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ELIZABETH SHANKS ALEXANDER
University of Virginia 819 St. Christophers Rd.
Department of Religious Studies Richmond, VA 23226
PO Box 400126 804-285-1426
Charlottesville, VA 22904-4126
434-924-6711
EDUCATION
Ph.D. (Judaic Studies); Yale University, December 1998
Dissertation: Study Practices that Made the Mishnah: The Evolution of a Tradition of Exegesis
Advisor: Steven D. Fraade
M.Phil. (Judaic Studies); Yale University, 1993
Comprehensive Exams: Rabbinic Literature (Steven Fraade), Literary Theory (Geoffrey Hartman), Jewish Law (Bernard Jackson) and Modern Jewish Thought (Paula Hyman), passed with Honors
M.A. (Judaic Studies); Yale University, 1991
B.A. (Religion); Haverford College, 1989
Visiting Student Hebrew University, 1985, 1987-8, 1993
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Judaism in the ancient world; literary approaches to rabbinic literature; talmudic and midrashic hermeneutics; orality in rabbinic culture; ethics and theology in rabbinic literature; law, legal reasoning and legal argumentation in Judaism; women and gender in rabbinic literature; theories and methods in religious studies.
AWARDS, FELLOWSHIPS AND GRANTS
Summer 2014 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
2013 Finalist for the National Jewish Book Award: Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism (Cambridge UP, 2013)
2012-2013 Clay Foundation, Grant for “Religious Studies and Rabbinics,” served as primary grant writer ($7800)
2012-2013 Fellow of the Institute for the Humanities and Global Cultures, University of Virginia
Summer 2012 John T. Casteen III Faculty Fellowship in Ethics, Institute for Practical Ethics and Public Life at the University of Virginia
Spring 2012 Page-Barbour and Richards Lectures Fund, Grant for “Religious Studies and Rabbinics,” served as primary grant writer ($15,000)
Summer 2011 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
2010-2011 University of Virginia, Sesquicentennial Research Fellowship
2010 Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, Research Grant
Summer 2009 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
Summer 2009 Posen Foundation Course Development Grant
Summer 2007 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
Summer 2006 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
2004-2005 Yad Hanadiv/Beracha Foundation Fellowship, Sesquicentennial Research Fellowship
Summer 2003 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
Summer 2002 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
Summer 2001 National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Research Stipend
Summer 2000 University of Virginia, Summer Faculty Research Grant
1995-1996 National Foundation for Jewish Culture Dissertation Fellowship, Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Doctoral Scholarship, Yale University Dissertation Fellowship
1990-1994 Yale University Fellowship
1992-1993 Harry Axelrod Fellowship
1989 Phi Beta Kappa, High Departmental Honors, Best Senior Thesis in Religion
EMPLOYMENT
2015-present, Full Professor, University of Virginia
2007-2015, Associate Professor, University of Virginia
2000-2007 Assistant Professor, University of Virginia
RELJ 203/2030 Introduction to the Judaism (Fall 2001, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, Spring 2014, 2015)
RELJ 256 Classical Sources in the Jewish Tradition (Fall 2000, 2002)
RELJ 331 Law in Judaism (Spring 2001, 2004, 2008)
RELJ 3350 Ethics and Judaism (Fall 2013)
RELJ 343/3430 Women in Judaism (Fall 2001, Spring 2007, 2009, 2012)
RELJ 383/3830 Introduction to Talmud (Spring 2002, 2004, 2006, Fall 2007, Spring 2012, Fall 2014)
RELJ 3559 Text, Tradition and Modernity (Spring 2010)
RELG 400/4500 Majors Seminar: Scripture (Spring 2009, 2012)
RELJ 505/5050 Judaism in Antiquity (Fall 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007, Spring 2010)
RELJ 510/5105 Ethics and Theology of the Rabbis (Fall 2003, 2006, 2011)
RELJ 511/5105 Religion and Culture of the Rabbis (Fall 2008, 2013)
RELJ 520 Mishnah Seminar (Spring 2008, 2012, Fall 2014)
RELJ 522 Literary Approaches to Rabbinic Literature (Spring 2001, 2006)
RELJ 525/5950 Midrash Seminar (Spring 2007, Fall 2009, Spring 2013)
RELG 537 Orality, Tradition and Religion (Spring 2002)
RELG 7630 Theories and Methods in the Study of Religion (Fall 2009)
RELS 895 Directed Research in Targum (Fall 2001)
RELS 895 Directed Research in Rabbinic Textuality (Spring 2008)
RELS 8950 Directed Research in Mishnah (Fall 2011)
RELS 8950 Directed Research in Talmud (Fall 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2015)
Informal Rabbinics Reading Group (2000-1, 2001-2, 2002-3, 2008-9, 2010, 2011-12, 2012-2013)
Guest lectures in assorted Jewish studies courses (Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Fall 2002, Fall 2003, Fall 2005, Spring 2008)
1997-2000 Instructor/Assistant Professor. Smith College:
1995S Visiting Instructor, Haverford College
1994F Instructor, Yale University: Working at Teaching (teacher training workshop for TA's)
1992-4 Teaching Assistant, Yale College: Introduction to the Hebrew Bible (Nahum Sarna), History of Ancient Christianity (Bentley Layton), Elementary Hebrew (Ayala Devorsky)
PUBLICATIONS
Monographs
Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism, Cambridge University Press, 2013.
