Professor Emeritus Susan Handelman
Fields of Interest
rhetoric, Jewish rhetoric, visual rhetoric
performance studies
graphic narrative
pedagogy, critical theory and the teaching of literature
literary criticism and jewish thought
CV
EDUCATION
Ph.D. 1979 State University of New York at Buffalo - English
M.A. 1977 State University of New York at Buffalo - English
1973 Centro Linguistico Dante Alighieri, Florence, Italy
1972 Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College
B.A. 1971 Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts - English
(magna cum laude)
ACADEMIC HONORS/GRANTS/AWARDS
2012 Finalist, Silver Medal, Jewish National Book Award for Make Yourself a Teacher :Rabbinic Tales of Mentors and Disciples
1988 Winner of 24th Translation Culture Prize of Japan for Japanese translation of my The Slayers of Moses: the Emergence of Rabbinic interpretation in Modern Literary Theory
1997-1999 Jerusalem Fellows, Mandel School for Educational Leadership, Jerusalem, Israel
1992 Named one of the "Top Ten" teachers at College Park by the Diamondback Student Newspaper
1991 "Teacher of the Year," Outstanding Teaching Award, University of Maryland Panhellenic Association: 1991
1989-90 Distinguished Scholar-Teacher Award, University of Maryland
1987 Ivry Fellowship, Meyerhoff Center for Jewish Studies (Summer)
1987 Special Research Assignment, College of Arts and Humanities
1982-83 Howard Foundation Fellowship, Brown University
1978-79 Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Dissertation Fellowship
1975-76 University Fellow, State University of New York at Buffalo
1971 Clara French Prize for Literature, Smith College
1970 Phi Beta Kappa, Smith College
ACADEMIC APPOINTMENTS
2009-2010 Visiting Scholar,Department of Communications,Northwestern University
2000-present Professor of English, Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Chair, English Department 2007-2009
1991-2000 Professor of English, University of Maryland
1984-1991 Associate Professor of English, University of Maryland
1979-1984 Assistant Professor of English, University of Maryland
1974-78 Teaching Fellowship, State University of New York at Buffalo
VARIOUS LECTURES
Endowed Lecture Series:
University of Washington, Seattle, the 29th Annual Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectureship in Jewish Studies. Three lectures on “The Mentor/Disciple Relationship in Classical Jewish Thought and Contemporary Literary Theory”
Center for the Study of Cultures, Rice University, NEH Distinguished Visiting Scholar, four seminars and one public lecture on hermeneutics, epistemology, pedagogy and Jewish thought
Others lectures: University of Chicago-- Divinity School, Rutgers Univiersity Center for Jewish Studies, Association for Jewish Studies, Rhetoric Society of America, University of Pennsylvania, Drew University, York University, Johns Hopkins Humanities Center, Smith College, Association for Religion and Intellectual Life, Hebrew Union College, Modern Language Association, Indiana University, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Architecture, University of California at San Diego, U of California at Santa. Barbara, Bryn Mawr College, Louisiana State University, Princeton University, Oberlin College, Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, American Academy of Religion, Georgetown University, Washington Forum on Psychiatry and the Humanities, Yale University, Ohio State University,
Research
Rhetoric, Jewish Rhetoric, Visual Rhetoric,
Literary Criticism and Jewish Thought
Pedagogy and Literary Theory
Courses
Shakespeare in Performance; Contemporary Crtical Theory; History and Theory of Rhetoric; Women and Rhetoric; Graphic Novel; Food and Literature; Critical Thought and the Teaching of Literature; Nineteenth- Century British Literature; Introduction to the Novel; The Bible and Literary Criticism, Literature and Ethics; Spiritual Autobiography; Literature and Religion; Interdisciplinary Program in Gender Studies: Core Course in Gender in Language and Literature,
Publications
PUBLICATIONS
Books
“Make Yourself a Teacher”: Rabbinic Tales of Mentors and Disciples ( Seattle: University of Washington Press,2011) 151 pp. Finalist, Silver Medal, Jewish National Book Award, 2012
Fragments of Redemption: Jewish Thought and Literary Theory in Benjamin, Scholem, and Levinas (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991), 389 pp. **Japanese translation. Tokyo: Hohsei University Press, 2005
The Slayers of Moses: The Emergence of Rabbinic Interpretation in Modern Literary Theory (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1982), 267 pp. ***Translated into Japanese by K. Yamagata (Tokyo: Hohsei University Press, 1987). Winner of 24th Translation Culture Prize of Japan, 1988. Chinese translation in progress,
Co- Editor with Ora Elper “Torah of the Mothers”: Contemporary Jewish Women Read Classical Jewish Texts ( Jerusalem: Urim Press, 2000) 503 pp.
