Mokhtarian, C.V. (July, 2015) 1 JASON SION MOKHTARIAN Jewish Studies Program Department of Religious Studies Indiana University, Bloomington jmokhtar@indiana.edu ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS 2011- Assistant Professor, Indiana University, Religious Studies and Jewish Studies Adjunct in History, Central Eurasian Studies, Ancient Studies, Islamic Studies EDUCATION 2011 Ph.D., Early and Late Antique Judaism, UCLA Thesis: Rabbinic Portrayals of Persia: A Study of Babylonian Rabbinic Culture in its Sasanian Context Exams: Rabbinics, Second Temple Judaism, Ancient Iranian Religions, Hebrew, Aramaic (Babylonian Talmud), Middle Persian 2007 M.A., Ancient Iranian Studies, UCLA Exams: Old Persian, Middle Persian, New Persian, Sasanian History 2006 Lady Davis Visiting Research Fellow, Hebrew University of Jerusalem 2004 M.A. in Divinity (History of Judaism), University of Chicago Divinity School 2001 B.A./A.M. in English and Religious Studies, University of Chicago RESEARCH INTERESTS Jewish studies and Iranian studies: Rabbinics, Talmud, Second Temple Judaism, ancient Iranian history and religions, Iranian philology, Jewish magical bowls, comparative religion, history of the Jews of Persia LANGUAGES Hebrew, Aramaic (Jewish Babylonian), Old Persian, Middle Persian, New Persian, Avestan, Arabic, French, German I. PUBLICATIONS BOOK Rabbis, Sorcerers, Kings, and Priests: The Culture of the Talmud in Ancient Iran (Oakland: University of California Press, 2015)
Mokhtarian, C.V. (July, 2015) 2 JOURNAL ARTICLES Excommunication in Jewish Babylonia: Comparing Bavli Mo ed Qaṭan 14b-17b and the Aramaic Bowl Spells in a Sasanian Context. Harvard Theological Review 108, No. 4 (Oct., 2015) [f/c] The Boundaries of an Infidel in Zoroastrianism: A Middle Persian Term of Otherness for Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Iranian Studies 48 (2015): 99-115 Authority and Empire in Sasanian Babylonia: The Rabbis and King Shapur in Dialogue. Jewish Studies Quarterly 19 (2012): 148-180 BOOK CHAPTER Rabbinic Depictions of the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great: The Babylonian Esther Midrash (bmeg. 10b-17a) in its Iranian Context, in The Talmud in its Iranian Context, ed. Carol Bakhos and M. Rahim Shayegan. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2010, 112-139 EDITED VOLUME With David Bennett. Religious Trends in Late Ancient and Early Islamic Iran, special edition of Iranian Studies 48, No. 1 (2015): 1-115 BOOK REVIEWS Review of Behind the Academic Curtain: How to Find Success and Happiness with a PhD, by Frank F. Furstenberg (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013). Teaching Theology and Religion (March, 2015) Review of Shoshannat Yaakov: Jewish and Iranian Studies in Honor of Yaakov Elman, edited by S. Secunda and S. Fine (Boston: Brill, 2012). Zion 79 (2014): 438-42 [Hebrew] Review of The Open Past: Subjectivity and Remembering in the Talmud, by Sergey Dolgopolski (New York: Fordham University Press, 2012). H-Net Reviews (April, 2014) Review of Egyptian Cultural Icons in Midrash, by Rivka Ulmer (New York: Walter de Gruyter, 2009). Journal for the Study of Judaism in the Persian, Hellenistic and Roman Period 42 (2011): 437 MAGAZINES Translations of the Talmud in Iran Today, Association for Jewish Studies Perspectives (Fall, 2015 edition: The Translation Issue) [f/c]
Mokhtarian, C.V. (July, 2015) 3 WORK IN PROGRESS BOOKS Family, Disease, and the Supernatural in the Aramaic Bowl Spells from Late Antique Mesopotamia A Unique Tolerance: Ancient Religions, Modern Politics, and the Formation of Iranian- Jewish Identity ARTICLES Polythetic Definitions of Babylonian Judaism, in Religious Studies and Rabbinics (commissioned, under review) Jews and Others in the Second Temple Period, in The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Jews and Judaism in the Late Ancient Period (commissioned, in preparation) Language and Communication in Sasanian Mesopotamia: the case of the Iranian Loanwords in Talmudic Aggadot, in The Aggada of the Babylonian Talmud and its Cultural World (commissioned, in preparation) Disease and Bodily Injury in the Aramaic Bowl Spells from Late Antique Mesopotamia The Cyrus Cylinder, Political Theology, and the Formation of Irano-Judaica II. LECTURES INVITED LECTURES Jewish Religious Traditions and Sacred Texts. World Religions in Greater Indianapolis, National Endowment for the Humanities program (Oct., 2015) Language and Communication in Sasanian Mesopotamia. New York University conference, The Aggada of the Babylonian Talmud and its Cultural World (June, 2015) May there be Healing from Heaven : Magic and the Human Body in the Jewish Aramaic Bowls. University of Michigan, Midwest Ancient Judaism colloquium, Ancient Jewish Imaginaries (April, 2014) The Talmud in Ancient Iran: The Rabbis and Persian Priests in a Judicial Context. University of California, Irvine, co-sponsored by the Center for Persian Studies and Culture and the Program in Jewish Studies (March, 2013) Jewish Culture in Ancient Iran: From Ezra the Scribe to the Bavli. UCLA Fowler Museum conference, Light and Shadows: The Story of Iranian Jews (Jan., 2013)
