The Hadassah-Brandeis Institute (HBI) at Brandeis University welcomed author Joyce Zonana to campus where she discussed her latest work, "Dream Homes: From Cairo to Katrina, an Exile's Journey." Zonana's memoir recounts the struggles of an Egyptian-Jewish American as she forges an identity that bridges a number of apparent divides-Muslim and Jewish, gay and straight, Eastern and Western, urban and suburban, dutiful daughter and independent woman. A panel discussion followed with Boston writers Tehila Lieberman and Susan Freireich, who discussed the process of writing about the self and writing about the "world" through a gendered lens. Brandeis University creative writing professor Melanie Braverman moderated.