Tamar Merin
Crowe Hall 3-149
Telephone: 847-467-7594
Fax: 847-467-1545
E-mail: tamar.merin@northwestern.edu
Education
2011
PhD, The Shirley and Leslie Porter School of Cultural Studies, Tel
Aviv University. Title of dissertation: “Intertextuality as ‘InterSexuality’: Intersexual Dialogue in Israeli Women’s Writing in the
1950s–1970s.” Supervisor, Pr. Michael Gluzman.
2003
MA in Comparative literature, summa cum laude. Dept. of Literature,
Tel Aviv University. Thesis title: “The Gaze According to Saramago:
Reading Saramago’s Blindness and Other Works Using Feminist
Theories of the Gaze,” Supervisor, Dr. Orly Lubin.
2000
BA, cum laude. Dept. of Literature, Tel Aviv University.
Academic positions
Northwestern University
Post-doctoral Fellow, Teaching Position (English Department and the Department of
Jewish Studies)
2011 –
“The Rise of Israeli Women’s Prose”; “Back to London: The Journey to
Europe in Hebrew and Israeli Fiction”
Tel Aviv University
Lecturer
2009–2011
“The Rise of Israeli Women’s Prose”; “Sadomasochism in Hebrew
Literature.”
2007–2009
“Cry your art out: The Hebrew Kunstlerroman.”
2006–2007
“Intersexual Dialogue.”
2005–2006
“An Eye for an Eye: Feminine Gaze in Modern Fiction.”
Instructor
2007–
“Introduction to Literary Theory” (Prof. Michael Gluzman).
2000–2004
“Introduction to Literary Fiction” (Prof. Menachem Perry).
1
Course coordinator
2000–2004
“Portraits of Poets.”
2006
Coordinator of the 21st Israeli Inter-University Conference for
Hebrew Literature Research, Tel Aviv University.
The Open University of Israel
2002–2004
Tutor, “The World of Literary Fiction,” Dept of Literature, Language
and the Arts.
Referee
Small World: A Journal of Children’s Literature and Culture (ed.
Eynat Baram-Eshel), Bet Berl College and Zmora Bitan Publishers
(Hebrew).
Membership in professional societies
NAPH - National Association of Professors of Hebrew
AIS - Association for Israel Studies
World Union of Jewish Studies
Academic awards and grants
2011-2013
Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Jewish Studies, Northwestern
University
2011
AIS Grant, Association for Israel Studies, USA.
2007–2010
Doctoral scholarship, The Nathan Rothenstreich Foundation
(VTAT), Israel.
2009–2010
Doctoral scholarship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
(MFJC), USA.
2009
Chutick Grant, Women’s Studies Forum, Tel Aviv University, Israel.
2006
Woolf Foundation grant, Israel.
2006
Dov Sadan award for Jewish Studies, Israel
2006
Research Associate, Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel
Aviv University, Israel.
2005
Dorot grant, National Association of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH),
USA.
2004
Research Associate, Seminar for Young Scholars of Hebrew
Literature, a collaboration of Brandeis University, USA and Ben
Gurion University in the Negev, Israel.
2
2002–2003
2002
MA scholarship, Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel Aviv
University.
The Harris Milton and David Peyos Award, MA distinction grant,
Tel Aviv University.
2002
The Shoshana and Zvi Fossis Award, MA distinction grant, Tel Aviv
University.
2002
Research Associate, Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics, Tel
Aviv University.
Current research interests
Historiography of Hebrew Literature, Israeli women’s writing, The fiction of the 1948
generation and the Statehood generation, Hebrew Modernism, Israeli culture and
gender studies.
Conference Papers
June 2011
Back to London: The Journey to Europe as a Return to the Hebrew
Literary Past in Israeli Literature of the 1970s and 1980s. AIS
Conference for Israel Studies, Brandeis University, USA
June 2011
Between Brenner and Gnessin: Yaakov Shabtai Returns to London.
Conference for Hebrew Literature in Memory of Yossef Haefrati, Tel
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv (Hebrew)
May 2011
The Purloined Letter: Lea Goldberg’s Letters from an Imaginary
Journey (Michtavim Menesia Meduma) in Dialogue with U.N.
Gnessin’s “Next To” (Etzel), Conference Dedicated to Lea
Goldberg, Tel Aviv University and The Hebrew University of
Jerusalem (Hebrew).
