Allison Schachter Curriculum Vitae May 15, 2012 Jewish Studies Program Department of English Vanderbilt University allison.schachter@vanderbilt.edu 615-343-3186 EDUCATION Ph.D. in Comparative Literature, University of California Berkeley, 2006 Dissertation: Illusions of Home: The Shifting Landscape of Eastern Europe in Hebrew and Yiddish Literature B.A. in Comparative Literature with Honors, Stanford University, 1996 PROFESSIONAL APPOINTMENTS Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and English fall 2006-present HONORS AND AWARDS Vanderbilt, Research Scholar Grant, Summer Stipend 2012 Simon Dubnow Institute Fellowship 2012 Vanderbilt Research Scholars Grant 2009-2010 National Endowment for Humanities (NEH) Summer Stipend, 2008 Geographies of Jewish Culture: Hebrew and Yiddish Modernism in New York. Workshop for Early Career Faculty in Jewish Studies, 2007 American Academy for Jewish Research and the Frankel Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Michigan. National Foundation for Jewish Culture, Dissertation Fellowship 2005-2006 Newhouse Fellowship, University of California, Berkeley 2001, 2003, 2006 Foreign Language and Areas Studies (FLAS) Summer Fellowship, 2000 Columbia University/YIVO Institute for Jewish Research Fulbright Fellowship, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 1997-1998 Phi Beta Kappa, Stanford University 1996 BOOKS Diasporic Modernisms: Hebrew and Yiddish Literature in the Twentieth Century, Oxford University Press, 2012. Gender, Secularism and Jewish Modernity (in progress). 1
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES Orientalism, Secularism, and the Crisis of Hebrew Literature: Re-reading Leah Goldberg s Avedot. Comparative Literature. Accepted for publication. 35-page manuscript. Modernist Indexicality: The Language of Gender, Race, and Domesticity in Hebrew and Yiddish Modernism. MLQ 72.4 (2011): 493-520. A Lily among Bullfrogs: Dahlia Ravikovitch in the Field of Hebrew Poetry. Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History 28.3 (2008): 310-334. Dovid Bergelson and the Landscape of Yiddish Modernism. East European Jewish Affairs 38.1 (2008): 7-19. The Shtetl and the City: The Origins of Modern Jewish Nostalgia in Shloyme reb khayims and Ba-yamim ha-hem. Jewish Social Studies 12.3 (2006): 73-94. BOOK REVIEWS AND ESSAYS Book Review of Anita Norich s Discovering Exile and Jonathan Freedman s Klezmer America for American Literature 81.3 (September 2009): 635-637. Language: A Yidisher Kop. Haaretz (English Edition), April 2, 2007. Review of Hana Wirth-Nesher s Call It English: The Languages of Jewish American Literature. A Dutch Author Relishes the Spectacle. The Forward, October 29, 2004. Review of Arnon Grunberg s Phantom Pain and The Story of My Baldness. Hovering Between the Fantastic Mundane. The Forward, March 12, 2004. Review of David Grossman s Someone to Run With. The Dead Speak. The Forward, November 28, 2003. Review of the operatic and filmic adaptation of Death of Klinghoffer. OTHER PUBLICATIONS Jewish Women as Industrious Earners. Sh ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility, (December 2008). Reprinted online in JBOOKS http://www.jbooks.com/interviews/index/ip_schachter.htm ARTICLES IN PROGRESS Novel-Reading, Marriage Plots, and Secular Desire: From Abraham Cahan to Sholem Aleichem. 33-page manuscript, submitted for consideration. 2
