Dr. Karin Berkman

Unit
Literature
Email
karin.berkman@biu.ac.il
    Fields of Interest

    Irish literature; South African poetry during apartheid and post-apartheid; Post-colonialism and literary theory; Race and gender in American and British poetry.

    CV

    EDUCATION

    2017

    Ph.D., English Literature

    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

    Dissertation:                                    

    “The Poetics of Memory in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney”

    1987

    M.A., English Language and Literature

    University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Thesis:

    “The Haunter and the Haunted: A Study of Memory and Detachment in the Poetry of Thomas Hardy”

    Granted with distinction 

    1982

     

    B.A. Honours, English Language and Literature

    University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

    Granted with Distinction 

     

    1979-1981

     

    B.A. English Literature

    Granted with Distinction

     

    RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

     

    2017-2018

     

    Postdoctoral Researcher, European Research Council Project: “Apartheid- The Global Itinerary: South African Cultural Formations in Transnational Circulation 1948-1990.”

     

    TEACHING EXPERIENCE

     

    2020-2021

     

    Teaching Fellow

    Department of English Literature and Linguistics

    Bar-Ilan University

    Teaching Fellow

    Department of English

    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

     

    2012-2016

     

    Teaching Assistant

    Department. of English

    The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

     

    2000-2017

     

    Adjunct Lecturer

    Department of Library and Information Science, Diploma of Library and Information Science.  M. ED Library and Information Science, David Yellin College

     

    CONFERENCE PAPERS

     

    2021

    “‘We took new stock of one another’ Tracy K Smith, Afrofuturism and Covid-19.”

    Conference on the Study of English Literatures in Israel, February 1.

     

     

    2020

    “Migration”

    Conference on the Study of English Literatures in Israel, Beer Sheva, February 3.

     

     

    2019

    “Reading the Canon: Black South African Poets and the Colonial Curriculum.” Language and Education in Asymmetrical Contexts: Between Teaching, Text, and Pedagogy, The Hebrew University, June 27.

     

    2018

    "Mandela's Earth: Literary Celebrity and the Figure of Mandela in Wole Soyinka's Nobel Prize Address and Poetry” Celebrity and Protest in Africa and in the Anti-Apartheid Struggle, University of Copenhagen, October 29-31.

     

     

    2018

    “The Language Question” Keywords in African Studies Conference. Ben Gurion University. June 4-5.

     

     

    2016

    “‘A Rapture and an Ache’: Gerard Manley Hopkins’ influence on the poetics of Seamus Heaney.” Hopkins: The Jerusalem Conference, May 15-18.

     

    2016

    “Poetic and Political Accountability in the Poetry of Seamus Heaney" Journeys Conference, Department of Comparative Literature, The Hebrew University.

     

    2014

    “'Writers and Righters': Political and Poetic Activism in Seamus Heaney's 'The Flight Path.'”  “The “Good” Book”: Graduate Symposium at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, April 27.

     

     

    2014

    “The Dying Animal: the representation of the body of the parent in the elegies of Seamus Heaney and Margaret Atwood.” Graduate Students’ Conference. The Hebrew University, March 19.

     

     

    2013

    “Heaney's elegies: a consideration of “Casualty.” Graduate Students’ Conference. The Hebrew University.

     

     

    AWARDS

     

    2013

    Dr. Gisela Gross and Edward Gross Doctoral Fellowship for Literature Research in the Department of English Language and Literature, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

     

    1981

     

    Faculty of Arts Silver Medalist.

    A.A. Bradlow Merit Scholarship for English Studies.

     

     

       
       
       
       
       
       
       

     

     

    Courses

    RECENT COURSES

     

     

    2021

    Irish Literature

    Academic Writing

     

     

    2020

    South African Literature, 1948-1994

     

    2020

    American Poetry and Political Extremity: From the Harlem Renaissance to 9/11

     

    2016

     

    Critical Theory

     

    Publications

    PUBLICATIONS

    Journal Articles

     

    2020

    "Literary Celebrity and Political Activism: Wole Soyinka’s Nobel Prize Lecture and the Anti-Apartheid Struggle." Critical Arts 

     

     

    2020

    "Translation and Untranslatability in the Poetry of Dennis Brutus and Keorapetse Kgositsile." Scrutiny2

     

    2020

    "Remember Sharpeville': Radical Commemoration in the Poetry of the Exiled South African Poets, Dennis Brutus and Keorapetse Kgositsile.” English in Africa

     

    Book Chapter

     

    2020

    "South African Homecomings." Nachexil/ Post-Exile. De Gruyter

    Last Updated Date : 21/08/2022