July 2010
My Husband Was Revived At Night: Amalia Kahana-Carmon’s Early
Prose and the Return to the Grandfathers. The National Association
of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH), International Conference on
Hebrew Language and Literature, New York (Hebrew).
March 2010
Intertextuality as “Inter-sexuality” in Amalia Kahana-Carmon’s Early
Works. Writing in Progress: A Series of Inter-disciplinary Lectures
on Women and Gender, Tel Aviv University, Israel (Hebrew).
August 2009
Gaze, Imitation and Intertextuality in the Early Works of Yehudit
Hendel. The 15th World Congress of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew
University of Jerusalem, Israel (Hebrew).
July 2009
Cracking the Mirror: Melancholy as Intertextuality in Yehudit
Hendel’s The House of Steps (Rechov hamadregot). The National
Association of Professors of Hebrew (NAPH), International
Conference on Hebrew Language and Literature, London (Hebrew).
3
June 2008
From Homosocial Desire to Female Homoerotica in Yehudit
Hendel’s They Are Other People (Anashim acherim hem), An Other
Sex. The Annual LGBT Studies and Queer Theory Conference, Tel
Aviv University, Israel (Hebrew).
May 2006
S.Y. Agnon’s In the Prime of Her Life (Bidmei yameiha) and the
Rise of Israeli Female Prose. The 21st Israeli Inter-university
Conference for Hebrew Literature Research, Tel Aviv University,
Israel (Hebrew).
June 2005
Sandril the Housewife as a Famous Playwright: Reading Eytan’s
Pleasure’s of Men and David Fogel’s Married Life (NAPH)
International Conference on Hebrew Language and Literature,
Stanford University, USA (Hebrew).
October 2004
The Travels of Benjamin the Third by S.Y. Abramovitz: A Feminist
Reading. Seminar for Young Scholars of Hebrew Literature,
Brandeis University (USA) and Ben Gurion University in the Negev
(Israel), Sde Boker, Israel (Hebrew).
February 2003
The Big Spender: Reading Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth.
The Annual Conference of Feminist Theory and Women’s Studies,
Tel Aviv University, Israel.
Publications
Dissertation
Doctoral Dissertation: “Intertextuality as ‘Inter-Sexuality’: Intersexual Dialogue in
Israeli Women’s Writing in the 1950s–1970s.” Supervisor, Pr. Michael
Gluzman.
Articles in peer reviewed journals and books
“Cracking the Mirror: Intertextuality as Melancholy in Yehudit Hendel’s House of
Steps (Rehov hamadregot),” Ot - Journal of Literary Studies and Literary
Theory, 2 (Michael Gluzman and Michal Arbel eds.), Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv
University and Hakibbutz Hameuchad Publishing, 2011 (Hebrew, pending).
Do You Have to Get Rid of Me in Order to Write? Inter Sexual Dialogue and
Imaginary Fathers in Rachel Eytan’s Pleasures of Men (Shida veshidot),” in
Michael Gluzman and Orly Lubin (eds.), Intertextuality: Studies in Literature in
Honor of Ziva Ben-Porat. Tel Aviv: The Porter Institute Press, Tel Aviv
University, 2011 (Hebrew, pending).
Article under review
“The Secret Which Makes a Hero of the Weak: Intertextuality and cross-gender
identification in Amalia Kahana-Carmon’s Early Prose”.
"Back to London: The Journey to Europe as a Return to the Hebrew
Literary Past in Israeli Literature of the 1970s and the 1980s".
4
Book under review
So Did I Write All That is Written in This Book: Inter-Sexual Dialogue and the
Rise of Israeli Women’s Prose
Other articles and prose works
Articles and book reviews in Ha’aretz daily newspaper, Literary Supplement, 2002–
2011
“Sal Tarbut”, articles on literature and theater (ed. Dory Manor).
“Tenure” (kviut), short story, Keshet Hachadasha: Literary Magazine, 15, 2006.
“Spring Awakening” (Haaviv mitorer), short story, Ho!: Literary Magazine, 7,
January 2007.
Editor
D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers (trans.Mira Narkis). Tel Aviv: Penn Publishing,
Yediot Aharonot, 2005.
Mary Shelley, Frankenstein (trans.Sharon Preminger) Tel Aviv: Penn Publishing,
Yediot Aharonot, 2005.
Referee (non-academic)
2009-2011 Keset Literary Project, Yuval Shimoni & David Wienfeld (eds.).
5