Finalist for the 2013 National Jewish Book Award
Reviewed in: The Talmud Blog, Yeshiva University Center for Jewish Law and Contemporary Civilization Blog, Religious Studies Review, Choice: publication of the Association of College and Research Libraries, Journal of Ancient Judaism, JOFA (Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance) Journal.
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Transmitting Mishnah: The Shaping Influence of Oral Tradition, Cambridge University Press, 2006 (Paperback 2009).
Reviewed in: Jewish Quarterly: A Magazine of Contemporary Writing, Politics and Culture, Studies in Religion/Sciences Religieuses, Religious Studies Review, Hebrew Studies, Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies, Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations, Religion, Journal for the Studies of Judaism, AJS Review; Journal for the Study of the Old Testament.
Edited Volume
Religious Studies and Rabbinics, co-edited with Beth Berkowitz, Routledge (forthcoming)
Translation and Commentary
Feminist Commentary to the Babylonian Talmud: Tractate Berakhot, Series Editor, Tal Ilan, Mohr Siebeck (in preparation).
Translation and Annotation
Tractate “Shevuot,” The New Oxford Mishnah, an annotated translation by Oxford University
Press, eds. Shaye Cohen, Hayim Lapin and Robert Goldenberg. (forthcoming, 27,000 words)
Articles – Peer Reviewed
“When the Dead Primp: Talmudic Gender as Theological Prompt,” Nashim issue no. 28 (Spring 2015), 120-133.
“Ritual on the Threshold: Mezuzah and the Crafting of Domestic and Civic Space,” Jewish Social Studies 20.3 (Spring/Summer 2015), 100-130.
“Women’s Exemption from Shema and Tefillin and How these Rituals Came be Viewed as Torah Study,” Journal for the Study of Judaism 42 (2011), 531-579.
“Literary Approaches to the Mishnah” AJS Review 32:2 (2008), 225-234.
“From Whence the Phrase ‘Timebound, Positive Commandments’?”, Jewish Quarterly Review, 97:3 (2007), 317-346.
“Casuistic Elements in Mishnaic Law: Examples from Tractate Shavuot,” Jewish Studies Quarterly 10:3 (2003), 189-243.
“Art, Argument and Ambiguity in the Talmud: Conflicting Conceptions of the Evil Impulse in b. Sukkah 51b-52a,” Hebrew Union College Annual 73 (2002):97-132.
Articles – Invited
“When Cultural Assumptions about Texts and Reading and Logic Fail: Teaching Talmud as Liberal Arts,” Learning How to Read Talmud: What It Looks Like and How It Happens, eds. Marjorie Lehman and Jane Kanarek (forthcoming, 7000 words).
“Principles for Negotiating Biblical Androcentrism among Ancient Jews: Damascus Document and Mekhilta of R. Ishmael” Rabbis and Other Jews, eds. Christine Hayes, Tzvi Novick, Michal Bar-Asher Siegal (forthcoming, 8000 words).
“A Conversation on Religious Studies and Rabbinics,” with Beth Berkowitz in AJS Perspectives, Fall 2011, 16-20.
