The Center for Jewish Studies supports faculty throughout the research process, from the earliest stages of research to presenting at conferences and publication.
Below is a list of some faculty the Center has supported.
Faculty Conference and Research Grant Awardees
Liron Mor, PhD
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Comparative Literature
Professor Mor's research is interdisciplinary in nature, spanning the fields of critical and political theory, Hebrew and Arabic literatures, translation and visual studies, and critiques of law, conflict, and colonialism. Professor Mor is particularly interested in local conceptualization of colonial and racial processes as expressed in the cultures of Palestine-Israel. Her first book, Conflicts: The Poetics and Politics of Palestine-Israel (Fordham University Press, forthcoming 2023), looks to Hebrew and Arabic literature to reassess the meaning of political conflict. Professor Mor is currently working on a second book project that interrogates intentionality as a mechanism for racializing both Mizrahi Jews and Palestinians.
Simcha Gross, PhD
UCI Department of History, Assistant Professor, 2017-2019
Currently at University of Pennsylvania, Assistant Professor of Ancient Rabbinics
Simcha Gross is a specialist in ancient and early medieval Jewish history, with a particular focus on the contextual study of the rabbis and rabbinic literature in their Persian and Islamic contexts. He also specializes in the study of Syriac Christianity. His current book project centers on the formative aspects of Sasanian imperialism on Babylonian Jewish society and culture. He has co-authored a translation and comprehensive introduction to the only Syriac martyr act to feature a Jewish convert, entitled The History of the 'Slave of Christ': From Jewish Child to Christian Martyr (PMAS 6; Gorgias Press, 2016), and has edited a volume entitled Jews and Syriac Christians: Intersections across the First Millennium (Mohr Siebeck, 2020). He teaches courses on Jewish history, rabbinic literature, Syriac Christianity, Jewish Magic, Iranian empires, and the history of Jerusalem. Simcha holds a PhD from Yale University (2017).
Professor Gross's work translating a series of Syriac Christian martyr acts provide crucial information about the Sasanian Empire, and illuminates aspects of Babylonian Jewish texts and traditions. Professor Gross has also produced a comprehensive introduction, edition, and translation of a heretofore unpublished Christian Arabic disputation between the Jewish exilarch and a major Christian figure that is set in Merv in East Iran. This text might provide crucial information about the relationship between Jews and Christians in East Iran in the 9th century.