Modern Jewish: Faculty
Among distinguished former faculty members engaged in the area were the ancient historian Arnaldo Momigliano and the economic historian Arcadius Kahane.
Current faculty include:
LEORA AUSLANDER (Ph.D. Brown University, 1988). Associate Professor of Modern European History (lausland@uchicago.edu or 773/702-7940). Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Social History, with a focus on France and Germany; Aesthetics and Politics; Jewish history). Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century European Social History, with a focus on France and Germany; Gender History and Theory Aesthetics and Politics; Everyday Life; Metropolitan and Colonial Nationalism; Comparative History.
RALPH AUSTEN (Ph.D. Harvard University, 1966). Professor of African History (wwb3@uchicago.edu or 773/702-8344). African Economic History; Comparative Slavery and Slave Trade; Colonialism and Imperialism; African Literature; Witchcraft.
MICHAEL GEYER (Dr. phil. Albert Ludwigs Universitþt Freiburg, 1976). Professor of Modern European History (mgeyer@uchicago.edu or 773/702-7939). Contemporary European History; history and memory of war, genocide, and the holocaust.
PAUL MENDES-FLOHR (Ph.D. (Brandeis University) Professor of Modern Jewish Thought in the Divinity School and the Committee on Jewish Studies; Associate Faculty of History (prmendes@uchicago.edu or 773/702-5084). Modern Jewish intellectual history, modern Jewish philosophy and religious thought, German intellectual history, and the history and sociology of intellectuals.
MOISHE POSTONE (D. Phil. J. W. Goethe Universitþt Frankfurt, 1983). Associate Professor of Modern European History (m-postone@uchicago.edu or 773/702-8560). Modern European Intellectual History; Social Theory, especially Critial Theories of Modernity; Twentieth-Century Germany; Anti-Semitism; Contemporary Global Transformations. Prof. Postone's most recent book Catastrophe and Meaning: The Holocaust and the Twentieth Century, was co-edited with Eric Santner.
BERNARD WASSERSTEIN (D.Phil. (Oxford), 1974; D.Litt. (Oxford), 2001). Harriet & Ulrich E. Meyer Professor of Modern European Jewish History. (bmjw@uchicago.edu or 773/702-3637)Jewish and Middle Eastern History and the politics and diplomacy of twentieth century Europe.
Faculty in Other Departments
HOWARD ARONSON, Professor, Departments of Slavic Languages and Literature and Linguistics. Prof. Aronson's primary area of research interest lies in the (Prague) structuralist analysis of grammatical categories in the Slavic languages (in particular Bulgarian) and in the languages of the Balkan Sprachbund. He also works in the field of Georgian linguistics and Yiddish linguistics.
PHILIP BOHLMAN, Associate Professor, Department of Music and the College. Prof. Bohlman established the Music Department's ethnomusicology program. The spectrum of his research has ranged from Jewish musical traditions in Central Europe to Irish-American folk music.
MENAHEM BRINKER, Henry Crown Professor of Modern Hebrew Language and Literature, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. Prof. Brinker's interests include modern Hebrew literature, comparative literature, philosophy, and literary criticism.
MICHAEL FISHBANE, Nathan Cummings Professor, Divinity School and the College; Lecturer, Law School, Center for Middle Eastern Studies. Prof. Fishbane's writings span from the ancient Near East and biblical studies to rabbinics, the history of Jewish interpretation, Jewish mysticism, and modern Jewish thought.
TIKVA FRYMER-KENSKY, Professor, Divinity School and Committee on the Ancient Mediterranean World. Prof. Frymer-Kensky's areas of specialization include Assyriology and Sumerology, biblical studies, Jewish studies, and women and religion.
ERIC SANTNER, Philip and Ida Romberg Professor in Modern Germanic Studies, Department of Germanic Studies, Committee of Jewish Studies, and the College. Prof. Santner's most recent book Catastrophe and Meaning: The Holocaust and the Twentieth Century, was co-edited with Moishe Postone. He continues to work at the intersection of literature, philosophy, psychoanalysis, and religious thought.
JOSEF STERN, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy and the College. Prof. Stern's current research is principally in contemporary philosophy of language and medieval philosophy, especially the philosophy of Moses Maimonides, although his broader interests and the courses he teaches include various topics in epistemology and metaphysics (such as skepticism and free will), Islamic and Latin medieval philosophy, philosophy of religion, logic, and philosophy of art.