Center Faculty

Director

Steven T. Katz, Alvin J. and Shirley Slater Professor in Jewish Holocaust Studies; Director, Elie Wiesel Center for Judaic Studies; and Professor of Religion.
Interests: Jewish thought; Holocaust studies; philosophy of religion; comparative mysticism. (Religion)
judaics@bu.edu

Faculty

Shulamit Ben-Natan, Lecturer in Hebrew. (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures)
shulib@bu.edu

Alejandro F. Botta, Assistant Professor of Hebrew Bible.
Interests: Elephantine papyri, Aramaic-Demotic Interrelationships, The Book of Chronicles, Latin-American Biblical. (School of Theology)
abbotta@bu.edu

Paula Fredriksen, Professor of Religion, William Goodwin Aurelio Professor of the Appreciation of Scripture.
Interests: The social and intellectual history of ancient Christianity from the Late Second Temple period to the fall of the Western Roman Empire; conversion; apocalypticism; Paul and his interpreters; and Jewish/Gentile relations in Late Antiquity. (Religion)
augfred@bu.edu

Abigail Gillman, Assistant Professor of German and Hebrew Convener (division head) of Hebrew;
Interests: German Jewish literature and thought; Austrian literature; modernism; memory (literary, religious, cultural); Biblical and Rabbinic texts; Bible translation; modern Hebrew literature. (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures)
agillman@bu.edu

Nancy Harrowitz, Associate Professor of Italian Convener (division head) of Italian. Interests: Science and literature; fascism; the Holocaust in Italy; the Holocaust in literature and film. (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures)
nharrow@bu.edu

Peter Hawkins, Professor of Religion and Director, The Luce Program in Scripture and Literary Arts.
Interests: The literary “afterlife” of Jewish and Christian scriptures.
psh@bu.edu

Paula Kabalo, Schusterman Visiting Professor in Israel Studies, Lecturer Ben Gurion Research Institute for the Study of Israel and Zionism, Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel
Interests: the link and the conflict between theory, utopia and reality in Ben-Gurlon's social Policy during the first decade of Israel's independence; the connections and relations between the leader and the public; and the call for voluntarism and pioneering and its outcomes.

Jonathan Klawans, Associate Professor of Religion.
Interests: Religious literature of Judaism in late antiquity; impurity and sin as expressed in the Hebrew Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Rabbinic literature and the New Testament; the theological significance of sacrifice in the Hebrew Bible and ancient Judaism. (Religion)
jklawans@bu.edu

Shalva Klement, Lecturer in Hebrew. (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures)
sklement@bu.edu

Deeana Klepper, Assistant Professor of Religion.
Interests: medieval and early modern European religious history; the place of Bible in medieval culture; the social contexts of mysticism; Christian-Jewish relations and other cross-cultural religious encounters; and the history of science. (Religion)
dklepper@bu.edu

Hillel Levine, Professor of Sociology and Religion.
Interests: Holocaust studies; Eastern European Jewish history; American Jewish history and sociology.
hlevine@bu.edu

Diana Lobel, Assistant Professor of Religion.
Interests: Classical and medieval Jewish studies; comparative philosophy; Islamic thought and the Judeo-Arabic tradition; Jewish and Islamic mysticism and philosophy; the impact of Sufi mysticism on Jewish thought. (Religion)
dnlobel@bu.edu

Katheryn Pfisterer Darr, Associate Professor of Hebrew Bible. (School of Theology)
kdarr@bu.edu

Elie Wiesel, University Professor; Andrew W. Mellon Professor in the Humanities; Professor of Philosophy and Religion; awarded Nobel Peace Prize.
Interests: The Holocaust; literature of memory.

Michael Zank, Associate Professor of Religion.
Interests: Philosophy of religion; modern Jewish thought. (Religion)
mzank@bu.edu

Associated Faculty

Alicia Borinsky, University Professor and Professor of Spanish. Literary scholar, fiction writer, and poet. (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures)
borinsky@bu.edu

Charles Dellheim, Chairman, Department of History and Professor of History. Interests: modern European cultural; Jewish culture. (History)
dellheim@bu.edu

Leslie Epstein, Professor of English and Director, Creative Writing Program. Interests: Fiction writing; film criticism. (English)
leslieep@bu.edu

Aaron Garrett, Assistant Professor of Philosophy.
Interests: Early Modern Philosophy; Medieval Philosophy; Aristotelianism. (Philosophy)
garrett@bu.edu

Thomas F. Glick, Professor of History;
Interests: medieval history; history of Spain; the transfer of ideas, institutions, and techniques from the Islamic to the Christian world in the Middle Ages. (History)
tglick@bu.edu

Paul Goldberg, Professor of Geoarchaeology.
Interests: archaeological sites; paleoenvironments; Quaternary landscape evolution in the deserts of Israel and Sinai. (Archaeology)
paulberg@bu.edu

Michael Grodin, Professor of Health Law, Bioethics and Human Rights at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Interests: The relationship of health and human rights; bioethics; the philosophy of psychiatry.
grodin@bu.edu

Neil Hecht, Director, Institute of Jewish Law and Professor of Law.
Interests: Jewish law; evidence; property. (School of Law)
nshecht@bu.edu

Pnina Lahav, Professor of Law.
Interests: Constitutional law; First Amendment jurisprudence; comparative law. (School of Law)
plahav@bu.edu

Richard Landes, Professor of History.
Interests: Medieval history; millennial studies. (History)
rlandes@bu.edu

Jeffrey Mehlman, University Professor and Professor of French. Literary critic and a historian of ideas. (Modern Foreign Languages and Literatures)
jmehlman@bu.edu

David I. Mostofsky, Professor of Psychology.
Interests: the Brain; Behavior; Cognition Program. (Psychology)
dmostof@bu.edu

Rabbi Joseph Polak, Rabbi of the Jewish Community and Director, Boston University Florence and Chafetz Hillel House.
rjp@bu.edu

Sharon Portnoff, Instructor in Writing. BA, St. John's College (Annapolis); EdM, Harvard University; MA, MPhil, PhD, Jewish Theological Seminary.
Interests: Jewish theology and philosophy, Holocaust and Post-Holocaust Responses, Modern Jewish Experience. (CAS, Writing Program)
portnoff@bu.edu

Michael Prince, Assistant Dean, Department of English; Associate Professor of English; and Director, Writing Program.
Interests: Eighteenth-century literature; intellectual history. (English)
mprince@bu.edu

Adam B. Seligman, Professor of Religion; Director, CURA's Project on Toleration and Research Associate, Institute for the Study of Economic Culture.
Interests: the problem of religion and toleration. (Religion)
seligman@bu.edu

Jonathan Zatlin, Assistant Professor of History.
Interests: modern German and European history; interplay between racism and economic shortage in Soviet-style regimes, industrial espionage, and the history of money.
jzatlin@bu.edu

Michael Zell, Associate Professor of Art History.
Interests: Baroque and Eighteenth-Century art; European art and architecture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. (Art History)
mzell@bu.edu