Academics

I was teaching "Rattling the Gender Agenda: Feminist Issues in Israeli Women's Writings," a course designed by Dr. Tsila Ratner, my co-instructor. The position of women has been the subject of Jewish and Israeli women writers since the emergence of modern Hebrew literature. Although marginalized in the literary canon until the 1980s, women writers have provided sharp critiques and insights into women's lives and the social order that governs them. Israeli feminist critics, like their counterparts elsewhere, expose and question the mechanisms of political/social powers and the way in which they construct gender identities. In Israel, feminists face unique challenges combating gender bias and inequality amidst war threats, heightened militarism, and deepening religiousness. We focused on this nexus of women, nation, and conflict, and also explored the Israeli context of issues such as the position of women in the family, women's coming-of-age narratives, and voices of Orthodox women.