Shachar Levanon is a PhD candidate in the Department of Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures. He holds an MA in modern Hebrew literature with a specialization in Yiddish literature from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. His MA thesis is a study of objects and materiality in the poetry of Avot Yeshurun.
Levanon’s current project examines the Jewish literary scene of Interbellum New York, exploring the literary and cultural connections between poets from three different literary traditions in America—Hebrew, Yiddish, and American literature.
PhD, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania expected December 2024
- Dissertation Title, “The Jewish Literary Scene of Interbellum New York: A Comparative Study of Jewish American Writing”
MA, Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, University of Pennsylvania 2022
MA, Hebrew and Yiddish Literature, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 2017
- Thesis Title: “The Objects in the Poetry of Avot Yeshurun”
BA, Psychology and Hebrew Literature, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, cum laude 2014
Modern Hebrew literature; modern Yiddish literature; 20th-century American literature; modernism; poetry and poetics; multilingualism and translation; immigration and ethnic studies; urbanism and the city; spatial and critical theory.
Instructor, University of Pennsylvania 2024
“Topics in Yiddish Literature and Culture”: The City and the Countryside in American Yiddish Literature (Fall 2024)
Teaching Assistant, University of Pennsylvania 2019-2021
Modern Hebrew Literature in Translation: Image of the City, Prof. Nili Scharf Gold, Spring 2021
Modern Hebrew Literature in Translation: Fantasy, Dreams and Madness, Prof. Nili Scharf Gold, Fall 2021
Modern Middle Eastern Literatures in Translation, Profs. Gold, Fakhreddine, Shams, and Onder, Spring 2020
The Image of Childhood in Israeli Literature and Film, Prof. Nili Scharf Gold, Fall 2020
Instructor, Sapir College 2016-2018
Great Books, Profs. Setter and Dagan, Sapir College, 2016-2018
Teaching Assistant, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev 2014
Masterpieces of World Literature, Prof. Anat Weisman, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, 2014
- Article, “'City of Darkness: The New York Literary Scene in the Works of Simon Halkin and Abraham Zvi Halevy.” In The Cambridge History of Modern Hebrew Literature, edited by Zehavit Zaslansky and Yaron Peleg, Cambridge Press (accepted)
- Article, “The Objects in the Poetry of Avot Yeshurun.” Mikan, Journal for Hebrew and Israeli Literature and Culture Studies (accepted)
- Translations, Jacob Glatstein’s Poetry, Electric Insolent World, November 2023
- Translations, Jacob Glatstein’s Poetry, Ho! Literary Magazine, Vol. 16, 2018
- Book Review, Reshtlekh (The Remaining Left), Itzhak Bashevis Singer, Haaretz, November 2016
- Association for Jewish Studies
- National Association of Professors of Hebrew