Co-Editor with Jeffrey Saks Wisdom From All My Teachers: Challenges and Initiatives in Contemporary Torah Education (Jerusalem:Urim Press 2003) 395 pp.
Associate Editor with Joseph Smith, Psychiatry and the Humanities, Volume 11, Psychoanalysis and Religion (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990).
Articles:
Forthcoming 2016: "Don't Forget the Potatoes" Imagining God Through Food." In Imagining the Jewish God. Eds Kenneth Koltun-Fromm and Len Kaplan. Graven Images Series. (Lexington Press, 2016), MSS 18 pages.
Entry on "Judaism," Chapter 11 in The Cambridge Companion to Literature and Religion. Ed Susan Felch (Cambridge Univ Press,Spring 2016), 25 pages in galley proof.
Review of Esther Cameron, Western Art and Jewish Presence in the Work of Paul Celan. In B'Or HaTorah: Journal of Science, Life, and Art. (Jerusalem College of Technology-Lev Academic Center) Vol 24. ( Winter 2015).
"Why I Don't Teach 'The Bible as Literature' Anymore." Special Forum on Teaching the Bible as Literature. Journal of Reilgion and Literature 47:1 (Spring 2015): 61-67
“'Is Midrash Comics?': A Fish Story About Graphic Narrative, Visual Rhetoric and Rabbinic Hermeneutics" . Jewish Rhetorics: History, Theory, Practice ed. Janice Fernheimer and Michal Bernard Donals. (Brandeis University Press, 2014): 147-164
“The Philosopher, The Rabbi, and the Rhetorician,” Special issue of College English on “Jewish Rhetoric,” 72.6 ( 2010): 590-607.
“‘Go Down Moses’:Teaching in the New M.A. in Gender Studies Program at Bar-Ilan University.”Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women’s Studies and Gender Studies, Fall, 2002 (5): 213-230.
“‘Knowledge Has a Face’: the Jewish, the Personal, and the Pedagogical.”
Personal Effects: The Social Character of Scholarly Writingin Eds. David Bleich and Deborah Holdstein (Utah State University Press, 2001): 121-144.
“‘Stopping the Heart’: The Spiritual Search of Students and the Challenge to a Professor in an Undergraduate Literature Class” in Religion, Scholarship and Higher Education: Perspectives, Models and Future Prospects. Ed. Andrea Sterk ( Notre Dame University Press, 2001):202-230
“Emunah: The Craft of Faith." The Academy and the Possibility of Belief, ed. M.L. Buley-Meissner (New York: Hampton Press, 2000) :85-104
“Crossing the Void: A Meditation on Postmodern Jewish Theological Renewal.” Reviewing the Covenant:Eugene Borowitz and the Postmodern Renewal of Jewish Theology, Ed. Peter Ochs.(NY: State University of New York Press,2000):173-200
“‘We Cleverly Avoided Talking About God’: Personal and Pedagogical Reflections on Academia and Spirituality.” Courtyard:A Journal of Research and Thought in Jewish Education,.Jewish Theological Seminary 1:1 (1999): 101-120.
“Dear Class.” Essays in Quality Learning:Teachers’ Reflections on Classroom Practice. Ed. Steven Selden (University of Maryland, IBM Total Quality Learning Project, 1998): 17-32
“Women and the Study of the Torah in the Thought of the Lubavitcher Rebbe: A Halakhic Analysis.” Jewish Legal Writings By Women. Eds. Micah Halperin and Channah Safrai (Jerusalem:Urim Press, 1998): 142-177.
“Crossing the Void: A Postmodern Jewish Theology.” Creating the Jewish Future. Eds. Bernard Lightman and Michael Brown (Alta Mira Press/Sage Publishers, 1998): 45-59.
