Jewish StudiesProgram

Biography:

My work is anchored in post-1900 American and Jewish American literature and culture, and the major focus of my current research is an analysis of identity and intellectuality in literature and literary scholarship.

My most recent book is The Impossible Jew: Identity and the Reconstruction of Jewish American Literature (2015). I am also the author of The Power of Negative Thinking: Cynicism and the History of Modern American Literature (2009). And since 2011, I have been the editor of Studies in American Jewish Literature, a journal published by Penn State Press.

I regularly teach undergraduate courses on Jewish American literature, American literature, ethnic literature, critical reading, and American comedy. At the graduate level, I’ve recently taught seminars in American modernism, Jewish American literature, The New York Intellectuals and Intellectual Theory, and the 20th century American novel.

Recent Courses

• J ST/ENGL 132: Jewish American Literature
  J ST/ENGL 427: Topics in Jewish American Literature: Post-Holocaust Literature
  J ST/ENGL 427: Topics in Jewish American Literature: Jewish American Film