Dr. Karin Berkman

Unit

Literature

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.

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.

Last Updated Date : 21/08/2022

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