|
|
July 27, 2001/Av 7, 5761, Vol. 53, No.42
ASU expands Hebrew program
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Shai Ginsburg, right, is the newest Jewish Studies professor at Arizona State University. He is pictured with Jack Kugelmass, director of ASU Jewish Studies Program, and Sheila Schwartz.
Photo courtesy of ASU Dept. of Jewish Studies
|
A strong dose of Israeli culture and literature comes to the Valley this fall with the hiring of a new professor in the Department of Jewish Studies at Arizona State University.
Shai Ginsburg, a native of Beersheba, Israel, has been hired as the Jess Schwartz Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature.
Ginsburg, who recently earned his Ph.D. in comparative literature from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, will teach "Advanced Modern Hebrew," which will serve as an upper-level language course, as well as an introductory Hebrew literature course. Additionally, he will teach a humanities course, "Hebrew Literature in Translation: The Hebrew Novel in the 1980s and 1990s," which will focus on the study of Israeli literature and culture through translations of recent novels originally published in Hebrew.
Ginsburg, 33, says he looks forward to coming to ASU and teaching in an area that reflects his own interest and research.
"I have a big interest in Israeli literature and culture and its relation with the political culture in Israel and with Zionist ideology in general," which he says is the main focus of his research.
"I'm very much invested in exploring the ways in which (culture) and politics and ideology and media are interwoven within an Israeli context," he says.
Ginsburg's education includes a bachelor's degree in comparative literature and philosophy, and a master's degree in comparative literature from Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Ginsburg also studied film at Tel Aviv University as part of his master's degree studies.
While at the University of Michigan, he completed his dissertation, "Trapped in Language: Nation, Space and Subject in Hebrew Literature, Hebrew Literary Criticism and Jewish National Ideologies."
Prior teaching experience includes English composition and literature courses at the University of Michigan.
As a child, Ginsburg attended integrated schools in Beersheba - with students of all ethnicities, including American, European and Arab backgrounds. At that time, there was a push toward integrated education in Israel, and while other cities struggled with the social and ethnic differences among their students, Ginsburg says the same issues did not exist in Beersheba. He explains that a policy of integration was implemented in Beersheba in 1948, at the time of Israel's foundation, and therefore the culturally diverse educational system was already in place.
"The ethnic background did not matter in my school. What mattered more was the academic environment," says Ginsburg. "I gravitated more toward the people in the academic division, but many of my friends were from different social and ethnic backgrounds."
Ginsburg says that his time of military service was also an experience in diversity. "Part of the (Israeli Army's) ideology is to serve as the melting pot of Israeli society," he explains.
He noticed a distinct change in the ethnic diversity of his contemporaries when he went to the university in Jerusalem, where he says only 11 percent of the student body comes from non-European backgrounds.
"There's a sharp distinction between what happened in the schools in my hometown and the reality of the Israeli academia," he says.
Jack Kugelmass, director of the ASU Jewish Studies Program, says there was a need in the community to augment Jewish Studies offerings in the program.
"I felt strongly that we were ready to expand the Hebrew program at ASU - that a strong Hebrew program would pave the way for adding Yiddish while providing the foundation for students to pursue Jewish Studies in a more concerted way," he explains. "The need is there for training teachers at Jewish schools, so a good hire in this area would serve the community as well as the university."
Kugelmass says that Ginsburg is bringing to ASU some 200 books for the Hebrew collection at Hayden Library, and more importantly, the "likelihood of rising quickly to national prominence as a scholar. I have no doubt that he will add significantly to the national standing of our program."
For information on taking either of Ginsburg's courses at ASU, visit any registrar on ASU Main Campus, Tempe. To register by phone, call Sun Dial 480-350-1500. For further information, call the Jewish Studies Program at 480-727-6906, or visit the Web site at www.asu.edu/clas/jewishstudies.
|
