International Visitors to Brandeis

Each year, the campus hosts dozens of scholars, artists and leaders from around the world for one-time lectures, extended residencies and visiting faculty appointments. Use the links at the right to navigate through this year's global visitors.

2008-09 Madeleine Haas Russell Visiting Professor of Non-Western Studies

Smita Tewari Jassal (Anthropology and South Asian Studies)
Madeleine Haas Russell Visiting Professor, 2008-09
India

Jassal is author of Daughters of the Earth: Women and Land in Uttar Pradesh (Manohar, New Delhi, 2001) and has co-edited with Eyal Ben-Ari The Partition Motif in Contemporary Conflicts (Sage, New Delhi, 2007). Her forthcoming book, Unearthing Gender, focuses on the oral, folk and narrative traditions of castes and communities of North India. Her research combines historical, anthropological and socio-legal perspectives. Jassal will spend the 08-09 academic year with a co-appointment in the Anthropology Department and the new South Asian Studies Program. She will deliver a public lecture, “Women as Producers: Culture and Agriculture in North India” on September 18, and she will teach the fall course “Gender and Development: Perspectives from South Asia.” (Learn more about Smita Tewari Jassal)

 

2008-09 Visiting Scholars

Gannit Ankori (Art History)
 Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Visiting Faculty, 2008-09
Hebrew University, Israel

The chair of the Department of Art History at Hebrew University, Ankori's research includes two books on Frida Kahlo and the acclaimed musuem exhibition "Frida Kahlo's Intimate Family Picture."At Brandeis, Ankori will teach two courses on Israeli art and multi-ethnic experiences surrounding the art. (Learn more about Gannit Ankori)

Andrea Bertello (Sustainable International Development)
Sustainable International Development Engaged Scholar
Italy 

Bertello will teach a graduate-level seminar in renewable energy.

Corrine Ducey (Russian/Holocaust Studies)
Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence, January - May 2009
University of Nottingham, England 

Part of the new HBI Seminar Series, Ducey will spend her time at Brandeis giving lectures and conducting research on representations of Anne Frank in literature and culture, and the enduring images of the Holocaust from different perspectives. (Learn more about Corrine Ducey) 

Benjamin Gidron (Organizational Management)
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Visiting Faculty, 2008-09
Heller School for Social Policy and Management
Hornstein Professional Jewish Leadership Program
Ben Gurion University of the Negev, Israel 

Benjamin Gidron is director of the Israeli Center for Third Sector Research and the School of Management at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. He teaches courses on human service organizations, non-profit organizations, and third sector organizations, and recently won an award for Innovation in Third Sector research from Ben Gurion University. (Learn more about Benjamin Gidron)

Hagar LahavHagar Lahav (Journalism, Communication)
Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence, January - May 2009
Sapir Academic College, Israel

Lahav is head of the journalism program in the School of Communication at Sapir Academic College. She specializes in feminist politics, journalism studies, and feminist media studies. While at Brandeis, Lahav will research 20th century Jewish thinkers that were inspired by Hassidic and Psycho-Kabbalh mysticism, examining the idea that perceptions of God can empower secular women's self-autonomy. She will also participate in the HBI Seminar Series. (Learn more about Hagar Lahav)

Maina Chawla Singh (Israeli-Indian Studies)
Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence, September - October, 2008
University of Delhi, India

Singh's research focuses on the community of Indian Jews in Israel; she will undertake a project titled Migration, Ethnicity, and Gender: Indian Jews in Israel intended as an edited volume. Singh currently teaches at the College of Vocational Studies, University of Delhi, and is the author of Gender, Religion, and "Heathern Lands:" American Missionary Women in South Asia (1860s - 1940s) (2000). (Learn more about Maina Chawla Singh)

Michal Ben Ya'akov (History)
Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence, Summer 2009
Efrata College for Education, Israel

Michal Ben Ya'akov researches 19th and 20th century Eretz-Israel, with special emphasis on North African and Sephardi Jewry. Her project will examine the changing lives of Jewish immigrant widows from North Africa living in the various urban centers of 19th-century Palestine. (Learn more about Michal Ben Ya'akov)

 

2008-09 Short-term Residencies

Alexandra Freund
Professor of Psychology
University of Zurich, Switzerland
Late Sept./early Oct., 2008

Prof. Freund studies cognition across the lifespan and lifelong learning. She will be visiting the Emotion Lab of Prof. Derek Isaacowitz in fall 2008.

Helene H. Fung
Associate Professor of Psychology
Chinese University of Hong Kong
Late Aug., 2008

Fung visited Brandeis in late summer 2008 as part of the Brandeis - Hong-Kong Aging Research Exchange project.

