Faculty

Ilan Peleg headshot

Ilan Peleg, Charles A. Dana Professor of Government and Law, serves as Chair of Lafayette’s Jewish Studies Program

Peleg is a former president of the scholarly society Association for Israel Studies, served for 13 years as Head of Lafayette’s Department of Government and law, and for 10 years as Chairman of Lafayette’s International Affairs Program. Peleg is a graduate of Tel Aviv University with a B.A. in Political Science and Sociology and a Master’s in Political Science and International Relations, a second Master’s in International Relations from Northwestern, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern.

Peleg, who offers courses on Middle East Politics, international relations and ethnic politics, is the author of 14 books and close to 100 articles. Among his most important books are: two volumes published by Cambridge University Press Democratizing the Hegemonic State (2007) and Israel’s Palestinians: The Conflict Within (2011), a political biography of Israel’s prime minister Menachem Begin (1987), a volume of the foreign policy of George W. Bush (2009), and a book on censorship and freedom of expression around the world (1993). Among his edited books there are two volumes on political corruption, Israeli bi-nationalism is Israel, the peace process in the Middle East, victimhood, and more. Peleg has delivered lectures all over the United States, Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, and has appeared on CNN, Voice of America, and National Public Radio.

Monika Rice, Assistant Professor and Robert Weiner and Ilan Peleg Scholar in Jewish Studies

Monika Rice is the Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies and Russian and East European Studies at Lafayette College and former director of the Holocaust and Genocide Studies Program at Gratz College. A native of Poland, she holds B.A. and M.A. in Cultural Anthropology from Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and a Ph.D. in Judaic Studies from Brandeis University. Her first book, “What! Still Alive?! Jewish Survivors in Poland and Israel Remember Homecoming” (Syracuse University Press 2017) was a Choice Outstanding Academic Title.  The book chronicles the evolution of Holocaust survivors’ memories of their first encounters with Polish neighbors after the war, recorded in immediate postwar testimonies, as compared to similar accounts collected years later in Israel.

 

Rice has been a recipient of several prestigious fellowships and grants, and a selected participant in several international scholarly workshops and seminars at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, Jewish Historical Institute in Warsaw, and others. Her articles, book chapters, and reviews have been published in edited volumes and academic journals (Polin, Nashim, Yad Vashem Studies, Holocaust Studies, Holocaust and Genocide Studies, Journal of Jewish Identities, Jewish Culture and History, etc.). Her current research project investigates postwar mixed identities of Polish-Jewish doctors.

Associate Professor of English Jennifer Gilmore

Jennifer Gilmore, Associate Professor of English

Gilmore is the author of three novels for adults, including The Mothers (Scribner, 2013), which is currently adapted for film with Gilmore adapting the screenplay, Something Red (Scribner, 2009) a New York Times Notable Book and Golden Country (Scribner, 2006), also a New York Times Notable book and finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, the National Jewish Book Award, the Harold U. Ribalow Prize, and longlisted for the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award (Scribner, 2006). She is also the author of two young adult novels: We Were Never Here (Harper, 2016) and most recently If Only (Harper, July 2018). Her Work has appeared in The Atlantic, Bomb, BookForum, Huffington Post, Jewish Forward, the Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, The New York Times, Real Simple, Salon, Tin House, Vogue and the Washington Post. She teachers Jewish American Literature as well as creative writing. Her teaching interests include creative writing, short fiction, novels, screenwriting, creative nonfiction, contemporary American literature, Jewish American literature, young adult literature, and literary publishing.

Noa Avron Barak, Visiting Assistant Professor in Hebrew

Barak specializes in modern and contemporary Israeli art history and visual culture, art theory, and modern Jewish philosophy. She completed her PhD at Ben Gurion University. Before arriving at Lafayette, she was a postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University and a guest researcher at Yale University.