"`Find(ing) Yourself a Teacher': Opening the Discussion on Pedagogy at the Association for Jewish Studies Conference.” Association for Jewish Studies Newsletter, Spring 1995,(45):8-9.
"A Man Apart: The Legacy of The Lubavitcher Rebbe." Crosscurrents: Religion and Intellectual Life (Summer 1995):234-240.
"The Torah of Criticism and the Criticism of Torah: Recuperating the Pedagogical Moment." Journal of Religion, 74:3 (1994): 356-371. Reprinted in ,Interpreting Judaism in a Postmodern Age, ed. Steven Kepnes (New York: New York Univ. Press, 1996): 221-242.
"Emunah: The Craft of Faith." Crosscurrents: Religion and Intellectual Life 42:3 (1992): 293-313.
"Walter Benjamin and the Angel of History." Crosscurrents: Religion and Intellectual Life 41:3 (1992): 344-352.
"Facing the Other: Levinas, Perelman, and Rosenzweig." Religion and Literature 22:2-3 (1990): 61-84. Reprinted in Summoning: The Idea of the Covenant and Literary Theory, ed. Ellen Spolsky (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1993). Reprinted in Divine Aporia:Postmodern Conversations about the Other ed. John C. Hawley (Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2000): 263-287; reprinted in Emmanuel Levinas:Critical Assessments of Leading Philosophers, ed Claire Katz (Routledge, 2005)
"Ending the Cold War: Literary Theory and the Bibliography and Methods Course." Literary Research, 12 (1989): 115-133.
"Parodic Play and Prophetic Reason: Two Interpretations of Interpretation." Poetics Today 9:2 (1988): 396-423. Reprinted in The Rhetoric of Interpretation and the Interpretation of Rhetoric, ed. Paul Hernadi (Durham: Duke University Press, 1989): 143-171.
"The State of Contemporary Literary Criticism and Jewish Studies." Association for Jewish Studies Newsletter, No. 37 (1988): 3-6.
"`Torments of an Ancient Word': Edmond Jabès and the Rabbinic Tradition, in The Sin of the Book: Essays on the Writing of Edmond Jabès, ed. Eric Gould (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1985), 55-91.
"`Everything is in It': Rabbinic Interpretation and Modern Literary Criticism." Judaism 35 (1986): 429-440.
"Jacques Derrida and the Heretic Hermeneutic," in Displacement: New Essays in Post-Structuralist Criticism, ed. Mark Krupnick (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983), pp. 98-132.
"Fragments of the Rock: Modern Literary Theory and the Study of Midrash." Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary Study 5 (l985): 75-95.
"Interpretation as Devotion: Freud's Relation to Rabbinic Hermeneutics." Psychoanalytic Review 68 (1981): 201-218.
"Greek Philosophy and the Overcoming of the Word." Works and Days 1 (1980): 45-69.
"Intimate Distance: The Boundary of Life and Art in To the Lighthouse." International Review of Psychoanalysis 7 (1980): 41-49.
"Timon of Athens: The Rage of Disillusion." American Imago 36 (1979): 45-68. Reprinted in Shakespearean Criticism, Vol. 1, ed. L. Harris (Detroit: Gale Research Company, 1984), 529-31. Reprinted in Signet Edition of Timon of Athens, ed. Maurice Charney (1990) Reprinted in Titus Andronicus and Timon of Athens, ed Sylvan Barnet, Signet Classic Shakespeare ( 2005).
"Freud's Midrash: The Exile of Interpretation." New York Literary Forum 2 (1978): 99-112.
Other
"Putting Women in the Picture: a Personal Account of the Lubavitcher Rebbe's Attitude Towards Feminism," in Rivka Slonim, Bread and Fire: Jewish Women Find God in the Everyday, Jerusalem: Urim , 2008): 343-356
Various popular articles in the Melton Journal for Jewish Research, Jewish Action, Journal of Jewish Communal Service, Sh'ma: A Journal of Jewish Responsibility, The Jewish Observer, The Jewish Home, Wellsprings.
Media
The Stroum Lectures I delivered at the Uinversity of Washington, Seattle may be viewed here.
http://jewdub.org/stroum-lectures-archive/#
http://uwtv.org/watch/16209517/2004
Last Updated Date : 23/05/2022
