Education

• PhD in Critical Cultural Studies, with a Film Studies Certificate (Defense Passed with Distinction, 2015) 
  University of Pittsburgh, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of English/Film Studies Program
  Dissertation: “A Hidden Light: Judaism, Contemporary Israeli Film, and the Cinematic Experience”
• Master of Arts (Exams Passed with Distinction, 2012)
  University of Pittsburgh, Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, Department of English/Film Studies Program
• Master of Arts (2007)
  New York University, Tisch School of the Arts, Cinema Studies Department
• Bachelor of Fine Arts (Magna Cum Laude, 2005)
  Tel Aviv University, Katz Faculty of the Arts, Film and Television Department

Edited Books

• Casting a Giant Shadow: The Transnational Shaping of Israeli Cinema, co-edited with Rachel S. Harris (Bloomington: Indiana University Press [forthcoming]).

Peer-Reviewed Journal Essays

• “Transcendental Style Reconsidered: Absence, Presence, and ‘a Place which Is Not-a-Place,’”  in Journal of Film and Video (forthcoming).
• “Israeli Cinema Studies: Mapping Out a Field,” co-authored with Yael Mazor, in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 38.1 (Spring 2020).
• “’The King’s Daughter Is All Glorious Within’: Female Modesty in Judaic-Themed Israeli Cinema,” in Journal of Jewish Identities 9.1 (Spring 2016).
• “‘Strange Times to be a Chicken’: The Meaning of a Metaphor,” in Short Film Studies 6.2 (Spring 2016).
• “‘Lifting the Veil’: Judaic-Themed Israeli Cinema and Spiritual Aesthetics,” in Jewish Film & New Media: An International Journal 3.1 (Spring 2015).
• “Judaic Cinecorporeality: Fleshing Out the Haredi Male Body in Avishai Sivan’s The Wanderer,” in Shofar: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Jewish Studies 33.1 (Fall 2014).
• “‘A Remarkable Adventure’: Martin Luther and the 1950s Spiritual Marketplace,” in Cinema Journal 52.3 (Spring 2013).

Book Chapters

• “Introduction: Israeli Cinema beyond the National,” co-authored with Rachel S. Harris, in Casting a Giant Shadow: The Transnational Shaping of Israeli Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana University Press [forthcoming]).
• “‘I Have a Great Passion for Americans’: The Juggler and the Question of National Cinema,” in Casting a Giant Shadow: The Transnational Shaping of Israeli Cinema (Bloomington: Indiana University Press [forthcoming]).
• “Teaching Trauma in (and Out of) Translation: Waltzing with Bashir in English,” co-authored with Alison Patterson, in Media and Translation: An Interdisciplinary Approach (London: Bloomsbury, 2014)
• “Negotiating Judaism in Contemporary Israeli Cinema: The Spiritual Style of My Father, My Lord,” in Israeli Cinema: Identities in Motion (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2011).

Miscellaneous Publications

• Book Review: “Studying Waltz with Bashir / Giulia Miller,” in Jewish Film & New Media: An International Journal 7.1 (Spring 2019).
• “Afterthoughts on Martin Luther (1953) and Christian American Cinema,” in Flow 17.12 (May 2013).
• Book Review: “Celluloid Sermons: The Emergence of the Christian Film Industry, 1930-1986 / Terry Lindvall and Andrew Quicke,” in Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television 32.4 (December 2012).
• “Mishima” / “The Duellists,” official entries, American Film Institute Catalog, 2011.
• “The Return of the Western,” in Cinematheque 151 (March-April 2008) (in Hebrew).
• “Iwo Jima and the Unbearable Heaviness of Myths,” in Cinematheque 146 (May-June 2007) (in Hebrew).

