Lila Fabro
Lila Fabro is a PhD student in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Her research centers on the intersections between Yiddish and Spanish in Argentine literature. She is particularly interested in the bilingual Yiddish-Spanish publications in Argentina, and in the emergence of postvernacular Yiddish in the works of Argentine contemporary authors. She earned her BA in Art History with an emphasis on Musicology from the University of Buenos Aires. Prior to Hopkins, she worked at the Research Area on Performing Arts and Jewishness at the Institute of Performing Arts “Dr. Raúl H. Castagnino” based in the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters, University of Buenos Aires.
Cameron Scott
Cameron Scott is a PhD student specializing in Modern Hebrew within the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. He received his bachelor’s degree from Brigham Young University in Ancient Near Eastern Studies with an emphasis in Biblical Hebrew and a minor in Modern Hebrew. He completed his master’s degree in Israel Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev where his research focused on Modern Hebrew and Israeli culture. His thesis, titled “Tanakh Ram: A Translation of Necessity or Ideology?”, sought to analyze the hidden secular agenda behind the controversial Modern Hebrew translation of the Hebrew Bible named Tanakh Ram. Cameron’s doctoral research will investigate the work and influence of Paul Philip Levertoff on Modern Hebrew literature/language and Zionist discourse. Levertoff, born and raised a Hasidic Jew, converted to Christianity in his early adulthood and became a fervent missionary and preacher, especially in regard to converting fellow Jews. His aim in this research is to show that the creation and establishment of Zionist/Israeli Modern Hebrew culture did not develop out of a Jewish echo chamber; and that a Christian cultural undercurrent, which had its antecedents in individuals like Paul Philip Levertoff, is still alive and well in Israeli society. Shedding light on the work of Levertoff and other similar individuals will help in accurately contextualizing Israeli culture as the multidimensional phenomenon that it is.
Sophia Shoulson
Sophia Shoulson received her BA at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut, where she was a double major in German Studies and the College of Letters. At Wesleyan, Sophia wrote her undergraduate thesis on Yiddish folklore studies and Jewish nationalism in the early 20th century. After graduating Phi Beta Kappa with high honors in 2018, Sophia spent two years as the Richard S. Herman Fellow at the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts, working primarily in bibliography as well as writing and translating for the Center’s publications and website. Sophia began her PhD in Jewish Languages and Literatures in the fall of 2020. Her current interest is the rise of modern Yiddish literature within the context of print technology and Jewish canonization practices.