INVITED PRESENTATIONS Secularism in Hebrew and Yiddish, University of Toronto, to be presented October 18, 2012. The Afterlife of Hebrew and Yiddish Modernism in Postwar New York, University of Indiana, Bloomington, October 28, 2011. The Gendered Address of Jewish Modernism, Symposium on Jewish Modernism, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, December 9-10, 2010. Creating Svive: Jewish Modernisms in New York, 1960-1974, Corob Symposium on Yiddish Culture, University of Oxford, May 25, 2010. Yiddish and the Aesthetics of Diaspora in Yosef Chaim Brenner s Sh khol ve-khishalon, Columbia University, March 7, 2010. Resexualizing Jewish Modernity: Gender and Jewish Modernism in the Work of Dovid Bergelson and Dvora Baron, Yiddish and the Symphony of Nations, University of California, Berkeley, September 15-16, 2008. Gender and the Eastern European Jewish Experience in Modernist Form, Georgetown University, Program in Jewish Civilization, March 29, 2007. Language Pangs, or Reading Hebrew in Yiddish, Reflections: A Conference Honoring Chana Kronfeld, University of California, Berkeley, March 26, 2007. CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS: 2012 Modernist Studies Association, Las Vegas, NV. Seminar Co-Organizer, Multilingualism and the Transnational Circuit of Modernism, to be held October 18-21. 2012 Secularization and Religion, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Hebrew Culture, invited participant Duke University. 2012 Modern Language Association, Seattle, WA. Special session organizer on Modernism and International Language: Esperanto, Yiddish, and Translatese. Paper: Yiddish, Internationalism, and the Politics of Diaspora. 2011 Association for Jewish Studies, Washington D.C. Jewish Women and the Literary Practices of Secular Modernity. 2011 Association for Jewish Studies, Washington D.C. Roundtable organizer and participant, Jewish Literature/World Literature. 3
2011 Modernist Studies Association, Buffalo, NY. Participant in seminar on Reception, Circulation, and Consumption. Paper: The Afterlife of Diasporic Modernism in Postwar New York: Reading Kadia Molodowsky and Gabriel Preil in Svive. 2011 National Association of Professors of Hebrew, University Maryland, College Park. Seminar co-organizer on Hebrew Yiddish Literary Relations. Paper: Diasporic Modernism in Two Acts, 1926 and 1968. 2011 Leah Goldberg, 100 Years, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Tel Aviv, Israel. Literary Departures: Leah Goldberg, Avedot, and European Hebrew. 2011 American Comparative Literature Association, Vancouver, Canada. Diaspora and the World: The Jewish PEN Club and Its Aftermath. 2011 Modern Language Association, Los Angeles, CA. Between Warsaw and New York: Kadya Moldowsky and the Circulation of Modernist Yiddish Poetry. 2010 Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA. Leah Goldberg and the Gender of Jewish Modernism. 2010 Modernist Studies Association, Victoria Island, Canada. Participant in seminar on Diaspora, Migration, and Modernism. Paper: Diasporic Modernisms. 2009 National Association of Professors of Hebrew, London, England. Brenner at Sea: Transporting the Hebrew Novel and Nation. 2009 American Comparative Literature Association, Boston, MA. Diaspora Against the Grain: Jewish Modernisms in the World. 2008 Association for Jewish Studies, Washington D.C. Session organizer on The Gender of Jewish Modernity. Paper: A Woman's Place in Modernity: Masculine and Feminine Space in Hebrew and Yiddish Short Fiction. 2008 Modernist Studies Association, Nashville, TN. Session organizer on The Geography of Jewish Modernisms. Paper: Beyond Diaspora: Language, Territory, and Jewish Modernism. 2007 Modern Language Association, Chicago, IL. Maids, Brides, and Whores: Gendered Metaphors of Jewish Urban Space. 2006 Association for Jewish Studies, San Diego, CA. A Yellow Lily Among Bullfrogs: Leah Goldberg in Dahlia Ravikovitch s Poetic Corpus. 4