“The Mishnah,” Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture, ed. Judith Baskin, (Cambridge University Press, 2011), 434-435.
“Why Study Talmud in the 21st Century? The View from a Large Public University or Studying Talmud as a Critical Thinker,” Why Study Talmud in the 21st Century: The Relevance of the Ancient Jewish Text to our World, ed. Paul Socken, (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2009), 11-24.
“Abraham in the Image of Job: A Model for Postcritical Readings of Scripture,” Call, Crisis and Leadership in the Abrahamic Faiths, eds. Peter Ochs and Stacy Johnson (New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), 209-221.
“How Tefillin Became a Non-Timebound, Positive Commandment: The Yerushalmi and Bavli on mEruvin 10:1,” A Feminist Commentary to the Babylonian Talmud: Introduction and Studies, ed. Tal Ilan et. al., (Mohr Siebeck, 2007) 61-89.
“The Orality of Rabbinic Writing,” Cambridge Companion to Rabbinic Literature, eds. Martin S. Jaffee and Charlotte Fonrobert, Cambridge University Press, 2007, 38-57
"The Impact of Feminism on Rabbinic Studies: The Impossible Paradox of Reading Women into Rabbinic Literature," Jews and Gender: The Challenge to Hierarchy, ed. Jonathan Frankel Studies, New York: Oxford University Press, 2000, 101-118.
"The Fixing of the Oral Mishnah and the Displacement of Meaning," Oral Tradition 14:1 (March 1999), 100-139.
"Cracking Open the Fissures: Testing the Limits of Continuity," Textual Reasonings: Journal of the Postmodern Jewish Philosophy Network, Vol. 5, No. 3, November 1996, 14-16.
"Dialogue on the Theme of Martyrdom: Sanctifying God with Our Lives? and Responses," The Journal of Post-Modern Jewish Philosophy Network, Vol. 5, No. 1, March 1996, 18-26.
Book Reviews and Booknotes
Book Review in Nashim 10 (Fall 2005), 243-249: Expanding the Palace of Torah: Orthodoxy and Feminism by Tamar Ross.
Book Review in Shofar, 24:2 (2006), 166-168: Women, Birth and Death in Jewish Law and Practice by Rochelle Millen.
Book Review in AJS Review 26:2 (Nov. 2002), 360-61: Rereading Talmud: Gender, Law and the Poetics of Sugyot by Aryeh Cohen.
Booknote in Religious Studies Review, 27:4 (Oct. 2001), 424: Menstrual Purity: Rabbinic and Christian Constructions of Biblical Gender by Charlotte Fonrobert.
Booknote in Religious Studies Review, 26:4 (Oct. 2000), 394-5: Kol Nidre: Studies in the Development of Rabbinic Votive Institutions by Moshe Benovitz.
ACADEMIC CONFERENCES, COLLOQUIA AND INVITED LECTURES
Roundtable Discussant, “The Legal Turn in Jewish Philosophy,” Association for Jewish Studies (12/14)
“How to Read Talmud,” two-part workshop at the Melton Center for Jewish Education at Brandeis University (12/13 and 6/14).
“Berakhot,” Conference of the Feminist Commentary on the Babylonian Talmud, Stanford University (5/14)
“Principles for Negotiating Biblical Androcentrism among Ancient Jews: Damascus Document and Mekhilta of R. Ishmael,” Invited Paper for Conference on “Rabbis and Other Jews” at Yale University (5/14)
Book Discussion, Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism, Weinstein Jewish Community Center, Richmond, VA (4/14)
“Male Ritual, Female Exemptions and Feminist Interventions,” Smith College (3/14)
Book Launch, Gender and Timebound Commandments in Judaism, Virginia Center for the Study of Religion, UVA Department of Religious Studies and Program in Jewish Studies (3/14)
“The Challenges of Academic Research and Writing,” Seminar on Methods and Approaches in Religious Studies, Virginia Center for the Study of Religion (3/14)
“The Rabbinic Gendering of Biblical Israel,” Yale University (2/14)
Scholar-in-residence at Ohev Shalom, the National Synagogue in Washington, DC (12/13).
“The New Religious Studies and the New Rabbinics,” Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (12/13).