Conference Papers

• The 37th Annual Conference of the Association for Israeli Studies (Urbana-Champaign, June 2021)
  Paper topic: “‘Avishai Sivan’s Tikkun (2015) and the Problem of the Miraculous in Judaic-Themed Israeli Cinema”
  Roundtable (chair): “Israeli Cinema and Television: Beyond the National”
• The 2021 Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Chicago, Mar. 2021)
  Paper topic: “’Signs and Wonders’: Filmed Miracles in Recent Judaic-Themed Israeli Cinema”
• The 27th Annual Conference of the International Association for Media and History (Newcastle upon Tyne, July 2019)
  Paper topic: “’Too Much of a Western’: Blazing Sand (1960) and the Benefits of an Israeli Film Scholarship Without Films”
• The 2018 Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Toronto, Mar. 2018)
  Paper topic: “Transnationalism in the Time of High Nationalism: Cinema Culture in 1950s Israel”
• The 45th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (Washington DC, Dec. 2017)
  Paper topic: “In-Between Worlds: Translating Ultra-Orthodoxy into a Secular Idiom in the Cinema of Rama Burshtein”
• Movement as Immobility – A Conference on Film and Christianity (Lisbon, Nov. 2017)
  Paper topic: “Revisioning Christian Film Aesthetics in Martin Scorsese’s Silence”
• The 2017 American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting (Utrecht, July 2017)
  Paper topic: “The Global Mystical: Transcending the ‘Israeli’ in Israeli Cinema”
• The 2017 Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Chicago, Mar. 2017)
  Panel topic (co-chair): “Israeli Cinema: Beyond the National”
  Paper topic: “Notes toward a Transnational History of Israeli Cinema”
• The 2016 Film & History Conference (Milwaukee, Oct. 2016)
  Paper topic: “An Escape from Reality? Hasidic Tales in Israeli Film”
• The 2016 Annual Conference of the Association for Israeli Studies (Yad Ben Tzvi, Israel, June 2016)
  Paper topic: “What is an Israeli Film? The Juggler (1953) and the Question of Canonicity”
• Jewish in 3D: Jews and Judaism in Theater, Cinema and Television (The Zalman Shazar Center, Israel, June 2016)
  Paper topic: “Who is a Jew? The Challenge of Judaism to Contemporary Israeli Cinema Studies”
• The 2016 Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Atlanta, Mar. 2016)
  Panel topic (co-chair): “Rethinking Transcendental Style: New Approaches to Spirituality and Cinematic Form”
  Paper topic: “Absence, Presence, Hiddenness: Transcendental Style Reconsidered”
• Film-Philosophy: Prospects, Directions and New Perspectives (Tel Aviv University, Jan. 2016)
  Paper topic: “‘A Place which Is Not-A-Place’: Revisiting a Model for Spiritual Film Aesthetics”
• The 2014 Film & History Conference (Madison, Oct. 2014)
  Paper topic: “Judaic-Themed Israeli Cinema and the Function of Prayer”
• The 45th Annual Conference of the Association for Jewish Studies (Boston, Dec. 2013)
  Paper topic: “Teaching Trauma in (and Out of) Translation: Waltz[ing] with Bashir in English” (presented with Dr. Alison Patterson)
• Secularity and its Discontents: Religious Themes in  Israeli Visual Culture (Cambridge University, May 2013)
  Paper topic: “‘Portals of Holiness’: Confronting Spiritual Film Aesthetics in Avishai Sivan’s The Wanderer”
• The 28th Annual Conference of the Association for Israeli Studies (Haifa University, Israel, June 2012)
  Paper topic: “‘Who Can Find a Virtuous Woman?’: Feminist Judaism in Contemporary Israeli Cinema”
• The 2011 Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference (New Orleans, Mar. 2011)
  Panel topic (co-chair): “Israeli Cinema and the Challenge of Judaism”
  Paper topic: “The Haredi Body in Motion: Avishai Sivan’s The Wanderer (2010)”
• The 2010 Film & History Conference (Milwaukee, Nov. 2010)
  Paper topic: “Martin Luther and the Spiritual Marketplace in 1950s America”
• The 2010 Popular Culture Association National Conference (St. Louis, Mar. 2010)
  Paper topic: “Small Town Upside Down: David Byrne’s True Stories (1986)”
• The 2010 Society of Cinema and Media Studies Conference (Los Angeles, Mar 2010)
  Paper topic: “Negotiating Political Ambiguity in the Contemporary Israeli War Film: Joseph Cedar’s Beaufort (2007)”
• The 25th Annual Conference of the Association for Israeli Studies (Sapir College, Israel, June 2009)
  Paper topic: “My Father, My Lord (2007) and the Spiritual Style”
• The 2008 Film & History Conference (Chicago, Nov. 2008)
  Paper topic: “Essence of Decision: Human Voice and the War Screen in the American Nuclear War Film”
• Film, Television, and the 1950s (Plymouth State University, Plymouth NH, May 2006)
  Paper topic: “The Caine Mutiny (1954) and the 1950s Crisis in American Masculinity”

Invited Lectures

• The Open University of Israel, Department of Literature, Languages, and Arts (Ra’anana, 4/21)
• Tel Aviv Cinematheque, “Israel through the Eyes of Foreign Filmmakers” screening series (curated by Dr. Ariel Schweitzer, Tel Aviv, 1/20)
• University of Haifa, MA Program for Culture and Film Studies (Haifa, 10/18)
• Shenkar School of Engineering, Design and Art, Cultural Studies Program (Tel Aviv, 6/18)
• Tel Aviv University, Art History Department (Tel Aviv, 12/17)
• Tel Aviv University, Department of Film and Television (Tel Aviv, 4/16)
• The Open University of Israel, Department of Literature, Languages, and Arts (Ra’anana, 3/15)
• University of Illinois, Program for Comparative and World Literature (Urbana-Champaign, 10/14)
• American University, Center for Israel Studies (Washington DC, 4/14)
• Carelton University, Zelikovitz Centre for Jewish Studies (Ottawa, 3/14)
• University of Pittsburgh, Jewish Studies Program/Israel Heritage Room Committee (Pittsburgh, 12/11)

