Canterbury Christ Church University

Faculty Member, Theology and Religious Studies

About

I've been interested in Jewish History since the age of 15 when my History teacher at school taught a brief survey of Jewish history. In retrospect, his angle was very much informed by the 'lachrymose'  perspective famously criticized by Salo Baron but I've never looked back. It was the beginning of an enriching and stimulating journey, both intellectually and literally, for me.

Having studied History and Jewish Studies at the University of Vienna, I spent seven exciting years at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem which profoundly shaped my understanding of Jewish history and the complex relationship between Jews and Christians, and have subsequently taught at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, and, since 2006, at Canterbury Christ Church University, UK.

My research interests include Jewish history in the early modern period, Jewish-Christian relations and the body in religion. I am particular interested in people at the margins of society, with hybrid or multiple identities (such as converts), in exploring how Jews and Christian imagined each other and how they interacted on a daily basis. I've been thinking for some time how perceptions of the body shape Jewish-Christian relations and am currently studying the use of Christian wet-nurses in early modern Jewish families.

I am also interested in contemporary Israel, Hebrew and Jewish literature, Jewish identity in contemporary Britain and most other aspects of Jewish culture, particularly in food as a marker of identity. 

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