“Time is On Our Side: A New Look at Mitzvot Aseh she Hazman Grama,” Invited lecture for the 2013 Conference for the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (12/13).
“Principles for Negotiating Biblical Androcentrism among Ancient Jews: Damascus Document and Mekhilta of R. Ishmael,” Invited Paper for the Colloquium for the Study of Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity at the University of Virginia (10/13).
Scholar-in-residence at Lower Merion Synagogue in Bala Cynwyd, PA (5/13)
Scholar-in-residence at Tiferet Israel Synagogue in Washington, DC (4/13)
“Religious Studies and Rabbinics,” Organized with Beth Berkowitz a two-day conference at the University of Virginia sponsored by Page-Barbour Lecture Fund, Clay Foundation, Institute for the Humanities and Global Cultures, Jewish Studies Program, Department of Religious Studies and Virginia Center for the Study of Religion (2/13)
“Toward a Rabbinic Theology,” presenter at “Religious Studies and Rabbinics,” University of Virginia (2/13)
“Rethinking Time and Temporality in Rabbinic Sources,” Invited Respondent, Conference of the Association of Jewish Studies, San Francisco, CA (12/12)
“Ritual on the Threshold: Mezuzah and the Crafting of Civic and Domestic Space,” Invited Paper, Conference of the Society of Biblical Literature, Chicago, IL (11/12)
“Between Rabbinic History and Contemporary Jewish Theology with Gadamer,” University of Washington, Seattle, WA (10/12)
Panel organizer for “Formation of the Religious Self in Ancient Judaism,” Conference for the Association of Religious Studies (12/11)
“The Shema Rituals and the Embodied Self in Tannaitic Literature,” Conference for the Association of Religious Studies (12/11)
“Orality and Writing in Rabbinic Literature,” Conference on Orality and Writing in Judaism and Islam, Georgetown University (10/11)
“Seeing on the Threshold: How the Mezuzah Helped Create Public and Private Space in Jewish Antiquity,” Colloquium for the Program in Jewish Studies, University of Virginia (12/10)
“The Tools of Religious Studies and the Feminist Dilemma: Reflections on Women’s Exemption from Timebound Commandments,” Conference for the Association of Jewish Studies (12/10)
Panel organizer for “Interrogating ‘Religion’ in Ancient Judaism,” Conference for the Association of Jewish Studies (12/10)
“The Textualization of Ritual and the Ritualization of Text in Ancient Judaism,” Workshop on Religion in Late Antiquity, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (April 30, 2010)
“Imparting Intellectual Skills vs. Replicating Cultural and Social Identity,” Conference for the Association of Jewish Studies (12/09)
Panel organizer for “Rabbinic Pedagogy and Texuality,” Conference for the Association of Jewish Studies (12/09)
“Torah Study as Ritual,” Colloquium on “Methods and Theories of Religion,” Yale University (11/09)
“Feminist Repair through Torah Study,” Colloquium for Theology, Ethics and Culture, University of Virginia (10/09)
“Torah Study as Cultural Reproduction: A Gendered Affair,” Public Lecture, Jewish Theological Seminary of America (4/09)
“The Shema and Tefillin: Textualizing Ritual and Ritualizing Text,” Colloquium for the Program in Judaic Studies, Yale University (3/09)
“Second Temple Iterations of What Eventually Became the Shema,” Colloquium of the Program in Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia (2/09)
“Affinities between the Rabbi’s Oral vs. Written Torah and Paul’s Spirit vs. Law,” Conference of the Society of Biblical Literature, Washington, DC (11/08)
“Reading Biblical Men: A Hermeneutical Challenge,” Lunchtime lecture series sponsored by the program in Scripture, Interpretation and Practice, Department of Religious Studies, University of Virginia (3/08)
“Rabbinic Interpretations of Biblical “Man”: When are Women Included?” Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (12/07)
Respondent to Papers on “Embodying Rabbinic Authority: Law, Theology and Ethics,” Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (12/07)
“Reading Gender in the Mishnah,” William and Mary College (4/07)
“What Does it Mean to Write a Feminist Commentary to the Talmud?” Scholar-in-Residence at the National Synagogue in Washington, DC (4/07)
“Between Man and Woman,” Conference on Women and Gender in Rabbinic Literature, Haifa University (3/07)