Joining the College, and the Center, next year is the new Sara and E.J. Evans Fellow in Jewish Studies and assistant professor in the department of Germanic and Slavic languages and literatures. Yaakov Herskovitz holds a doctorate in Yiddish and Hebrew literature from the University of Michigan, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Jona Goldrich Institute for Yiddish Language, Literature, and Culture at Tel Aviv University. He will join Carolina in July 2025, after he completes his post-doc position.
This is the fifth new Jewish studies faculty member (and fourth tenure-track position) hired in just the past few years, demonstrating a remarkable commitment to expand Carolina’s academic and research work in a broad range of subfields of Jewish studies. Two years ago, Jillian Hinderliter joined the department of women’s and gender studies as assistant professor and Moses M. and Hannah L. Malkin Fellow in Jewish Studies. Last year, Adam Cohn, Jennifer Grayson and Emily Katz joined the departments of romance studies, history and American studies.
Adding new faculty positions allows the College to offer new courses for undergraduates and provide dedicated advisors for graduate students. Our affiliated faculty are offering dozens of courses each year that meet the new General Education requirements for undergraduates and provide the necessary coursework for incoming graduate students. Offered in many different academic departments, JWST course topics led by our new faculty range from “The Renaissance and the Jews” to “The Jewish American Experience,” from “Jewish Spain: History and Culture” to “A Social History of Jewish Women.” Along with the new courses, there are also new opportunities outside of the classroom to explore Jewish history and culture as our faculty arrange campus visits, seminars and lectures with other experts in their subfields.
Photo caption: Three new faculty members and a new grad student gave lightning talks during a recent lunch seminar. Shown, left to right: Jennifer Grayson, Jillian Hinderliter, Rachel Greiner (TEP Fellow), and Adam Cohn.