2005 Modern Language Association, Washington D.C. Rethinking Language and Territory in Hebrew Literary Historiography. 2005 Association for Jewish Studies, Washington D.C. Theorizing Jewish Literary History: The Case of Hebrew and Yiddish. 2005 Mendel Friedman Conference in Yiddish Studies, Oxford University. Allegories of the Shtetl: Dovid Bergelson, Yiddish Modernism, and Jewish Literary Centers. 2005 National Association of Professors of Hebrew, Stanford University. Gender and Geography: The Terrain of Eastern Europe in Leah Goldberg s Ve-hu ha-or. 2004 Association for Jewish Studies, Chicago, IL. The Novel as Found Object in the Works of Dovid Bergelson and Yosef Chaim Brenner. 2004 The Bay Area Academic Consortium, San Francisco, CA. The Shtetl and Other Metaphors of Literary Geography in Hebrew and Yiddish Literature. 2004 On the Borders of Yiddishland, 2 nd Annual Berkeley Yiddish Conference, University of California, Berkeley. Cities of Lost Pasts: How Urban Yiddish Writers Dreamed the Shtetl. 2003 Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA. Panel organizer on Images and Icons of Modernity in Modern Yiddish Culture. Paper: A Modern Encounter: S.Y. Abramovitsh's and the Emergence of Jewish Modernism. 2003 American Comparative Literature Association, Cal State, San Marcos. The Aesthetics of Devastation and Rebirth: Yiddish Modernism and the Revolution. 2003 Annual Berkeley Yiddish Conference, University of California, Berkeley. Ambivalent Revolution, Dovid Bergelson and the Representation of Yiddish Literary Centers. 2003 Association for Jewish Studies, Boston, MA. Witnesses of Literary History: Rethinking the Role of Territory in Diasporic Jewish Culture. COURSES AND SEMINARS TAUGHT JS 115F Gender, Sexuality, and Desire in Jewish literature JS 135W Introduction to Hebrew Literature JS 235W Hebrew Literature in Translation JS 254 Jewish Literary Centers JS 248W Comparative Jewish Storytelling ENG 280 Workshop in English and History: Jews in the Modern City ENG 288 Jewish American Literature ENG 273 Modernism, Memory, and Literature 5
ENG 272 ENG 235 ENG 355 Picture It: Photography, Memory and Literature World Literature Graduate Seminar: Literary Geographies VANDERBILT GRADUATE STUDENTS PhD Committee, Elizabeth Barnett, Department of English PhD Committee, Meredith Hammons, Graduate Department of Religion Masters Committee, Tamar Fox, Department of English (graduated 2007) UNDERGRADUATE THESIS SUPERVISED Molly Levine, May 2011 ACADEMIC SERVICE Department of English Undergraduate Studies Committee 2011- Teaching Mentor, 2007, 2009, 2011 Jewish Studies Program Speakers Committee Chair, 2011-present Advisory Committee 2006-present Search Committee, Jewish Rabbinics, 2009 Curriculum Advisory Committee, 2006-2009 Graduate Admission Committee, 2006-present Library Representative, 2007-2009 University Service Faculty Advisory Board of the Student Honor Council, 2008-2009 Vanderbilt Honor s Scholarship Interviewer, 2007-2008 Advisory Committee, Max Kade Center for European and German Studies, 2006-2008 EDITORIAL SERVICE Reader, Blackwell Encyclopedia of the Novel Reader, Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women s Studies and Gender Issues Reader, Comparative Literature Reader, U. T. Austin Press PROFESSIONAL SERVICE Referee, 2008 National Endowment for Humanities, Summer Stipend Competition Conference Committee, National Association of Professors of Hebrew, 2011 COMMUNITY SERVICE Speaker and Discussant, Sholem Aleichem: Laughing through Darkness, Nashville Jewish Film Festival, Belcourt Theater, November 3, 2011. Speaker and Discussant, Waltz with Bashir, FLiCX, Belcourt Theater, January 30, 2009. 6
Speaker and Discussant, Dear Mr. Waldman, Nashville Film Festival and Nashville Jewish Film Festival Green Hills Cinemas, April 24, 2008. The Language of Nature in Hebrew Poetry, lecture to the West End Synagogue, January 19, 2008. Dvora Baron, Jewish Women in Hebrew and Yiddish Literature, lecture to the West End Synagogue, Nashville, TN, January 20, 2007. 7