Mokhtarian, C.V. (July, 2015) 4 The Babylonian Talmud in its Iranian Setting. UCLA Center for Jewish Studies workshop (Oct., 2009) The Sages and King Shapur in Dialogue. Princeton University graduate student workshop, Rabbis and Others in Conversation (May, 2009) Rabbinic Depictions of the Achaemenid King Cyrus the Great: The Babylonian Esther Midrash (bmeg. 10b-17a) in its Iranian Context. UCLA conference, The Talmud in its Iranian Context (May, 2007) ANNUAL CONFERENCE PAPERS The Methods and Sources for the Study of the Talmud in Its Sasanian Context. Association for Jewish Studies (2015) Disease and Bodily Injury in the Jewish Aramaic Bowls from Sasanian Mesopotamia. American Academy of Religion, Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity (2014) Excommunication and Rabbinic Authority in Late Sasanian Culture. Association for Jewish Studies (2013) If the haughty cease to exist, the magian priests shall cease to exist : Babylonian Rabbinic Rhetorical Engagement with the Persian Empire. American Academy of Religion (2012) Empire and Authority in Sasanian Babylonia: The sociocultural ties between the Rabbis and Zoroastrian Priests. Society of Biblical Literature (2011) The Two Halves of Divinity: Deuteronomy Rabbah 11.4, Bavli Sanhedrin 39a, and the Portrayals of Persia in Midrash. Society of Biblical Literature (2009) TALKS AT INDIANA UNIVERSITY The Early Islamic Context of Pahlavi Sources on Jews and Judaism, Indiana University Islamic Studies conference, Mapping the Landscapes of Islamic Studies (Nov., 2014) Respondent, Indiana University Jewish Studies Program graduate student conference, Genesis to Yesterday: Memory, Representation, and Jewish Identity (Feb., 2014) The Babylonian Talmud between Persia and Rome: Rabbis, Magians, and Magicians in Context. Indiana University Ancient Studies colloquium (March, 2013) Pahlavi Representations of the Other and the Rise of Islam. Indiana University Islamic Studies conference, Mapping the Landscapes of Islamic Studies (Nov., 2012)
Mokhtarian, C.V. (July, 2015) 5 III. TEACHING EXPERIENCE Indiana University, Jewish Studies Program and Dept. of Religious Studies Introduction to the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible Introduction to Jewish History: From the Bible to Spanish Expulsion Introduction to Judaism Sacred Books of the Jews Rabbinic Judaism: Literature and Beliefs Torah, Temple, and God in Ancient Judaism Jews, Christians, and Others in Late Antiquity Zoroastrian Hermeneutics IV. AWARDS AND FELLOWSHIPS Indiana University CAHI grant, with Kevin Jaques and Jeremy Schott, Holistic Approaches to the Study of Early Islam and the Late Antique World (2015-16) Foundation for Jewish Culture, Dissertation Fellowship in Jewish Studies, 2010-2011 Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture, Dissertation Scholarship, 2010-2011 UCLA Graduate Division, Dissertation Year Fellowship, 2010-2011 UCLA Center for Jewish Studies, Summer Roter Research Fellowship, 2010 UCLA Graduate Division, Lenart Travel Fellowship, 2009-2010 UCLA Regents Stipend, 2009-2010 Lady Davis Graduate Research Fellowship, Hebrew University, 2005-2006 UCLA Center for Near Eastern Studies, Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowships (Arabic, Persian, Hebrew), 2004-2008 V. SERVICE Indiana University, Jewish Studies Program 2014-15 Search committee, Biblical Hebrew 2013-14 Undergraduate curriculum assessment committee 2012-14 Undergraduate affairs committee 2011-12 Undergraduate and Graduate fellowship committee Indiana University, Department of Religious Studies 2013-15 Graduate studies committee 2013-14 Committee on minor in International school 2013-14 Search committee, Religion in the Americas 2012-13 Search committee, Hebrew Bible 2011-13 B.A. Honor s Thesis (2)
Mokhtarian, C.V. (July, 2015) 6 2011-12 Community and Engagement Committee 2011-12 Fulbright Evaluation Committee Professional Service 2014- Steering committee, American Academy of Religion unit, Traditions of Eastern Late Antiquity 2012- Peer-reviewer: Jewish Quarterly Review, Iranian Studies, University of California Press