Lynn Davidman (Sociology and Religious Studies) Lynn Davidman joined the departments of Religious Studies and Sociology as the Beren Distinguished Professor of Modern Jewish Studies in the Fall semester of 2008. Lynn received her doctorate from Brandeis University in 1986. She has published three books with major university presses: Tradition in a Rootless World (University of California Press, 1991), which won a National Jewish Book Award; Motherloss (University of Calif Press, 2000); and Feminist Perspectives in Jewish Studies (Yale, 2004), co-edited with Shelly Tenenbaum. Her research has appeared in a variety of prestigious journals such as Sociology of Religion and Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. Lynn serves on the advisory board of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University and is a member of the editorial board for Qualitative Sociology. She comes to KU from Brown University, where she has been a professor of Judaic studies, American civilization and gender studies.
Joseph E. Steinmetz, Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, praises Lynn Davidman as “a foremost scholar in modern Jewish studies whose work intersects the disciplines of sociology, religious studies, Jewish studies, women and gender studies, and race, religion and ethnicity.” She brings her skills and enthusiasm to the rapidly expanding program in Jewish Studies at KU. And as a colleague in the departments of Religious Studies and Sociology, her vision will be instrumental to the development of transdisciplinary tracks in sociology of religion, women and gender at the graduate and undergraduate levels.
Department of Sociology, Fraser Hall, (785) 864-9412, Department of Religious Studies, 204 Smith Hall(785) 864-7255, Email: lynndavidman@ku.edu
Henry Bial (Department of Theatre)
Henry Bial joined the KU faculty in August 2005. His research and teaching specialties include Theatre History and Criticism, Performance Theory, Religious Performance, and Jewish Popular Culture. He holds a PhD in Performance Studies from New York University and a BA in Folklore and Mythology from Harvard University. Dr. Bial is the author of Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen (University of Michigan Press, 2005), the editor of The Performance Studies Reader (Routledge, 2004; Second Edition, 2007), and the co-editor (with Carol Martin) of Brecht Sourcebook (Routledge, 2000). He has published articles in Theatre Topics and The Journal of American Drama and Theatre, and reviews in TDR, American Jewish History, Theatre Journal, Theatre Research International, and The Journal of American Ethnic History. He serves on the editorial boards of Theatre Topics, The Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and The Baylor Journal of Theatre and Performance.
Department of Theatre, 302 Murphy Hall, 864-2767, hbial@ku.edu
Sergey Dolgopolskii (Religious Studies) holds a Joint Ph.D. in Jewish Studies from UC Berkeley and Graduate Theological Union, and the degree of Doctor of Philosophical Sciences from the Russian Academy of Sciences. He works at the intersection of studies in the Talmud and philosophy. His most recent book is What is Talmud? The Art of Disagreement (Fordam University Press, 2009.) His new book-length project explores relationships between Talmudic, philosophical and rhetorical practices of memory in Late Antiquity. He currently is Assistant Professor of Religious studies and Jewish Studies at KU Lawrence. More information is available at www.people.ku.edu/~sbd.
Department of Religious Studies, 106 Smith Hall, (785) 864-5568, sbd@ku.edu
Cheryl Lester (English and American Studies) is Director of the American Studies Program at The University of Kansas, Associate Professor of English and American Studies, and Courtesy Faculty Member of African and African-American Studies, Editorial Board member of American Studies and author of articles on American literature and critical and cultural theory. With Alice Lieberman, she is the co-editor of the 2003 textbook Social Work Practice with a Difference: Stories, Essays, Cases, and Commentaries. Ongoing projects include a study of William Faulkner and black migration, a co-edited volume of essays on Bowen family systems theory, and research on the history and life of her Jewish family. In 1995, she was an NEH fellow, in 1997 she was a visiting professor at the University of Hong Kong , and in 1998 she was a visiting professor at the University of Gaston-Bergere in St. Louis , Senegal . In 1998, Lester received a Kemper Teaching Award and a Center for Teaching Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. In 2000, she received a Center for Teaching Award for Excellence in Graduate Teaching.
