CJS FACULTY
Menachem Mor, University of Haifa
Schusterman Visiting Israeli Professor for 2011-12
Ph.D., Hebrew University in Jerusalem
Specializing in ancient Jewish history during the Second Temple Period, Dr. Mor's research is devoted to the political history of the period and the social structure of the population of the Land of Israel. Focusing on the history of the Second Temple, Mishnaic, and Talmudic periods, Mor has written many scholarly articles and books on the many diverse religious and ethno-cultural groups that lived in the Land of Israel during these times. His book From Samaria to Shechem: The Samaritan Sect in the Ancient Period deals with the Samairtans and their role in the ancient world. He is also the author of The Bar-Kochva Revolt--Its Extent and Effect, a comprehensive (and classic) study of the Jewish Revolts in the Ancient world.
He has also published bibliographical collections (with Uriel Rappaport) covering the extensive works on the Second temple period and numerous articles in the field of Ancient Jewish History.
Dr. Mor has been active in the University of Haifa's academic administration, having served as a member or chairman of a series of councils and committees over the past decade. He also headed the Center of Research of Eretz Israel Studies and Its Yishuv of Yad Ben-Zvi and the University of Haifa. Outside the University, he is a member of the American Academy of Religion and the Society of Biblical Literature, as well as a member of the Board of the Journal of Jewish History and a member of the World Organization of Jewish Studies.
Jeanne Abrams, Director Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society and Professor
Penrose Library, Ph.D.,University of Colorado, Boulder
jabrams@du.edu 303.871.3016 and .2977 (Penrose) Web Page
Jeanne's article, "On the Road Again: Consumptives Traveling for Health in the American West, 1840-1925" appeared in the Fall 2010 issue of the peer-reviewed journal Great Plains Quarterly. Additionally, her article "In Search of Health and Wealth: Denver's Early Jewish Community" was just published in Denver Inside and Out (Colorado History, vol. 16, 2011), Denver: History Colorado, the Colorado Historical Society. Jeanne is currently completing an essay on merchant prince Benjamin Altman, founder in 1865 of what would become New York City's B. Altman & Company, one of the premier department stores in America. It will be published as part of a book on German immigrants in America by the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C.
In November, 2011, Jeanne will be doing a guest lecture on "Jewish Women Pioneering the Frontier Trail in the America West" for The Denver Campus. In December, 2011, Jeanne will be leading a salon for DU AHSS titled "There's No Business Like Show Business: The Influence of American Jewish Broadway Composers on American Music."
Sari Havis, Lecturer in Hebrew
M.A., University of Kansas
Prof. Havis, coordinator of our new Hebrew Language Program for DU, took on a new leadership role with the Hebrew SAT College Board. She will be a key member of the Test Development Committee of the SAT Subject Test in Modern Hebrew.
Sari has just returned from her Dr. Irwin E. Vinnik Fellowship visit to Israel, where she formed two collaborative projects with Sapir College in Sderot and Seminar HaKibbutzim in Tel Aviv for her Hebrew and film class students. The projects will facilitate direct interaction between DU students and their Israeli counterparts, and they will reflect and expand the CJS spirit of sharing and improving globalized social efforts. In addition, Sari attended the Jerusalem International Film Festival and formed new contacts with Israeli film producers and distributors which will manifest in future activities and will enrich DU's Israeli film collection.
Last October, Sari co-organized a major national Hebrew conference at DU in connection with the The National Middle East Language Resource Center [NMELRC]. Working under Sari's leadership, CJS was proud to sponsor a number of local Denver Jewish Day School teachers as part of this important new Hebrew education event in Denver. Sari also takes on a new team role in NMELRC; she will be a key member of the committee which creates reading and listening exams and assessment items for Hebrew language education.
Sarah Pessin, Director of the Center for Judaic Studies, Emil and Eva Hecht Chair in Judaic Studies and Associate Professor of Philosophy Ph.D., Ohio State University, Columbus.
spessin@du.edu 303.871.7731 (Philosophy) Web Page
Sarah has been working on three invited entries for the new Encyclopedia of the Bible and Its Reception; her entries (on Faith, Free Will, and Face) examine medieval Jewish philosophical engagement with Biblical themes. In January, Sarah presented "Digital Storytelling and Social Justice" as part of a panel on Digital Storytelling and Faith Formation at the International Conference on Digital Religion sponsored by CU Boulder's Center for Media, Religion and Culture. In April, Sarah will present "Shared Jewish and Muslim Philosophical and Theological Perspectives" (April 11) as part of Temple Sinai's Lifelong Jewish Learning series, and she will travel to Seattle to participate in the American Philosophical Association Pacific Division "Author Meets Critics" panel for her colleague Mohammad Azadpur's new book, Reason Unbound: On Spiritual Practice in Islamic Peripatetic Philosophy.
