Ofra Amihay, PhD

The Anna Smith Fine Lecturer in Jewish Studies

Program in Jewish Studies, Rice University

E-mail: ofra.amihay@gmail.com
Homepage: ofraamihay.wordpress.com

EDUCATION
PhD, Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies, New York University, 2014
MA (Magna cum Laude), Department of Literature, Tel Aviv University, 2009
BA, Program in Jewish Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2005

LANGUAGE SKILLS

Fluent: Hebrew; English

Reading: German, Spanish, French
Basic Familiarity: Arabic; Yiddish; Ladino
Currently learning: Mandarin

PROFESSIONAL & RESEARCH APPOINTMENTS

The Anna Smith Fine Lecturer in Jewish Studies, Program in Jewish Studies, Rice University,
2023-2025
Full-time Lecturer of Hebrew language and literature, Department of Religious Studies, Affiliate
in Comparative Literature, University of California, Santa Barbara, 2016-21
Exhibition Curator, “Text and the City,” Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, fall 2015
Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Jewish Civilization, Georgetown University, 2014-16
Visiting Lecturer, Department of English, Lawrence University, 2013-14
Intern, Department of Photography, Princeton University Art Museum, summer 2013
Scholar in Residence, Museum of Contemporary Art, Zagreb, summer 2012
Hebrew Instructor, Department of Hebrew & Judaic Studies, New York University, 2008-09
Research Assistant, Digitization project of the Jewish Oral Traditions Research Center, Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, 2004

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 FELLOWSHIPS & AWARDS
The Israel Institute Postdoctoral Fellowship, 2014-16
The Franz Rosenzweig Minerva Research Center Doctoral Fellowship, 2011
New York University, Henry H. MacCraken Award (Fellowship & Stipend), 2007-11
Tel Aviv University, J. Wiener and S. Pnueli Excellence Award, 2007
Tel Aviv University, Ignatz Bubis Memorial Scholarship Fund in Jewish Studies, 2006

TEACHING AND RESEARCH FIELDS

Teaching: Comparative literature, Israeli literature, Jewish American literature, photography,
comics, graphic novels, children’s literature, Hebrew language

Research: Text and image, Hebrew literature, graphic novels, photography, children’s
literature, LGBTQ, gender identity, minor literature

PUBLICATIONS
Books
The People of the Book and the Camera: Photography in the Hebrew Novel. Syracuse UP,
2022.

Text and the City: Text in Croatian Urban Photography from the 1930s to Present. Zagreb
Museum of Contemporary Art, 2015.

Ofra Amihay and Lauren Walsh, eds., The Future of Text and Image: Collected Essays on
Literary and Visual Conjunctures, with an introduction by W. J. T. Mitchell & an
afterword by Marianne Hirsch. Cambridge Scholars, 2012.

Articles & Reviews

“The Bent Head and the Portrait: The Theme of Photography in Israeli-Palestinian Literature.”
Politics and Minor Literatures: Transcultural Interventions in Deleuze and Guattari’s
Account of Minor Literature, edited by Osman Nemli and Mukasa Mubirumusoke, Brill
(forthcoming).

“Urban Revelation in Paul Madonna’s Post-secular Comics.” Sacred Texts and Comics:
Religion, Faith, and Graphic Narratives, edited by Assaf Gamzou and Ken Koltun-
Fromm, University Press of Mississippi, 2018, pp. 215-31.

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“Take this Waltz, Take this Photo: Photography and Holocaust Memory in Israeli Graphic
Novels.” Jewish Film & New Media 5.2 (2017): 161-98.

“Red Diapers, Pink Stories: Color Photography and Self-Outing in Jewish Women’s Comics.”
Image and Narrative 16.2 (2015) 42-64.

Review of Karen Grumberg, Place and Ideology in Contemporary Hebrew Literature (Syracuse
UP, 2011), for the Journal of Jewish Identities 6.1 (2013) :84-86.

“Passing under Separation: Comics Representations of the Holocaust and the Berlin Wall.”
Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 4.2 (2013) :278-96.

“Immigwriting: Photographs as Migratory Aesthetics in the Modern Hebrew Novel.” The Future
of Text and Image, edited by Ofra Amihay and Lauren Walsh, Cambridge Scholars, 2012,
pp. 131-66.
“With Her Own Hands: The Feminine Responsibility for the Aqedah in David Grossman’s To the
End of the Land.” Teoryah uviqoret 38-39 (2011): 316-33 (Hebrew).

“A Candle of Freedom, a Candle of Labor, or the Candle of Judah: Lea Goldberg’s Jewish
Holiday Poems for Children.” Prooftexts 28.1 (2008): 28-52.

“The Wild Things are Wilde Chayes: Childhood in the Brooklyn Shtetl in the Background of
Maurice Sendak’s Work.” Davqa 2 (2007): 47-49 (Hebrew).

“The Deception: Annotated Biblical Play (Gen. 38).” Al hapereq 20 (2004): 130-51 (Hebrew).

CONFERENCES & PRESENTATIONS

“The Life of Sarah, Rachel & Leah Goldberg: Israeli Feminine Literary Lineage in Light of the
Hayey Sarah Parasha,” Congregation Brith Shalom (Houston, November 10, 2023).