American Studies Program, 213P Bailey, (785) 864-2309, English Department, 3078 Wescoe, (785) 864-2503, chlester@ku.edu
Tamara Leah Falicov (Film and Media Studies)
Associate professor of film studies and has worked at the KU since 1998. Dr. Falicov received her doctorate in Communication from UC San Diego, where she wrote a dissertation on state cultural policy in relation to the contemporary film industry in Argentina. She also received a degree in sociology from UC Berkeley. She received a Fulbright student research award to study the film industry in Buenos Aires, Argentina for the 1997-98 academic year. Professor Falicov’s specialty is Latin American Cinema, with particular focus on the film histories of Argentina and Cuba. Her research has appeared in the following journals: Studies in Latin American Popular Culture, Southern Quarterly, Canadian Journal of Communication, Media, Culture, and Society, Framework, and Film and History. She has authored a chapter on Argentine blockbuster movies for the anthology Movie Blockbusters, edited by Julian Stringer (Routledge, 2003).
Department of Film and Media Studies, 224 Oldfather Studios, (785) 864-1353, tfalicov@ku.edu
M. J. McLendon (English) Assistant Professor, teaches Holocaust literature and American literature. She was awarded the PhD from KU in 1991. She is a member of Holocaust Education Academic Round Table (H.E.A.R.T.), Midwest Center for Holocaust Education, and leads a Holocaust literature book discussion monthly at the Jewish Community Center.
Department of English, 3024 Wescoe Hall, (785) 864-2539, mjm@ku.edu
Renee Perelmutter, (Slavic Languages and Literatures Department) is the newest addition to the Jewish Studies faculty. She completed her Ph.D. at UC Berkeley in 2008 and joined KU as an Assistant Professor in the Fall 2008 semester. Her teaching and research interests are Yiddish and Slavic morphosyntax and pragmatics, general and Jewish folklore, and Jewish culture. One of her most recent articles is "The Language of Dream Reports and Dostoevsky's The Double,” Slavic and East European Journal 52/1.
Slavic Languages & Literatures, 2127 Wescoe, (785) 864-3313, rperel@ku.edu
Rebecca Rovit, (Department of Theatre) Assistant Professor, earned her Ph.D. in Theatre History from Florida State University and an M.A. in German language and literature from the University of Virginia, with a focus on drama. Her teaching interests are Theatre History; Script Analysis; Modern European Drama; German Theatre in the Unified Germany; Theatre and the Holocaust: Jewish Artistic production in Nazi Germany. Her research explores the cultural heritage of the Holocaust (1933-1945), including art produced by prisoner-artists in situ and the role of the performing arts under duress: within Germany's Third Reich, and in ghetto and camp settings. Dr. Rovit is presently working on a book-length historical study on the Jewish Kulturbund theatre and its repertoire in Nazi Germany for Iowa University Press (Studies in Theatre History and Culture).
Department of Theatre, Murphy Hall, Fax: (785) 864-5251, rrovit@ku.edu
Hagith Sivan, (History) Professor (Ph.D. Columbia, 1983; M.A. Yale, 1978) Sivan specializes in Ancient history, Roman history, early Christianity, late antiquity, early medieval history, Judaica, women in antiquity and is the author of Ausoniue of Bordeaus: Genesis of a Gallic Aristocracy (1993); Between Woman, Man and God: A New Interpretation of the Ten Commandments (2004); and Palestine in Late Antiquity (2008).
History Department 3644 Wescoe, (785) 864-9466, dinah01@ku.edu
Molly Zahn, (Religious Studies) Dr. Zahn joined the Religious Studies Department as a lecturer for the fall 2008 semester. She was awarded the PhD in Christianity and Judaism in Antiquity at the University of Notre Dame in 2009. Zahn's dissertation focuses on the interpretation of the Pentateuch in the Dead Sea Scrolls. A monograph based on her dissertation, Rethinking Rewritten Scripture: Composition and Exegesis in the 4QReworked Pentateuch Manuscripts, is forthcoming from Brill. She has published articles on the Temple Scroll and other Qumran texts that rewrite the Pentateuch, as well as on the composition of Exodus 13. Her interests include pentateuchal theory and perceptions of scripture and scriptural authority in early Judaism and Christianity.
Religious Studies Department, 105 Smith Hall, (785) 864-1141, mzahn@ku.edu