Fu Youde Fu Youde
Director of the Center for Judaic Studies
Shandong University, China
Sept. 4 - 12, 2008

Fu Youde is a Chinese scholar who writes about Confucianism and Jewish philosophy. He will give public lecture and teach-ins about religion and ethics.

 

2008-2009 Visiting Global Specialists

Ornit Barkai, Filmmaker
Hadassah-Brandeis Scholars-in-Residence, June - August 2009

Barkai, whose filmmaking credits include the documentaries From Anne Frank's Window and Let Them Fly, will carry out pre-production research for a documentary film on "The Polaccas", young women from the shtetls of Eastern Europe who were forced into prostitution in Argentina and Braxil during the 19th and early 20th centuries. (Learn more about Ornit Barkai)

Sheila Donio, Theater Artist and Playback Theater trainee
CIEE Trainee in Arts and Social Transformation, Slifka Program, 2008-09

Bio coming soon.

Shulamit Gilboa, Poet, Novelist, and Journalist
Hadassah-Brandeis Scholar-in-Residence, September - December 2008

Gilboa is the author of Four Men and a Woman (2000) and Alma's Way (2003), both award-winners from the Book Publishers Association. Since 1984, she has been deputy literary editor and since 2005 literary editor in chief of the daily Yedioth Ahronoth. While at Brandeis, Gilboa will give lectures and prepare and write her next novel, to take place in Israel and Boston. (Learn more about Shulamit Gilboa)

Etgar Keret, Author and Filmmaker
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Writer in Residence, October 2008

Keret is internationally acclaimed for his short stories. His book,The Nimrod Flip-Out, which was published in 2006, is a collection of 32 short stories that captures the craziness of life in Israel today. His books are bestsellers in Israel, and have been published in 22 languages. As a filmmaker, Keret is the writer of several feature screenplays, including Skin Deep (1996). At Brandeis, he will present a creative writing workshop, a Hebrew class visit, deliver a public lecture on his writing, and screen his film Jellyfish. (Learn more about Etgar Keret)  

Ronit Matalon, Author
Schusterman Center for Israel Studies Writer in Residence, September 2008

Matalon will give several lectures in English and Hebrew to classes on campus, and a public lecture and book signing on September 24. Matalon published two novels, one book of short stories, a collection of essays and a book for children. A Story that Begins with a Snake`s Funeral has been made into a film. (Learn more about Ronit Matalon)

Shuba Mudgal, Musician
MusicUnitesUS Intercultural Residency, October 2008

One of India's most celebrated artists and composers, Mudgal will visit Brandeis for a series of interactive performances, workshops, and class discussions. (View music clips and more information at her web site)

Brian WilliamsDr. Brian Williams, World Health Organization
Chemistry; International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life Distinguished Visiting Practitioner, February 2008

Williams, an epidemiologist with the World Health Organization, will visit campus to address the issue of "human rights" versus "public health" approaches to the management of disease. More information coming soon. (Learn more about Brian Williams)

Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani (Peru)
Cultural Production; International Center for Ethics, Justice, and Public Life, October 2008

Yuyachkani is scheduled to return to campus in October 2008 for a series of workshops.

 

Visiting Scholar Programs & Research Fellows

Past Visitors (07-08)
Short-term Residencies

MusicMusicians Jiebing Chen and Yangqin Zhao (China)     
 March 2008
Celebrated classical artists Jiebing Chen and Yangqin Zhao will arrive at Brandeis in the spring as part of the MusicUnitesUS series and the Brandeis Theater performance of the "Orphan of Zhao".

Afro-Brazilian Music and Dance Ensemble Ologundê (Brazil)
October 2007
Music UnitesUS brought the New York-based Ologundê ensemble to Brandeis to celebrate the rich Afro-Brazilian culture of Salvador, Bahia through a diverse repertoire of music, dance and martial arts.

yuyachkaniGrupo Cultural Yuyachkani (Peru)
October 2007
As part of the international conference "Acting Together on the World Stage: Setting the Scene for Peace," visitors Yuyachkani, an independent theater group from Peru, performed works, shared documentaries, led workshops and discussed the contributions of the group to Peru's Truth and Reconciliation process.

2007-2008 Visiting Global Specialists

Forensic Anthropologist Dr. William Hagland
November 2007 
During a four-day residency at Brandeis from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, forensic anthropologist Dr. William Haglund spoke about his work at mass grave sites and its implications for international justice and offered students insights on a career investigating the aftermath of mass violence and genocide. The Ethics Center’s second annual Distinguished Visiting Practitioner, Haglund serves as senior forensic consultant, and from 1998 to 2006 was director of the International Forensic Program for Physicians for Human Rights.