“Israeli Literature in the Diaspora: A Conversation between Shelly Oria and Ofra Amihay,” Israel
In Literature: Rice University Program in Jewish Studies Fall Series at the JCC (Houston,
October 16, 2023).

“Israeli Children’s Literature: Prophets and Loss,” Israel In Literature: Rice University Program
in Jewish Studies Fall Series at the JCC (Houston, October 11, 2023).

“A Conversation between Amir Eshel and Ofra Amihay about Her New Book The People of the
Book and the Camera.” NAPH Series: Conversations with Friends Who Are Also Writers,
(Online, March 6, 2023).

“My Mother (Tongue) is at Work: Arabic in Hebrew Literature.” Peking University (Online, May
7, 2021)

“The Bent Head and the Photo: Photography in Hebrew Novels by Arab Authors.” The
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 American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Annual Meeting (Los Angeles, March
29-April 1, 2018).

“Memory, Trauma, and Dual Identity in Comics,” Guest Lecture for Trauma, (Post)Memory,
Historiography (UC Santa Barbara, Comparative Literature 113, August 24, 2017).
“From the Great Depression to the Big Recession: Text in American Photography.” The American
Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Annual Meeting (Utrecht, the Netherlands,
July 6-9, 2017).
“Spirituality and Solitude in Paul Madonna’s All Over Coffee.” Comics and the Sacred,
Symposium at Haverford College (May 5-6, 2016).

“Photography and Holocaust Memory in Israeli Graphic Novels.” Binghamton University

(December 8, 2015); Tulane University (March 9, 2016).

“Of Mice and Walls: Representations of the Holocaust and the Berlin Wall in Comics.”
Northeast MLA Annual Convention (New Brunswick, April 7, 2011).

“Politics of Instability: On Textual and Visual Hybridity in Alison Bechdel and Ilana Zeffren’s
Queer Comics.” Make Zines: A Zine and Indie Comics Making Workshop at the NYU
Queer Comics Series (New York, April 15, 2010).

“Fraternity of Metaphors: Rancière, Sebald, and the Novelistic Democracy.” The American
Comparative Literature Association (ACLA) Annual Meeting (New Orleans, April 4, 2010).

Moderator and panelist, “Conversation with Israeli Author Michal Govrin in Honor of Her New
Book Hold On to the Sun.” The Bronfman Center for Jewish Student Life at NYU (New
York, October 19, 2010).

“Zionism, Post-Zionism, or Neo-Zionism? Ideological Visions in the Works of Michal Govrin and
Ronit Matalon” (a joint presentation with Prof. Lital Levy, Princeton University). Zionism
at the Turn of 21st Century: Historical Perspectives, Future Prospects. Princeton
University (Princeton, October 25, 2009).

“A Third World, an Obscure Twilight Zone: The Role of Photographs in Ronit Matalon’s The One
Facing Us” (in Hebrew). The International Annual Conference of the National Association
of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH, London, July 9, 2009).

Organizer and Chair of panel entitled: “The Future of Text and Image.” Northeast MLA Annual
Convention (Boston, February 28, 2009).

“Higglety Pigglety Pop! Or, There Must Be a Picture Book for Adults.” Northeast MLA Annual
Convention (Baltimore, March 3, 2007).

“Put Me in the Zoo: Absence of Captivity in Zoo Depiction in Texts for Children.” University of
Florida Annual English Graduate Organization Conference (Gainesville, Nov. 3, 2006).

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PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
The Association for Jewish Studies (AJS)
The American Comparative Literature Association (ACLA)
The Modern Language Association of America (MLA)
National Association of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH)
Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)

COURSES CREATED & TAUGHT

Introduction to Literary Theory (intensive summer course; remote)
Modern Hebrew (first and second years; in-person and remote)
Introduction to Modern Hebrew literature (Upper Division; in-person and remote)
From Superman to Spiegelman: The Jewish Graphic Novel (Upper Division; in-person and remote)
Photography and Religion (Upper Division)
The Israeli Novel (Upper Division)
Gender and Body in Jewish Texts (Upper Division)
Biblical Narratives in Modern Literature (Upper Division)
Literary Analysis (Lower Division)
Contemporary Jewish American Literature (Upper Division)

MENTORING & UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Students Mentored
Noah Fleishman, undergraduate, Dept of History, UCSB, mentoring towards Honors Senior
Thesis, “Carter’s Middle Eastern Policy and the Egypt-Israel Peace Agreement”
Rita Silverman, undergraduate, Dept of Theatre and Dance, UCSB, Honors section mentoring
Rachel Feldman, PhD candidate, Program of Comparative Literature, UCSB, mentoring for
comps. exam on Holocaust literature and prospectus on Hebrew Children’s Literature
Sebaah Hamad, PhD candidate, Program of Comparative Literature, UCSB, mentoring towards
comprehensive exam on Israeli literature and towards thesis prospectus on representations
of place and body in the writings of Palestinian, Israeli, and Black female authors

Committee Member
Jewish Studies Minor, Department of Religious Studies, UC Santa Barbara (2016-2021)

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SCHOLARLY SERVICE
Reader & Evaluator for the following peer-review journals: Jewish Studies Quarterly; Feminist
Formations; Nashim - The Gender and Jewish Women's Studies Journal; Journal of
Graphic Novels and Comics; Jewish Film & New Media