About the Center

The Center for Judaic & Middle Eastern Studies at UConn, Stamford, offers credit courses within the academic curriculum in the Humanities, as well as non-credit outreach programs for the community at large in all areas of Judaic culture, literature, and history, from antiquity to modern times, Israel, and Middle Eastern literature and politics, and in interfaith studies. Now celebrating its twenty-seventh anniversary, the Center has created a learning community around itself which gathers for intellectual pursuits and discussions of scholarly and contemporary issues. The Center has been recognized for its innovative programs in the areas of traditional academic education and particularly outreach projects. Since its inception, the Center has enjoyed broad community recognition and has been financially supported by individuals, foundations, corporate gifts, and matching grants.

The Center is a recipient agency of the United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien and is also supported by UJA/Federation of Westport/Weston/Wilton/Norwalk.

About Nehama Aschkenasy, Director of the Center for Judaic and Middle Eastern Studies

Education

B.A. in English and Judaic Studies, Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel; M.A.: English Literature, Bar Ilan University, Israel; Ph.D. Comparative Literature and English, New York University, 1977

Areas of Expertise

Hebraic literature, Bible as Literature, Women in Hebraic and Western literature, Comparative literary theory, Literature and Religion, Literature and Politics.

Contact Information

Office/Hours: Stamford Campus, Room 365
Phone: 203-251-8435 / 9525
E-mail: nehama.aschkenasy@uconn.edu

Download Nehama Aschkenasy's CV (Acrobat PDF)

Bio:

Nehama Aschkenasy earned a PhD in Comparative Literature from New York University in 1977. She also holds degrees in Judaic Studies and English literature from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Founding Director of the Center for Judaic and Middle Eastern Studies at UConn, Stamford (in 1981), Dr. Aschkenasy is Professor of Comparative Literary and Cultural Studies, teaching courses in Israeli and Middle Eastern literature, Bible, Women’s Studies, and English Literature at the Stamford campus and graduate courses in literature and politics and literature and religion at the Storrs campus.

Dr. Aschkenasy has published four books: Eve’s Journey: Feminine Images in Hebraic Literary Tradition, a Choice selection and winner of the Present Tense / AJC Literary Award; Woman at the Window: Biblical Tales of Oppression and Escape; Biblical Patterns in Modern Literature; and the dedicated volume, The Bible's Presence in Contemporary Hebrew Literature and Culture (which she edited for the AJS Review, 28:1, 2004, Cambridge UP), with invited articles from senior scholars, to which she contributed a methodological Introduction and an article.

Aschkenasy has also contributed numerous chapters to scholarly books and published a variety of scholalry essays in Judaic Studies, Women's Studies, and Comparative Literature in publications such as Comparative Drama, Modern Language Studies (where she served as an Advisory Editor for over a decade), SYMPOSIUM, Journal of Modern Jewish Studies (where she currently serves as an Advisory Editor), Prooftexts, Journal of Biblical Literature, the AJS Review (where she served as Associate Editor for sixteen years), the Melton Journal, Hebrew Higher Education, Judaism, Midstream, Lilith, Tradition, and Hadassah Magazine. She also served as guest scholar and distinguished lecturer in many academic institutions and community study retreats in the US, Canada, and Europe. She has also frequently given commentary on Middle Eastern politics and culture in the Stamford, CT area television stations and published Op-Ed pieces in local papers.