joint Jewish/Israeli and Arab/Palestinian peace initiative pursuing a dialogue of anything and everything pertaining to Israel/ Palestine. Elijah has also pursued onthe-ground Israeli-Palestinian peace work in Gush Etzion (West Bank) by

Jewish Studies Internship Program Scholarship from the Aaron Excellence Endowment

Daniel Chayet, Mia Hay, Maggie Huggins, Mateo A. Rivera Osuna, Yash Purohit, Audrey Ratliff, Belle Walston, Madeline Young

Michael Leff (Middle Eastern Studies) has been awarded an Israel Studies Travel Fellowship for summer 2024. He will use this opportunity to participate in the excavation of Tel Shimron, which was once a major international trading hub of the southern Levant. Leff aims to enrich his understanding of material culture and develop a more holistic understanding of the southern Levant’s development during the Late Bronze and early Iron Ages.

Tyler Moser presents a paper at Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting. Credit: Jonathan Kaplan.

John Mellison (Middle Eastern Studies) gave a presentation at the Society of Biblical Literature’s annual meeting that was generously supported by an Appleman Fellowship from the

Elijah Demetrios Kahlenberg a Jewish Studies major pursuing the Israel studies route, completed his first full year leading Atidna International, a first-of-its-kind grassroots, campusbased peace organization uniting Jews/ Israelis and Arab/Palestinians to pursue a dialogue on anything/everything pertaining to Israel and Palestine. He likewise authored multiple publications this year on the subject of IsraeliPalestinian peace building, which were published in The Times of Israel, Israel Policy Forum, and International Policy Digest. He also founded the university’s first-ever Sephardic Student Association to explore Sephardi culture and history.

Child of Two Genocides: From Holocaust to Reservation in my Parents’ Two Americas Dr. David Treuer

Bestselling author David Treuer is Ojibwe from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize, two Minnesota Book Awards, and fellowships from the NEH, Bush Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. His most recent book The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present was a New York Times bestseller, a National Book Award finalist, a Minnesota Book Prize winner, a California Book Prize winner, shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and a Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist. He divides his time between his home on the Leech Lake Reservation and Los Angeles, where he is a Professor of English at USC. The son of Robert Treuer, an Austrian Jew and Holocaust survivor, and Margaret Seelye Treuer, a tribal court judge, David Treuer grew up on Leech Lake Reservation.

Can the Poetic Imagination Save Jerusalem from Itself? Dr. Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi

Based on her recently-published volume, Figuring Jerusalem: Politics and Poetics in the Sacred Center, Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi will talk about how a more “literal,” and literary, reading of the Hebrew Bible can save Jerusalem from war and Abraham’s sons from mutual slaughter.

November 5, 2023

5:00-6:00 pm

Texas Union Theater