In November, Sarah spoke about about the unique ethical vision of the Holocaust Memorial Social Action Site with a group of scholars from around the world at the Memory & Countermemory conference at Arizona State University. The conversation centered on the unique ethical implications of having the Levinasian idea of "Hineni" at the core of our project as a call to responsible action in the world. She also recently published an essay on the Levinasian possibilities of DU's new memorial in the University of Toronto's Journal for Jewish Thought: http://cjs.utoronto.ca/tjjt/node/28
Sarah delivered a paper on Islamic Philosophy at the American Catholic Philosophical Association meeting. Recently, she hosted 2 philosophy conferences at DU and 3 visiting scholars of Jewish Philosophy. She participated in DU's National Endowment for the Humanities' "Institute for the Digital Humanities," as well as delivered the Convocation address for The Iliff School of Theology on the theme "From the Luminous Heavens to 'The Sleigh Track of the Lost': Life, Wonder, and the Wandering Few."
Adam Rovner, Assistant Professor of English and Jewish Literature
Ph.D., Indiana University, Indiana.
Adam.Rovner@du.edu 303.871.2861
Adam Rovner was a featured presenter at the opening program of an exhibit, "Other Zions," held at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan and curated by YIVO (Institute for Jewish Research). His short documentary, No Land Without Heaven: Isaac Nachman Steinberg and the Freeland League, was screened at the exhibition and is now featured on MyJewishLearning.com. Adam was quoted in press coverage of the exhibit in the Jewish Daily Forward, Jewish Week, and the Dutch magazine, Vrij Nederland.
Adam Rovner continues his research into the intellectual history of Territorialism, the ideological movement to create homelands for persecuted Jews in the first half of the 20th Century. After being awarded a University of Denver Professional Research Opportunity for Faculty (PROF) Grant in summer 2011, Adam conducted archival research on Territorialist activity in Angola.
Adam's article comparing American and Israeli counterfactual novels, "Alternate History: The Case of Nava Semel's
IsraIsland and Michael Chabon's
The Yiddish Policemen's Union," appeared in
Partial Answers: Journal of Literature and the History of Ideas in January 2011. His essay on "Hebrew Literature post-1948" is featured in the forthcoming
Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture.
His most recent publications include "Zions Other Than Zion" and a review of Bread to Eat and Clothes to Wear: Letters from Jewish Migrants.
Alison Schofield, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies
Ph.D., University of Notre Dame, Indiana.
aschofie@du.edu 303.871.2752 (Religious Studies) Web Page
Alison Schofield has been receiving international acclaim for her recently published work in the Dead Sea Scrolls: From Qumran to the Yahad: A New Paradigm of Textual Development for The Community Rule (EJ Brill, 2008). She has also just finished co-editing a forthcoming collection of essays on the Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls and early Judaism in honor of her advisor; the collection is entitled A Teacher for All Generations: Essays in Honor of James C. VanderKam (Brill, 2011). Alison has been recently entrusted with the extensive multi-year project of creating a new translation, edition and commentary on the charter text of the Dead Sea Scrolls, The Community Rule
Recently, Alison delivered a paper and participated on a panel of scholars as part of a plenary session dedicated to discussing the implications of her recent book on the Dead Sea Scrolls, From Qumran to the Yahad: A New Paradigm of Textual Development for The Community Rule (EJ Brill, 2008), alongside the work of esteemed Scrolls scholar, Prof. John J. Collins.
Alison's paper and panel took place at the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament/International Organization for Qumran Studies, held recently in Helsinki, Finland. The panel included five respondents, including archaeologists, sociologists and other text scholars on the Scrolls, who spoke on how their arguments are challenging the entire field of Qumran studies around the critical question, "Who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?"