Moderated Talks

• Conversation with Dan Shadur (New York University, 3/21)
• Conversation with Martin Scorsese (Tel Aviv University, 12/20)
• Conversation with Avi Weissblai (DocAviv Documentary Film Festival, 12/20)
• Conversation with Lance Oppenheim (Haifa International Film Festival, 10/20)
• Conversation with Oren Gerner (New York University, 10/20)
• Conversation with Alon Sahar (Hanina Gallery-Tel Aviv, 1/20)
• Conversation with Meni Yaish (Jewish Film Festival-Jerusalem, 12/16)

Invited Filmmaking Workshops

• Asian Academy of Film &Television (Delhi, 4/15)
• Film and Television Institute of India (Pune, 3/15)
• Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute (Calcutta, 3/15)
• Delta Kappa Alpha Film Fraternity, George Mason University (Fairfax VA, 4/14)

Interviews

• “Sean Connery Brought Working Class Rage, and Gave It Class,” interviewed by Ran Pony, Israel Hayom, November 5th, 2020 (in Hebrew)
• “OMG – Israeli Film Finds Religion,” interviewed by Gilad Halpern and Dr. Dahlia Scheindlin, Tel Aviv Review – TLV1.fm, December 17th, 2018

Fellowships, Honors, Residencies

• Andrew W. Mellon Predoctoral Fellowship (2013/2014): School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pittsburgh.
• Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture Doctoral Scholarship (2013/2014)
• Schusterman Residency Program at American University (Spring 2014): Schusterman Family Foundation (CLSFF) and the Israel Institute.
• TSOA/Cinema Studies M.A. Fellowship (2005, 2006): NYU, Tisch School of the Arts.
• Memorial Scholarship (2004, 2005): Tel Aviv University, Arts Faculty.
• Dean’s List (2004, 2005): Tel Aviv University, Arts Faculty.
• Filmmaking Encouragement Scholarship (2003): America-Israel Cultural Foundation.

Teaching/TA Experience

• Teaching Fellow, Tel Aviv University, Steve Tisch School of Film and Television (2012-)
  Class: World Film History, The Spiritual in Film Aesthetics, The Western, Film Programming between Theory and Practice.
• Teaching Fellow, University of Haifa, MA Program for Culture and Film Studies (2017-)
  Class: Film Culture Forum
• Visiting Lecturer, The Open University of Israel, Department of Literature, Languages, and Arts (2012-)
  Classes: Understanding Film, Israeli Cinema at the Turn of the Millennium, Israeli Cinema: East/West and the Politics of Representation
• Visiting Lecturer, Minshar School of the Arts, Film Department (2017-2019)
  Class: Theory for Filmmakers
• Visiting Professor, American University, Center for Israel Studies (Spring 2014)
  Class: Israeli Identities through Film
• Teaching Assistant, Sapir Academic College, School of Audio and Visual Arts (2013-2014)
  Class: Film Theories 2
• Teaching Fellow, University of Pittsburgh, Department of English/Film Studies Program (2009-2011)
  Classes: Seminar in Composition, Seminar in Composition: Film, and Introduction to Film.
• Teaching Assistant, Tel Aviv University, Film and TV Department (2004)
  Class: Advanced Film Directing.

Editorial Activities

• Contributing Editor, Tisch Film Review (2007)

Conference Organization

• Co-Chair (Film Studies), Association of Israel Studies Annual Conference, University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign (2021)
• Co-Chair of Organizing Committee, “Battlegrounds: Sites and Sights of Conflict” Graduate Student Conference, University of Pittsburgh (2010-2011)
• Organizing Committee Member, “Thinking Inside the Box” Graduate Student Conference, University of Pittsburgh (2009-2010)
• Organizing Committee Member, NYU Cinema Studies Student Conference (2006)

University Service

• Co-President, Film Studies Graduate Student Organization (2010-2011)
• Treasurer, Film Studies Graduate Student Organization (2009-2010)

Production Experience

• Head of Guest Department, 12th International Tel Aviv Student Film Festival (2007-2008)
• Production Intern, This is That Film Corp. (2007)
• Script Development Intern, Greenestreet Films (2006)
• VIP Coordinator, 10th International Tel Aviv Student Film Festival (2003-2004)

Programming

• Artistic Director, Another Look: The Restored European Film Project, The French Institute/The European Union Delegation to the State of Israel (2012-2017)
• Guest Programmer, “Tensions in Israeli Identity” Screening Series,  American University-Center for Israel Studies (2014)
• Co-Director, Cinematheque, University of Pittsburgh-Film Studies Program (2009-2010)
• Contributing Shorts Programmer, JFilm: The Pittsburgh Jewish Israeli Film Festival (2008-2009)
• Programming Intern, Museum of the Moving Image (2007)

Film Work

• Wrote and directed fiction and avant-garde shorts that were officially selected to various festivals, including the Zebra Poetry Film Award (Berlin), Interfilm Berlin, Tirana International Film Festival, Brooklyn International Film Festival, ARTFilm Slovakia, Izmir International Poetry Festival, Invideo Milan, and the International Festival of Short Films on Culture (Jaipur, India).

Languages

• English, Hebrew (fluent); Arabic, French (proficient knowledge).