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RESEARCH I am currently a doctoral student in the Religious Studies Department at the University of Virginia, in the Theology, Ethics, and Culture Program (TEC), where I focus on Religion and Culture. I was the first Morgenstern Graduate Fellow in Jewish Studies, and my research interests include material religion, ethnographic approaches to religious practice, transgression in contemporary American Jewish communities, and Jewish and Islamic literature. I have also worked as a reader for the Journal of the American Academy of Religion.
Academic Publications: "The Mezuzah: American Judaism and Constructions of Domestic Sacred Space," in American Sanctuary: Understanding Sacred Spaces, ed. Louis P. Nelson, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press (2006), 182-202. "Passover in America," in The Encyclopedia of American Holidays and National Days, ed. Len Travers, Westport, CT: Greenwood Press (2006), 96-111.
Invited Lectures: "Jews, Tattoos, and the Body: Jews with Jewish Tattoos," The University of Virginia Jewish Studies Program (sponsored by the Posen Foundation, Feminism is for Everyone, and the Jewish Education Initiative), 16 April 2009. "Materializing New Jewish Ritual: Jews with Jewish Tattoos," The Twenty-First Annual Klutznick-Harris Symposium on "Rites of Passage: How Today's Jews Celebrate, Commemorate, and Commiserate," Creighton University (Omaha, NE), 27 October 2008. "Comparative
Issues in Jewish and Islamic Women's Literature," Weinstein
Lecture, Washington
& Lee University (Lexington, VA), 30 November 2006.
Conference Papers: "Materializing New Jewish Ritual: Jews with Jewish Tattoos," Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies, 2008 (Washington, DC). "Tattoo Jew: Jewish Tattoos and Jewish-American Identity Construction," American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Study of Judaism Section, 2006 (Washington, DC). "The Mezuzah: American Judaism and Constructions of Domestic Sacred Space," American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Anthropology of Religion Group, 2005 (Philadelphia, PA).
Conference Panels: Panelist, "Jewish Poetry vs. Poetry by Jews," Associated Writing Program Annual Conference, 2009 (Chicago, IL). Chair and Panelist (in absentia), "Nu?: What's new about Jewish poetry?" Associated Writing Programs Annual Conference, 2007 (Atlanta, GA).
Jewish Studies and Material Religion Resources: The MODIYA Project - The Material History of American Religion Project - Index of Articles on Jewish Studies - Jewschool
______________________________________________________________________________________________________ TEACHING I have been teaching Creative Writing, Literature, and Religious Studies since 2000, initially as an instructor the University of Virginia; I have also held positions on the faculties of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and the University of California-Santa Cruz. I am currently on an Assistant Professor of English at Virginia Tech. Courses I teach at VT include undergraduate creative writing workshops, like Introduction to Creative Writing, Creative Writing: Poetry, and the Advanced/Senior Seminar Poetry Workshop. I also teach the MFA Graduate Poetry Workshop, and literature courses including Contemporary Poetry, and Jewish and Muslim Women's Literature. My teaching interests, in addition to creative writing, include 20 and 21st century Contemporary American Poetry and Poetics, Poetry and Performance, Gender and Women's Literature, and Jewish-American Literature.
Selected Teaching Materials:
for my full c.v. (pdf) please click here
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