Jonathan Sciarcon, Assistant Professor of Jewish History
Ph.D., University of California Santa Barbara
Jonathan.Sciarcon@du.edu Sturm 369
Jonathan spent much of the summer conducting archival research on Ottoman Jewish history in the 19th and early 20th centuries at the British National Archives in London, England and several other archives in the UK. This winter, Jonathan will be teaching two new courses. The first is a 3000 level History/Judaic Studies course looking at the history of U.S.-Zionist and U.S.-Israeli relations since 1917. The second is a 2000 level History course comparing social, political, and economic developments in the Ottoman and Meiji (Japan) Empires in the 19th and 20th centuries, which he'll be co-teaching with his colleague Prof. Gibbs in the Department of History. Also, Jonathan's 1000 level Crusades course, which will be taught this Spring, will this year be cross-listed as a Judaic Studies course.
In November, 2010, Jonathan presented a paper at the Middle East Studies Association conference in San Diego on the change from Ottoman to Iraqi identity among Iraq's Jewish communities in the 1920s, and at the same conference also took part in a thematic roundtable discussion dedicated to the question of, "Who is an Arab Jew"?
CJS AFFILIATED FACULTY:
Pamela M. Eisenbaum, Associate Professor of Biblical Studies and Christian Origins
Ph.D., Iliff School of Theology
peisenbaum@iliff.edu 303.765.3167 (Iliff)
Amy Erickson, Instructor of Hebrew Bible, Iliff School of Theology
PhD Candidate, Princeton Theological Seminary
aerick26@du.edu 303.744.1287
Arthur Gilbert, Associate Professor, Korbel School of International Studies
PhD, The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University
argilber@du.edu 303.871.2545
Allison Horsley, Assistant Professor of Dramatic Literature, Department of Theatre
MFA in Dramaturgy and Dramatic Criticism, Yale University
Allison.Horsley@du.edu 303.871.3161 Web Page
Elizabeth Campbell Karlsgodt, Assistant Professor of History
Ph.D., New York University
elizabeth.karlsgodt@du.edu 303.871.2947
Beth Karlsgodt recently gave a lecture for the Humanities Institute discussing the historical roots of today’s disputes by examining shifts in cultural property norms since the Nazi plunder of European art during World War II. This recent history elucidates current social and political trends, including an acute and transnational concern for heritage, variously defined, in our globalizing era.
Lydia Gil Keff, Lecturer, Languages and Literatures
Ph.D., Spanish/Latin American Literature, University of Texas at Austin
Lydia.Gil@du.edu 303.871.7844 Web Page
portfolio.du.edu/lgil2
Lydia recently published an article in the M/MLA Journal: "A Voice to the Scream: Writing the Shoah in Mauricio Rosencof's THE LETTERS THAT NEVER CAME." The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 42.1, (2009): 43-54.
G. Kristian Miccio LL.M, J.S.D. Associate Professor, Sturm College of Law
Fulbright Scholar 2007-2008.
kmiccio@du.edu 303.871.6361
Gregory A. Robbins, Associate Professor, Religious Studies
Ph.D., Duke University.
grobbins@du.edu 303.871.2751 Web Page
Eliana Schonberg, Director of the University Writing Center
University Writing Center, Penrose Library.
Ph.D., English, University of Texas, Austin
Eliana.Schonberg@du.edu 303.871.7431 Web Page
CJS EMERITUS:
Rabbi Stanley M. Wagner, Founding Director, Emeritus
Rabbi Wagner recently co-authored the five-volume “Onkelos on the Torah: Understanding the Bible Text” (Gefen Publishing House, Jerusalem/New York) with Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin. Selected materials from their heavily-annotated work was incorporated into
the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations' new and increasingly popular Shnayim Mikra program, in which each weekly portion of the Torah's current book is studied online aliyah by aliyah. The goal of integrating these materials is to encourage people to study Onkelos and thus to fulfill the obligation of Shnayim Mikra to the fullest.
Rabbi Stanley Wagner has just published a new essay on the work of renowned Bible commentator, Onkelos: "Translation, Midrash, and Commentary Through the Eyes of Onkelos" in The Jewish Bible Quarterly (Volume 38, number 3, 151, July-September 2010), pp. 191-201.
STAFF
Thyria K. Wilson, Archives Specialist/ Assistant to the Director of the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society and Beck Archives,
J.D., M.L.I.S., University of Denver.
twilson@du.edu 303.871.3012 Web Page
Meaghan Burns, Program Development Coordinator
M.A. Education, University of Denver
B.A. English Literature, CU-Boulder
Meaghan.Burns@du.edu 303.871.4633
Jeff Quinlisk, Assistant to the Director
M.P.P Public Policy, University of Denver
B.A. Political Science, University of Denver
Jeff.Quinlisk@du.edu 303.871.3021
